Post Game Thread: New Jersey Devils at Los Angeles Kings – 01 Jan 2025

38 comments

1. Hughes, Bratt and Nico can’t do it all

2. If Georgiev or someone ridiculous holds us to a goal or less we need to really have a conversation. Askarov would hurt less. Even the Mr. bright sides in here will sit down at the table.

   Let’s be honest about the Meier no goal. That was a pretty weak turnaround goal regardless, it went off the pad and in. I don’t agree with it, but Kuemper had to keep his five hole together bc his stick was in Noesen legs and never got to reset. That’s why he didn’t have his pad out. Hence it went off the pad and in.

   We didn’t get a luck goal tonight, but we need to rely less on things falling our way. That seems to be how our offense functions at times. Just an inch short all the time.

   Keefe has some work to do. I want no part of the midseason lull that happens around this team. I want a playoff contender and I will never apologize.

3. Bottom 6 scoring and play has been a huge issue. Tatar is not getting it done, Haula is a ghost. Nate is trying to make it work but gets no line support. Cotter is in a slump still. Lazar coming back and still not in full swing and Kermit isn’t ever going to break out because he’s only around to break faces and hasn’t been given the opportunity that much.

   I believe they have the ability because we saw it at the beginning of the year, but energy and drive has been sub par and that’s where those bottom 6 players are supposed to excel. It just hasn’t been good enough and the top 2 lines being in a funk is exacerbating the flaws in their game.

4. Going through a skid, it happens, not worried. This team will rebound & I have trust in Keefe

5. When will our bottom 6 be addressed…

6. I, for one, will be cheering for the kings perennial first round exit. Has to be the least interesting team in the league. And the league contains teams like the islanders and blackhawks

7. Big fuck you to MSG. Thanks for a new year fuckers!!

8. Need bottom 6 scoring asap. Need a legit 3C because Haula is a 4th liner at this point. Ship out Tatar. Honestly you can convince me to trade Mercer for a legit top 6 guy to put Noesen back in the bottom 6. It just ain’t cutting it.

   Beat the Sharks. Inexcusable not to with no Blackwood

9. Well happy fucking new years!!!

10. These are the games where you see the hole that needs to be plugged in our bottom six.

11. Tough one. Really feel like that overturned goal really took the wind out of their sails, especially on the B2B. Haven’t looked right since the break, hopefully the boys can stop the bleeding at 3 and get their swagger back.

    Regardless, tough stretches happen to every team, this is theirs. Not too worried, I have faith they have the ability to push through the adversity. I mean the Jets started 15-1 then lost 7 of their next 10 or something crazy like that. It sucks now but its really only 3 games and this is a good team

12. Hurt less than the last game. Tired feet, bad bounces. That goal being stripped away killed us.

13. Three Game Losing Streak:

    * not ideal. not ideal at all.
    * power play has gone completely flaccid.
    * now, of course, we need to take into consideration that we faced Carolina’s PK which is like top of the league and Kings PK which is really good at home or whatever, but we also faced a Ducks PK in the middle there as well which I assume is ass cheeks.
    * I’m not trying to make excuses but honestly that overturned goal really turned the tides of the game. and I hate that. I absolutely hate it.
    * am I getting concerned? yeah maybe a little.
    * I’m not full on panicking yet, but its very clear that things aren’t clicking like they did before the holiday break and there’s some sort of disconnect happening.
    * I think there’s a few issues we can see immediately: lack of depth scoring/odd man rushes.
    * Dougie has gone cold. we haven’t heard a peep out of anyone in the bottom six that isn’t named Mercer and he’s streaky at best or that one off Cotter goal. and our defensive lapses are getting far more frequent than they were before.
    * Keefe said of the Rags game before the holiday break that it was as close to a perfect game as he’s seen and since that peak we’ve kind of lost it.
    * we’ve also had abysmal puck luck and obviously horrendous ref luck.
    * it seems we’ve switched out excelling on our penalty kill with a downturn on our power play and switched out dominating at home with not being able to win on the road.
    * I don’t personally feel the need to panic yet. I think lets see how the rest of this road trip plays out.
    * again we split the season series with the Kings which is good in my book.
    * we absolutely cannot lose four in a row and we absolutely cannot lose to the Sharks. and I think we should win out the rest of the road trip (Seattle. Rags) because I think we play Tampa after that and we know that team is like our kryptonite.
    * also just on scheduling and again not making excuses, but since the break we’ve played two back to backs back to back. we played Carolina Fri/Sat, two day break and now Anaheim and LA Tues/Wed. like that doesn’t seem good or okay or fair.
    * thankfully we dont have another back to back until mid Jan and that one we’re at home for both.
    * I think the other issue is that these last few games the Luke/Pesce pairing has been a bit leaky and that really amplifies issues because there success has been directly connected to the team’s success as a whole.
    * thought the first period was evenly played, and the second was our period, the third just once again got away from us. sloppy start to the third and we never really got our footing.

    anyway, the next game is Nico Hischier’s twenty sixth birthday, so this team better not let him down.

14. Another shutout. Another game the defense shits the bed over the last 4 games. Another scoreless game from the bottom six. Another back to back loss and another game they can’t mount a comeback when trailing in the third. And another non show from the PP that is cold enough to douse the flames of the sun.
    Makes last nights loss even worse.

15. Small amounts of money wasted on players like MacDermid, Tatar, and Bastian add up. Legare, Dowling, any of the guys in the A are much cheaper and couldn’t produce any less.

16. For those who want a trade it’s not happening anytime soon. They want to accrue as much cap as possible. What Fitz can do is waive and designate Tatar to Utica and bring up a fresh body though.

    Maybe he can trade Bastian for a Utica guy and bring up Halonen or Lagare (sp?). The bottom 6 isn’t good enough and Haula won’t be gone until the offseason as he’s cooked

17. Considering how the road trip has started and the opponents when they get home (FLA/TBL) they could lose 9 in a row here.

18. Didn’t watch the game. But from what I saw in the comment section, the team played well (unlike the their last 2 games), but got stonewalled by DK. Is this correct?

    If so, then I think Keefe just needs to calm the players and tell them to trust the system.

19. Started off this Christmas break on such a high with that Ranger win and ending it on a low with this loss and now 3 game losing streak. That sucked but wasn’t unexpected considering the circumstances of the B2B against a strong, rested team. They’ve only lost 2 games at home too. When I looked at the 4 games Carolina/Carolina and these 2 I automatically thought split and they would be 2 – 2 so yesterday’s game was the real killer for me. This is not ideal and giving me PTSD to last season, I must admit. When our top guys go cold as they are besides Timo there is no answer from anywhere else which is a problem. Everyone is repeating “Fitz needs to address this.” And it’s reminding me of last season again, with the goalie situation. I’m sure he’s on the phones, but he can’t create a trade out of thin air unfortunately. Anyway losing stinks and I’m legit nervous about the next game at this point. The one silver lining I found is that there are only 2 more back/back and they are not until March and then the last 2 games of the season so, that’s a little good news I guess.

20. and for anyone wanting to see the game card from tonight…

    https://preview.redd.it/xwuttf5eohae1.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=5aecd73c2394f77d9c9bd0aef8e857a909146e35

    Pesce/Hughes on the bottom is not good given how much they’re deployed.

    if they can right the ship and get out of this weird stretch of bad play, the team rights the ship plus depth scoring please.

21. I’m not going into “panic mode” until we lose 4-5 straight. We can easily win 2-3 in a row here and forget these games ever happened. Yes the bottom 6 needs to produce at some point. But we need to also realize we have a playoff team here with 1-2 pieces added that can make a run. Can’t forget about that after 2 losses on the road.

22. I would play devils advocate for one minute and not blame the guys for not giving 100% cause who wants to play on new years let alone new years eve and new years day back to back where you can’t fully party .( I know it shouldn’t be the case but they are young and human)

23. I don’t mind losing, but I do mind it when the team puts up lackluster efforts and regress heavily. Traveled to Anaheim to see the team play 1 good period of hockey, and traveled to LA to see them shoot muffins at Darcy all game.

    Colliton needs to adjust the PP because teams have figured out that all they need to do is pressure Jack and Bratt with double teams. A lot of the untouchables on our team like Nico and Bratt just didn’t play well tonight, and guys like Haula and Tatar have been bad even since before the break. A lot of the issues with scoring have been waved off as getting goalied but hopefully tonight has alerted even the most ignorant scoreboard watchers here about the issues the team is facing with creating/finishing quality chances instead of shooting pucks at the chest and pads.

24. Haven’t won a game all year. We are cooked.

25. Long season. There’s going to be bumps in the road. Next 3 games are winnable and I trust the boys will figure it out

26. Really wish they could pull out a win for us in CA! Second year in a row they lost in Anaheim and LA.

27. It might be time to call up some AHL guys and just see what it could do.

28. This is our karma for dumping on the rags recently.

29. At least we know this team likes to party. Came out today and got shut out on New Year’s Day. That means they had a blast last night.

    We’ll come back strong, sober, and energetic the rest of this road trip. Have a little faith.

30. WILL ALL OF YOU CALM DOWN?? THE DEVS ARENT MISSING PLAYOFFS. I mean have you SEEN the metro division recently? Like cmon now. The Canes have 46 pts, Penguins 39 pts, Blue Jackets 38 etc. The Devs would have to lose for the rest of the month for those three to possibly catch up. Losses are annoying yes and clearly there’s an issue as of late but the season isn’t over. There’s teams in MUCH worse positions than the Devils rn. RELAX.

    Edit: forgot to add Devs have 51, the Caps (first place) have 52.

31. We lost 3 games in a row but we didn’t play poorly at all. We could have been talking about 6 wins in a row, that’s how well we’ve played. Goaltending and defense have been good, but our offense and pp are in a slump. Keefe will figure this out, and the wins will follow.

    We got screwed by the refs against Carolina at Carolina, we dominated the ducks and we played better than the kings. We just aren’t scoring, and the pp is also going thru a drought. Relax

32. I’m selfish. I know the losing streak has to come, because every team goes through it, including the playoff bound ones like ours. But dammit I didn’t want it happening on the west coast trip (when I can actually see the team play live).

    There’s plenty of hockey left, and hopefully losing these points, particularly the two getable ones in Anaheim wakes them up and makes them get their shit together. You know Keefe is cooking something up. But I rather it happen now than in April.

33. We have needed more scoring all season. Lets see if Fitz gets us somethin

34. Knew this was going to be a L today. These young guys undoubtedly partied on Nye and they looked flat as hell

35. Well Noesen didn’t hold anything back about that GI call lmao

36. I’m never going on vacation again. I come back to a sudden three game skid!? grrr 😂

37. Overall we’ll be fine, but if we wanna make a splash in the playoffs, we desperately need a bona fide 3C to bolster the bottom six. There’s getting goalied and then there’s getting shut out six times in the first half of the season. Whenever opposing teams are able to shut down our top two lines, we’re gonna need someone in the bottom six to step up and get us back into the game.

38. Watch — we’ll win against San Jose on Saturday and this sub will suddenly be sunshine and rainbows again. So bipolar it’s insane. Like guys this season has been fantastic to this point and I have complete faith that the slump will end. Breathe.