Let it all out…We understand!
Get ready for yet another back-to-back: this Friday (at Blue Jackets) and Saturday (home against the Stars).
What’s on your mind?
[Video Recap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESF2ecPew4)
[ESPN Game Cast](https://www.espn.com/nhl/game/_/gameId/401559918)
ESPN’s *Three Stars of the Game*: some rando 1st, Luke 2nd, Holtz 3rd.
[NHL Game Center](https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/mtl-vs-njd/2024/01/17/2023020690)
[Sam Kasan Game Story: Devils Fall Late to Canadiens](https://www.nhl.com/devils/news/devils-vs-canadiens-1-17-24-game-story)
[Shift Chart](http://www.shiftchart.com/game/2024-01-17-canadiens-devils)
[2023-24 Regular Season Schedule (January, all times EST)](https://www.nhl.com/devils/schedule/2024-01-01)
by Devil_Dane
21 Comments
Is everyone okay around here??
I’m certainly not one to blast ‘Fire Lindy!’ from the rooftops but after seeing how he responded to Novo last night, there’s no choice but to can him. He’s lost the team, he’s lost the fanbase, there’s no succeeding with him behind the bench anymore.
Ugh… we could not find the back of the net last night!
Kinda needed to win that one, but ah well what can ya do.
I think it’s becoming more obvious that while the team is good; we overachieved last year and that set unrealistic expectations coming into this season.
Cant really get upset anymore. Just let the season ride out and the chips fall where they land. Hopefully next year less injuries and more competent goaltending from day one.
Dropped four of our last five. Really need to play for every single point we can this year and we just don’t have it in us. Between injuries and bad play it’s just slipping away from us. And the schedule is just getting tougher…
At least Timo looked pretty solid in his return, had plenty of grade-A chances and was skating well.
Ruff been fired yet??
Cole Caulfield allowed to stroll into net front ice for a free goal will about do it for me. They just aren’t a serious team. I don’t even care about injuries last night. There was still way more talent on the devils side
If we could just beat the shitty teams at home we’d be solidly in a playoff spot. That’s now losses against San Jose, Anaheim, Columbus, and Montreal all in Newark.
Between injuries, question marks in goaltending and defending, and some inexperience, this just doesn’t seem to be our year. We could still very well make the playoffs, but as this season goes it seems more and more likely that this is a sort of “growing pains” year. This being the first full season for Luke, Nemec, and Bahl, injuries to Jack, Nico, Dougie, Sieg, Timo, Palat, etc., and the regression of Vanecek are all major contributions to us being where we are.
I’m not writing off this season entirely, not even close, but once the young guys get more experience under their belts, along with the team getting healthier (and hopefully getting our goaltending sorted somewhat) I think we’ll be in much better shape. Whether or not we see any of that before the end of this season, well, I guess we’ll see.
This team handily makes the playoffs with a decent coach and a decent goalie. But if this season being a mess is what it takes to get the right coach for this group going forth I can stomach it in the long run. Doesn’t make it any less shitty right now.
Like in the nicest way possible, I hope we lose Friday and Saturday. A shitshow on Brylin night might be enough to warrant a season-saving change.
Sadness
Just can’t give away points like that. This team is miserable at home to watch. I don’t understand why they can’t put it together. I don’t think this team over achieved last year. I think they are way under achieving this season.
I’ve been optimistic about this team for most of the season but that loss last night just felt totally deflating. I thought if we can just get average goaltending we’re a playoff team, but now Daws is giving us that and we’re still losing to below average teams.
Gut punch of a loss, but unfortunately another one of our bad habits this season of not picking up points against poor teams at home that should be slam dunk wins. This along with logging 3 points on the second game of back to backs this far into the season will be the reasons that we miss the playoffs. Although Montembeault stonewalled us last season and did it again last night. Lindy can go at this point but I don’t think another coach gets different results where we are with goaltending and injuries.
Regardless of injuries, iffy goaltending (daws has been great), questionable coaching (I actually didn’t hate Lindy’s response, you can’t be making haphazard plays up the middle in a tight game), and indifferent to the fact that Montreal isn’t a great team- the Devils are missing one key thing that prevents them from being successful: Identity.
Our identity isn’t toughness, and it isn’t being a defensive stalwart, it’s essentially being a glass cannon offensive powerhouse fueled by speed.
We’ve had to change our game because of our injuries, specifically J Hughes. That shouldn’t be the case. We should be able to play to our identity regardless of who is in the lineup.
Can we just make every comment on all social medias “Fire Lindy” until it happens?
Toffoli/shango trade looking terrible in hindsight
I know everyone is talking about Holtz and his usage. But I’d like to take a minute to say how concerning it is that John Marino has literally fallen off a cliff this year. Dude is an absolute shell of himself from last year.
Realistically I think there are a handful of teams that are far better off under Lindy than under another coach. He seems like a good early rebuild coach, he plays some of the kids through their mistakes no matter how bad (the Holtz inconsistency here sucks though), and the culture is great.
… but we have to move on.
I could rant about things I think are directly his fault, but at the end of the day there is no proof of anything, so I won’t even go there.
All there is left to say is:
* Our goaltending has been disappointing.
* Most of our best players have been disappointing.
* The team has been inconsistent in play regardless of who we have iced all year.
* For years we have consistently come out the gate playing poorly in games outside of the win streak last year (where we DID score the first goal in 7/13 of the games fwiw).
So what can we do in the short term?
1. Replace the goaltending? There’s nothing out there to fix it, and changing goalies to another mediocre one historically doesn’t really do anything.
2. Get more/new star players? We don’t have the cap space or window time to do this.
3. Fire the coach? I mean… I can sure think of a good number of midseason changes to coaches that resulted in far more success…
To name a few:
* 20-21 Julien->Ducharme
* 18-19 Yeo->Berube
* 15-16 Johnston->Sullivan
* 08-09 Therrien->Bylsma
* 99-00 duh lol
There’s honestly a **ton** of other ones that fit this bill (Quenneville, Sutter, etc…), but what makes this list important is that the successors were all no names, but the coaching change itself sparked the team to be awesome. Some of these interim dudes won the fucking cup THAT YEAR and were kept on for a year or a two after as a result and did nothing at all, others had great careers afterwards, and others were moved on from but still had good af results for that one year.
But the point is that you can’t do ANYTHING else at this point, and Lindy just isn’t working anymore.
It’s time to move on.
Edit: To quote /u/dishler712 above:
> That’s now losses against San Jose, Anaheim, Columbus, and Montreal all in Newark.
Not only that but we didn’t get a SINGLE point in those games, and the goal differential in those games is **-9**.
If that alone doesn’t convince you a change is needed, then idk what will.
Still salty about this