Still want to talk about last night’s game? Let it all out here, we understand.
To always locate Pre-Game and Next Day threads, sort by NEW.
NHL Game Center https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/njd-vs-tor/2024/10/10/2024020015
ESPN Game Cast https://www.espn.com/nhl/game/_/gameId/401687614/maple-leafs-devils
Sportsnet Game Summary https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/games/7aaa5498-8464-4a47-820a-237475aa05ae/
NHL Full Game Highlights: Leafs at Devils https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJLL9kEmPPw
Sportsnet NHL Highlights: Maple Leafs vs. Devils https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWsVGN2-XIw
Mike Morreale article: Hildeby makes 23 saves in NHL debut, Maple Leafs defeat Devils https://www.nhl.com/news/toronto-maple-leafs-new-jersey-devils-game-recap-october-10
Sam Kasan game story: Leafs Spoil Devils' Home Opener https://www.nhl.com/devils/news/devils-vs-maple-leafs-10-10-24-game-story
by Devil_Dane
29 Comments
That was not dope
Sure as hell hope Keefe doesn’t allow the diva country club like party atmosphere, diving & flopping etc of some of our players, that Ruff allowed, that Travis Green publicly called out, but seeing the direction Toronto went with a style of a guy like Berube, I have my doubts.
Edit: Did he healthy scratch Marner a couple seasons ago or was it Babcock?
I for one am enjoying spicy Dougie. The man is a jacked monster and was pushing guys around last night. For all the hype we give all our up and comers Dougie is at another level.
That was a shitty game to have spent a lot of money to go to. The energy was huge pregame and that place was ready to erupt but all the air was sucked out of the building within a few minutes and the game was over in the first period. The best they did was manage to make the score not that embarrassing, but at no point in the game did it feel like they were tilting the ice or building any momentum. Timo’s goal was huge and going into the third down by 2 isn’t a horrible position to be in. But man they came out so flat in the third and put up a whopping 4 shots on goal through 2 power plays and 2 mins of 6v5. No sense of urgency. I know it’s only game 3 and they can’t win them all, but I hate that they still consistently not show up and put in a garbage effort for big games on home ice. I want my money back.
I think we ran into a buzz saw. Leafs were not going to lose after they should have won in Montreal.
would rather see timo and bratt with nico. they work better together.
Game looked a lot like last season; lots of defensive breakdowns, giving up points early and not being able to generate offense to recover, poor passing and dropped pucks, and turning the puck over constantly. Keefe has his work cut out for him, I suspect it’ll take at least the entire month to get the team in a position that matches his vision
My main take is STOP WITH THE HAIL MARY PASS! There was so many pass that need to cross 2-3 leafs players to get to a guy that wasn’t there yet. Both of our goals were simple plays. We have a lot of big guys, just put the puck on the net and see what happen.
Our 4th line was amazing. Love what i see from Bastian, Cotter and Lazar.
I also cant believe I missed the northern lights for that crap.
Last night was full on flashies from last year and I did not have fun.
4-2 isn’t a terrible outcome on the surface but man does it hurt seeing this team play on the perimeter in the offensive zone. Timo buried one of the few opportunities, but the goalie should’ve saved that. Other golden opportunities sailed wide or over the net. Also, 25 TOI for Dougie is absolutely unacceptable while Nemo should’ve played more. We absolutely are missing Pesce and Luke
One positive other than the PK from last night was that Nico’s line made sure Matthews line stayed off the scoreboard and I fucking love that.
It did not look like a good game from anyone, but I’m gonna be honest, besides the first period, Toronto wasn’t putting up numbers for the remainder of the game either (granted they didn’t need to but the second and third period was a winnable game for us, the first period was just too big of a mountain to climb).
I will take that no one looked like themselves not as a sign of concern but as a sign of this isn’t a systemic issue but maybe more so a one off issue with the jet lag etc.
I won’t be panicked/dooming/glooming/concerned until I see what’s going on Saturday. If we make tangible improvements from yesterday to Saturday I will feel good.
We beat our former coach, Leafs beat theirs (gag).
Time to put this one behind us and see if we can finally solve the pest that is Washington.
I think the real test is how they respond to a game like this. They definitely came out super slow and gave them the early lead which for any team is hard to come back from.
I don’t think it was THAT bad to the point of Ruff hockey, because they didn’t look like they were running around lost with their head chopped off. It looked way more of playing their system, but just not bearing down on passes, stick checks, and sloppy plays.
(They looked like a good team having a bad night VS a team that’s lost and can’t get things going)
I feel like every line had some great offensive and defensive shifts at times, but it was not for 60 minutes. Gotta play all 60.
Let’s see how this plays out for the first stretch of games, I think Keefe will get them locked into their system and we’ll be rolling. Gotta make sure we beat the teams that have no business beating us, Toronto is a good team, those games will be close.
TL;DR – Looks more like a good team had a bad night vs a team that looks lost and can’t figure it out. Gotta respond to games like these and get the boys rolling.
Same shit as last year. Maybe it’s a mentality and culture thing, not a coaching thing.
Same shit, different year.
Teams understand the importance of a coach’s first game against his old team and should run through a wall for the coach, but not the Devils. We came out flat against a team on the 2nd half of a back to back.
Same shit on the power play with terrible turnovers because they try to rush the zone entry and instead turn over the puck for easy clears time after time.
Hamilton is a one trick pony on the power play, all he wants to do is try to shoot the puck through the goalie, and if he doesn’t miss the net by 5 feet, the shots are getting blocked because the penalty killers know he’s not going to do anything creative. There’s a reason Luke was on PP1 last year even before he was hurt.
We showed up for two games against a bottom feeder and then largely reverted to last season’s form. The PK was good and there was still more physicality last night than last season. It’s not saying much, but it’s something
That said, I’m in doomer mode until proven otherwise. I acknowledge the mitigating factors – new coach, lot of new guys, short preseason, traveling to and from Prague – but that doesn’t change the end result of the more things change, the more they stay the same. I’m not gonna stop supporting them and cheering for them to do well, but show me something worth cheering for
Pain
Jack still seems to be a turn over machine. He needs to get that under control as it seems the league has him figured out. I was hoping it was just his shoulder last year.
Look, I know we’re all itching to watch a Devils team win a lot of games and prove to us that they’re going to compete with anyone in the league….but is this sub really gonna doom post after every loss? Every single team in the league has a few shitty games throughout the season…there’s 82 games to play for goodness sake. Yes, they looked rough last night. Spoiler alert though y’all, they’re likely to look pretty rough a number of times more this year. That’s hockey, and any sport in general for that matter, that plays the sheer volume of games per year.
I know 3 quick goals is deflating but the rock was so flat for a home opener it’s sad
I actually don’t think that was a horrible game. It was a low event game with 2 teams playing structured and not running around. The Devils came out painfully slow and that’s what bit them in the end.
First killed us. A newer defense pairing that had a pretty awful first period and a rookie being a rookie. It’s one game, not ready to panic. Dougie and Dillon do need to get on the same page
We’re not going to go 82-0
Last night pretty much coincides with what Flames fans were telling us about Markstrom. If he allows a goal within the first couple shots, it’s gonna be a rough game. If not, then he’s a brick wall. I wouldn’t say that the first goal was his fault because of how chaotic the situation was, but the 2nd and 3rd goals were definitely savable. Team as a whole played sloppy last night, so hopefully they improve against the Caps.
Tough game. I knew as soon as I accidentally bought a non alcoholic beer it was gonna be a rough night
Toronto’s defense last night was impeccable, I couldn’t help but be impressed on how they shut down the NZ and how they clogged up any lane that the Devils kept trying to force open. That really was the overall difference, and also Jack Hughes just making really bad decisions.
Not doom and glooming, but it was definitely a poor showing by us, let’s see how the boys rebound after that.
At least the spicy pulled pork nachos at the arena were good.
One good thing about last night. Anytime that annoying dude started the whistle for the “Rangers suck, Flyers swallow” chant my whole section seemed to tell him to shut up and try and shut it down.. it’s about time that corny chant goes away
I noticed the pace of their offensive rotations was giving a ton of trouble to our young defnders last night. Nemec, Kovy, Casey, to lesser extent Dillon all got rinsed last night. I think that’s somewhat good because as we noted before the season, we have a lot of new D pieces and these things just take time to gel. Hopefully, their apparent standing around and doing nothing while pucks floated in the slot was a combination of not knowing their assignments and bad luck, nothing more.