Lindy Ruff made a drastic decision by benching Timo Meier in the third period against the Florida Panthers. Many people aren’t happy with Meier’s tenure with the New Jersey Devils so far. It has led to a lot of people hoping that he continues to be benched until further notice. Brendan Smith and Jesper Bratt shared their thoughts on the slow start for the Devils.
Check out Ryan Novozinsky’s latest article: https://www.nj.com/devils/2023/10/devils-timo-meier-on-brutal-start-to-2023-24-bleep-happens.html
Interview soundbites (Courtesy of the New Jersey Devils): Brendan Smith and Jesper Bratt
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15 Comments
Colin Miller was an underrated pickup via trade
Timo seems lost. Can we use him on the 4th line as a 8 mil checker?
This idea that we already have Hughes so Meier does other things is ridiculous. You keep repeating it. Why?
He's playing 1st line, 15 mins per game on average, with the benching, AND he's playing with a playmaker. And the worst thing is, he is playing the same as he did against the rangers. This is not new.
OK,… so you say we have goal scorers in Hughes, Hischer, & Bratt. Then what the heck are we paying nearly 9 million dollars a year for.
Will you be satisfied to pay 9 million IF he scores 20 goals!? Would that be considered a success. Does any team pay 9 milion because
a player is phyisical,.. insnity. This looks like another PJ Suban move, $10 million a year for being "good in the locker room", ridiculous.
I was against this trade from the start. Let this young team prove and find THEMSELVES. We don't have to win the cup RIGHT NOW.
What the Timo trade said was, hey you guys are good but, not good enough.
Let's bring in a someone else in because you can't do it yourselves. WRONG MESSAGE. Serves you right that Timo is a dud.
We have our Bobby Orr in Jack Hughes. Nobody should get paid more than him, period. Build the team around him as centerpiece, period.
Fizgerald totally broke the spell of last years magic with all the moves. All we needed to address was goaltending which was the one area
nothing, absolutely nothing, was done about.
Don't expect or compare this to last years team because it isn't last years team,…except for the mediocre goaltending.
Well everyone keeps saying Fizgerald is a genius. We'll find out. . .
I was listening to another podcast and the guy was saying sometimes big guys take longer to get going at the start of a season. He went into a lot of reasons that made a lot of sense so I think with Timo we gotta give him time. No pun intended. I'm more worried about Nico. He doesn't look like Nico out there.
For the defense, like or not, Brendan has been pretty soild. If you watch the Penguins and CBJ you wouldn't want that trade back. Damon was benched for the 3rd period Monday and took a bad penalty against the Rangers in a previous game. People were calling for Ryan's head after they lost the home opener to Chicago. I think we all need to keep moving forward. Look around the league at some of the other teams that are supposed to be cup contenders, a lot of them aren't playing the best right now.
Timo Meier start slow last year San Jose Sharks
Erik Karlsson has 0 goals and only 1 assist. The Pens aren't benching or trading him. They're figuring out how to play him to get production out of him. Just saying.
Yes, I said about trading Meier for a 3rd round pick. And I still stand by my words. Also I said IF he doesn' start producing he needs to be traded. There are plenty of options for the trade because Timo simply has not been cutting it since his arrival. He can be traded for Nylander if Leafs and him would not come to terms on the contract. He is the free agent next summer and Devils can afford giving $10M a year. If not Nylander there are plenty great free agents next summer Devils can choose from. And getting rid of Meier contract will give us plenty of options to find a player or even players who would fit with the Devils. 8.8M is not what you pay for only crashing opponents into boards and taking stupid penalties every game. You want a definition of power forward? Lindros is name. The guy could crash, score, assist and was a Leader. Thats a player you can pay 8.8M a year. I really wish Meier can be half a player Lindros was and really wish he can turn his play around. Otherwise Devils will go nowhere.
You can't score when you never get the puck. The defence that can't play out of the back for their lives is a much bigger problem than Meier.
It's 3 games, everyone stop panicking. However Schmid>Vitek.
Your hard work is paving the way for success! ˎ "Perseverance is the path to greatness."
Timo looked pretty good to me when he was playing with Holtz. Meier set Holtz up with some sick passes from the corner right on Holtz tape. Think Ruff will go back the line that got the most so far out of Meier AND Holtz? Not on your life! Ruff seems to be dead set on getting Holtz traded.
If we are all being completely honest with ourselves, the Devils haven’t given effort for even 30 minutes of a game yet never mind a full 60 min. We put up 3 goals in like 5 min against a really good Florida team and almost came back to tie it and in those 5 minutes it says a lot of what this team can be if we forecheck hard and give 110% effort from the start. I really think we are going to build off of those last 5 min against the Panthers where we almost did the unthinkable comeback of 4 goals in 5 minutes. It’s also kind of a funny trend cause most of the teams expected to be the super elite and top of the league have started off slow and lost against mid teams whereas the mid/bad teams have started off well. It’ll all flip around eventually, let’s just be happy we got 3/6 points when we very much deserve to have 0/6 points. All this team needs is one game where we dumb it down, make short and complete passed, and fire everything at the net and don’t over pass the puck for the highlight reel play as those will come naturally. I’m not feeling too hot about the Islanders game Friday, but who knows maybe a win against an undefeated Islanders team that’s super solid defensively that has Vezina Sorokin will boost us into a big win streak.
Timo is a notoriously slow starter
Smith is talking of forechecking, so he is not talking of himself. Forwards forecheck in the offensive zone. The intuition is that he is thinkin of Meier, since he is quite slow player and maybe can't forecheck as ferociously as some faster forward. Smith could be referring to pretty much anyone, so there is also that.