The Devil you know Thoughts on tonights 3-1 victory

[yave1964]

  What a putrid effort or lack thereof from the New Jersey Devils tonight. At home against a Wings team down arguably its three top forwards coming off a horrible loss to the Flyers two days ago, the Devils scored first on an Andy Greene goal, a nifty little play and then fell asleep, for the entire game managing only ELEVEN SHOTS. 11 shots in an entire game against a team that came in down in the mouth. The Devils lost as much as the Wings won.

  It is easy to give the Wings defense credit, but the truth is we only blocked six shots as well as the 11 that made there way thru to the monster. These guys mailed it in tonight.

  The Monster was solid on the few that made his way, there were several quality chances his way and other than the one by Greene in the first he was up to the challenge.

  Tatar as usual was solid, Mickey Redmond is developing a man crush on him almost rivaling the one he has on the mule who also continued his hot streak.

  Zubrus was there best forward, he owned the Wings in the dot which was not a surprise as Datsyuk and Helm are out and was one of the few bright spots for them, driving the net and crisp passing off his stick.

  Drew Miller played very sound, a nice assist late in the second period and killing penalties like the old pro that he is. Brendan Smith seemed to slip back a bit, a couple of giveaways and poor decision making, his worst game in a while,

  Alfredsson is now on a four game point streak and is looking solid.

  Strange win, over all I feel hollow, yeah I will take the 2 points gleefully and gratefully but cannot help but feel they gave them to us more than we took them.

  Oh and finally with a little over a minute to go the ref blew the whistle on Cory Schneider for playing the puck outside of the trapezoid when he clearly did not. Wretched call, Deboar lost it, I think he is still cussing. and throwing things. Five seconds later Tatar buried a one timer on the ensuing power play. Deboar was so upset he never even pulled Schneider down the stretch. I really do not think it would have mattered, the fact is the coach showed more signs of life over that one poor call than the 18 players on the ice did all night.

  Home tomorrow night for the Panthers.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

Maybe it's my red-stained glasses, but holding an opponent to 11 shots is quite something. I agree that NJ may be more to blame for the lack of effort, but c'mon. This is still with Smith coughing up a few, and Quincey is playing, right? And we still managed to hold 'em to 11 SOG. We obviously did a number of things right defensively for a change. I wonder when was the last time we held an opponent to that few shots in a game?

That behind the back swat-away save by Gustavsson in the early minutes of the second was fun to watch. Solid night for him.

Tatar sure is earning his minutes. What a quick shot he has flashed the last few games. And making some DARN good passes. This guy's for real.

Have Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar not been the best two things to happen to Franzen in years? He's not just scoring. He's making plays too, although the scoring touch is clearly on right now. They really have seemed to energize him. He seems to be skating faster too. Maybe it's just me. I think he skates faster when he's scoring.

Why was helm out? I didn't see a report on why.

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

  Helm missed the game because of a shoulder injury, no word yet on the MRI results. Hopefully it is not bad, ugh, picturing long term without Datsyuk, Z and Helm is difficult to fathom.

   I DO give the Wings some credit for only giving up 11 shots, there is truth in that, but my God Spike I cannot remember a team giving up the puck like the Devils did last night in a long, long time. I guess I did not give the Wings enough credit, they were technically sound but as good as the Wings were the Devils were worse. Easily the worst team I have watched this year. 

  The Monster (I generally call him that now that Nyquist has been recalled, one Gus to many, lol) has been amazing, 17 of a possible 18 points. I remember in 2008-09 when Conklin had such an amazing run while Osgood was off to such a poor start, Conklin kept us in it until Ozzie got it together. I am still not ready to give up on Howard yet, he is young enough and has a proven track record but thank God for Gustafsson. Imagine the duo if Howard rights the ship. And with Mrazek in Grand Rapids as one of the top AHL prospects in the game we are set forever.

  Here is one for you, Howard just signed that six year deal, five years left on it after this one. With Gustafsson playing out of his mind and the kid Mrazek winning the Calder cup last year and playing lights out this year, would you consider doing a buyout of Howard? Before the season I would have laughed at the proposition and granted we are only one third into this year but if the trend continues I believe it would have to at least be considered.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

To me it sounds a bit rash RIGHT NOW. You might be overreacting a little. Remember that Ozzie came back and played better that year. I'm not a Jimmy Howard lover, and I'm not a Jimmy Howard hater, but my assessment is that JH is a better goalie than he's showing right now. And if Monster (I totally get your Gus problem, BTW) pushes him, he's either gonna respond right and play better or he won't. If he doesn't, then Howard becomes expendable. The answer to your question is driven by performance and need. It will be defined by the season, not the first quarter. If Monster, because his play demands it, becomes our #1 goalie by season's end, then we are paying how many millions for a backup for how many more years?!

No contract, with the exceptions of maybe Pav, Z, Kronwall and E, SHOULD be off the table. And I agree with you, before this season, I would have put JH's contract in that list. It's still too soon to put it on the likely-to-buyout list, but at the same time, if things continue to go as they are now as far as their play is concerned, and Franzen continues to play like he is or close enough, it becomes negotiable, doesn't it?

You and I have both complained that the Wings tend to hang on to veterans who are not playing so well and not giving youth enough opportunity. We can't then do the same thing ourselves.

However, I would think that a trade might be smarter. Certainly there would be another team that would gladly give us something very nice for Howard as long as he doesn't totally collapse. That would seem better than a buyout if the decision is that he is expendable. It would be a mistake to wait until he totally collapses before making that decision. If we end up buying him out, I think we waited too long

Edited December 7, 2013 by SpikeDDS