I meant the year of the cup run, not this past season
- bobert836

Ah well I agree there.

Ah well I agree there.
- rmdevil313

Ya, this past season was a pretty off year for everyone except Greene, and Larsson on occasion

I think you guys need to watch some of the less defensive-oriented teams play more often, no offense. This defense is not a bad group at all in terms of overall breakdowns and individual breakdowns. Yeah they make the occasional mistake and yeah Volchenkov gets beat wide once in awhile but all defensemen occasionally make mistakes. I think the occasional error gets highlighted more because the goaltending was so erratic the last two years. Hopefully that issue has been corrected. It's not like we trap either. It's not the most aggressive system in the world but it's certainly not passive and the Devils' D pinch more than most teams do. Yet we give up very few shots and not many real good scoring chances. That has to count for something.
- BarryB1124

Zid takes a lot of penalties, we're not making it up

Looks like they're not gonna play the kids until the kid is in net full time. Why phase them in, right? Just keep trucking out these old, slow, turnover & stupid penalty prone pylons they call defensemen.

Sometimes this gets tiresome & frustrating. I understand they want to give Marty a shot at another Cup but at some point you have to wonder when Lou's loyalty to poopty players is gonna bite him in the ass. I'm glad it didn't on Clarkson. Glad he didn't play the waiting game & give the player all the leverage like he did to Parise, but then he goes and pulls a move like this & I shake my head.

I know the perception is that Zids is a PMD, which we need. But so is Larsson (shut up devs30). His outlet pass is second only to Marty. And for Zids being a "PP specialist he gave about 20+ PPs to the opposition & was victimized numerous times on the point. His shot is a dud & his laziness led to most of his penalties last season. If you count the almost 2 seasons he's been in NJ (counting the playoffs during the Cup run) he's had one good 20 game stretch (and that was during the playoffs that year). Other than that he's been arguably the biggest liability on the team. The one guy I felt could be lived without. Bright side: it's only a 1-yr deal. I still would've rather seen Grabovski instead. Then at least we'd have two #2 centers instead of one vastly overpaid #2 center & a ton of question marks.

Oh well. NJ will be better this year, but it will have nothing to do with Zidlicky.

but zid isnt, prob means larsson wont get PP time unless he plays the 2nd unit over greene
- dmarsden2988

Where he will get maybe 15-30secs and more then likely will start by fishing a dump in out of his own zone and waste about 10 secs. So is that really even PP time? 15-30 sec at the most in the 0-zone? I don't consider it to be really. Don't expect any PP points for Larsson if this is the case.

How about for every penalty Zid gets Stevens gets to lay him out during practice.
I'm sure that will get those penalty minutes down!

I think you guys need to watch some of the less defensive-oriented teams play more often, no offense. This defense is not a bad group at all in terms of overall breakdowns and individual breakdowns. Yeah they make the occasional mistake and yeah Volchenkov gets beat wide once in awhile but all defensemen occasionally make mistakes. I think the occasional error gets highlighted more because the goaltending was so erratic the last two years. Hopefully that issue has been corrected. It's not like we trap either. It's not the most aggressive system in the world but it's certainly not passive and the Devils' D pinch more than most teams do. Yet we give up very few shots and not many real good scoring chances. That has to count for something.
- BarryB1124

What???? All we give up are good scoring chances. I agree we don't give up a lot of shots we just give up close to 8 odd man rushes a game. That's not good defense, rather give up 45 shots a game and only 3-5 be an odd man rush. Then give up 25 shots and about 10 odd man rushes. Quality is sometimes better then quantity. Last year proved that just look at how many shots we would take compared to our opponent in losses.Yeah we had bad luck but it wasn't all luck. When you consistently shoot from bad angles you won't score a lot and when you give up prime time oppurtunites you can't just blame goaltending as many times Marty and Moose where hung out to dry. The majority of goals let up where not a result of poor goaltending.

How about for every penalty Zid gets Stevens gets to lay him out during practice.
I'm sure that will get those penalty minutes down!
- FAZOOL

Hopefully he'll put him on LTIR

If I were Urbom, I'd think about requesting a trade to get a shot at the NHL. 4 Years in the AHL is too long before he gets designated a flop or a career AHL'er

Todd Cordell: New Jersey Devils Sign Marek Zidlicky To A One-Year Extension
- Todd.Cordell

Someone, preferably an actual Devil fan, has to explain this one to me. I was pretty sure Clarkson was leaving, and somewhat confident Elias was coming back, but if there was situation I felt 100% sure about it was that Zidlicky was gone.

How and why do we bring back a 36-year old who can't play defense and takes too many penalties, especially when we have prospects waiting for a shot? I'm not saying the Devils should give a roster spot to Merrill, Gelinas or Urbom just yet, but what exactly does Zidlicky bring to the table (especially at 3 mil) that makes him a better option than these younger players? And don't say "veteran leadership"...the guy takes the most selfish penalties at the worst times.

I love and trust Lou but this one needs some real explaining...

Maybe we'll convert him to a winger.

Someone, preferably an actual Devil fan, has to explain this one to me. I was pretty sure Clarkson was leaving, and somewhat confident Elias was coming back, but if there was situation I felt 100% sure about it was that Zidlicky was gone.

How and why do we bring back a 36-year old who can't play defense and takes too many penalties, especially when we have prospects waiting for a shot? I'm not saying the Devils should give a roster spot to Merrill, Gelinas or Urbom just yet, but what exactly does Zidlicky bring to the table (especially at 3 mil) that makes him a better option than these younger players? And don't say "veteran leadership"...the guy takes the most selfish penalties at the worst times.

I love and trust Lou but this one needs some real explaining...
- jersey1414

His old age is why he's back, he's perfect

Someone, preferably an actual Devil fan, has to explain this one to me. I was pretty sure Clarkson was leaving, and somewhat confident Elias was coming back, but if there was situation I felt 100% sure about it was that Zidlicky was gone.

How and why do we bring back a 36-year old who can't play defense and takes too many penalties, especially when we have prospects waiting for a shot? I'm not saying the Devils should give a roster spot to Merrill, Gelinas or Urbom just yet, but what exactly does Zidlicky bring to the table (especially at 3 mil) that makes him a better option than these younger players? And don't say "veteran leadership"...the guy takes the most selfish penalties at the worst times.

I love and trust Lou but this one needs some real explaining...
- jersey1414

the flyers would have given him 5 1/4 for 5 years if Lou didn't act fast

the flyers would have given him 5 1/4 for 5 years if Lou didn't act fast
- Isles_since_6

(frank) I wish this happened

Zid takes a lot of penalties, we're not making it up
- shvingter88

I'm not referring specifically to Zidlicky. I agree with that. But people take regular turns with some trashing Fayne, some trashing Volch, etc. If we had to regularly put out Hamonic as our #1 d-man for instance, I think people would appreciate what we actually do have more.

What???? All we give up are good scoring chances. I agree we don't give up a lot of shots we just give up close to 8 odd man rushes a game. That's not good defense, rather give up 45 shots a game and only 3-5 be an odd man rush. Then give up 25 shots and about 10 odd man rushes. Quality is sometimes better then quantity. Last year proved that just look at how many shots we would take compared to our opponent in losses.Yeah we had bad luck but it wasn't all luck. When you consistently shoot from bad angles you won't score a lot and when you give up prime time oppurtunites you can't just blame goaltending as many times Marty and Moose where hung out to dry. The majority of goals let up where not a result of poor goaltending.
- NickA

8 odd man rushes a game? Don't think so. And compared to other teams, we absolutely do not give many high percentage chances. You'll see the difference this year with Schneider. A .900 save percentage three years in a row suggests it's much more about the goaltending than the D. Vancouver had more defensive breakdowns than us and Schneider still excelled.

The thing still is we barely gave up any goals. So if the "majority" weren't bad goaltending fine. No team yields a "majority" of goals due to bad goaltending anyway. But that means two things. The D was good enough to see that we yield very few goals, and that once Brodeur got hurt we almost never got the spectacular save or two that other teams are used to.