Todd Cordell: Devils 3, Sharks 2: Five observations from another impressive win

How about a bonus observation

Cory Schneider for Jacob Markstrom please

I like Noesen but he's not a second line guy. Maybe swap him with J-S Dea?

My Spidey-senses tell me Hynes might go to Stafford if it continues to be a problem.

We get Dallas on #2 of a back to back. Interesting to see who they start in net tonight.

We get Dallas on #2 of a back to back. Interesting to see who they start in net tonight.
- redmonsters

Report on Rotoworld says they're expecting Ben Bishop to start tonight.

I like Noesen but he's not a second line guy. Maybe swap him with J-S Dea?

My Spidey-senses tell me Hynes might go to Stafford if it continues to be a problem.
- Queenie_5_hole

Noeson played very poorly. In my mind, he is easily the odd man out when Bratt gets back.

Just saw a tweet that Nico left the ice rather unexpectedly

Hopefully nothing

KK came up huge at the end of the game!
PP was poop, seems like we had better scoring chances shorthanded.

Just saw a tweet that Nico left the ice rather unexpectedly

Hopefully nothing
- dmarsden2988

Where?

But do you guys need a Dman? We will trade you Larsson for Hall, I feel like this is a good trade...

Where?
- willschulme

Nevermind. Just saw Amanda Stein post about it. She says both he and Wood are good for tomorrow.

Nevermind. Just saw Amanda Stein post about it. She says both he and Wood are good for tomorrow.
- willschulme

Awesome thanks! Good to hear

Mueller is 2nd on the team for TOI. Hopefully he can continue to be a solid shut down. Palms is great, and I still feel he should be split apart from Hall to create two scoring lines. But eh, we're winning, so maybe I shouldn't be suggesting any changes.

Mueller is 2nd on the team for TOI. Hopefully he can continue to be a solid shut down. Palms is great, and I still feel he should be split apart from Hall to create two scoring lines. But eh, we're winning, so maybe I shouldn't be suggesting any changes.
- bikeguy99

Has he been one the top d line ?

I can't understand why everyone keeps putting an asterisk because Washington was on a back to back. Washington played on the 4th, 10th, & 11th. So they had 6 days rest before there back to back. If less than 2 weeks into the season that they are that tired they are in some big trouble for the yr. As far as Copely goes it was probably the best game of his career. He made spectacular saves regularly. By the 3rd he was worn out & gave up a couple I'm sure he'd want back. Before we took the penalty at the end the Craps pulled Copely still trying to not get shut out. Ovechkin & Kuzenetzoff don't need long at all to score. They were not slowed down they were shut down.

How did we do against Edmonton, Washington, & San Jose last yr? 1 overtime win in 8 games. So whatever excuses you want to give all 3 teams the fact remains they dominated us. To come out 3-0 vs teams we were 1-7 against last yr is huge in my book.

Reasons we were at a disadvantage. Washington & San Jose played more games than us. We were still used to practice speed while they were on game speed.

Other teams having played more games this early in the season gave them more knowledge of what their team dynamics are.

Teams get used to west coast road trips where the time is 3 hrs back. We spent 10 days 6 hours forward. Plenty of time to completely change there internal clocks completely adjusted. So getting back to East coast time was a much bigger adjustment than any of the teams we had to play.

Our last preseason game was on an international size ice rink. Our first regular season game was on a 197ft ice rink. So readjusting to time & rink size was another obstacle we had to overcome.

Going to a new country, trying all of the new foods, gets the athletes off of there extremely strict diet & times that they eat. They are all on strict diets to get the best out of there bodies so trying a bunch of new foods, off there regular times, gets them out of there important regiments.

So had we lost these games we'd have a ton of excuses. So instead of giving us the credit we deserve for overcoming several obstacles, beating teams that owned us last yr, everyone is discrediting our wins. Since we lost to Tampa it's been non stop negativity. We need to add Physicality. We don't have secondary scoring. We didn't add anyone in free agency. We lost Maroon, Moore, Gibbons, & Grabner. Kinkaids 2nd half success won't happen again. Schneider is over the hill & this surgery won't fix anything. Zacha still can't score. We have a bad Defense. We start the season 3-0 against teams we were 1-7 against & now it's Edmonton isn't a playoff team. Washington was in the 2nd half of a back to back & we didn't play Holtby. Even though there's no way he would've faired any better. And now it's well San Jose was at the end of a long road trip. When are our own fans & writer's gonna give us the credit we deserve?? We trounced the defending champs. We beat a Stanley Cup favorite. All with no goals from Hall Nico, & Wood which were 3 of our best goal scorers last yr. 13 players with points against Washington. Let's get excited & not make excuses for the teams we beat!!

Has he been one the top d line ?
- Leniwm1

No. Hynes has been line matching with odd combos. He is listed bottom pairing, but was 22+minutes a night aside from the last game where he logged about 16. Odd, but at lease he is finally trumping lovejoy.

I can't understand why everyone keeps putting an asterisk because Washington was on a back to back. Washington played on the 4th, 10th, & 11th. So they had 6 days rest before there back to back. If less than 2 weeks into the season that they are that tired they are in some big trouble for the yr. As far as Copely goes it was probably the best game of his career. He made spectacular saves regularly. By the 3rd he was worn out & gave up a couple I'm sure he'd want back. Before we took the penalty at the end the Craps pulled Copely still trying to not get shut out. Ovechkin & Kuzenetzoff don't need long at all to score. They were not slowed down they were shut down.

How did we do against Edmonton, Washington, & San Jose last yr? 1 overtime win in 8 games. So whatever excuses you want to give all 3 teams the fact remains they dominated us. To come out 3-0 vs teams we were 1-7 against last yr is huge in my book.

Reasons we were at a disadvantage. Washington & San Jose played more games than us. We were still used to practice speed while they were on game speed.

Other teams having played more games this early in the season gave them more knowledge of what their team dynamics are.

Teams get used to west coast road trips where the time is 3 hrs back. We spent 10 days 6 hours forward. Plenty of time to completely change there internal clocks completely adjusted. So getting back to East coast time was a much bigger adjustment than any of the teams we had to play.

Our last preseason game was on an international size ice rink. Our first regular season game was on a 197ft ice rink. So readjusting to time & rink size was another obstacle we had to overcome.

Going to a new country, trying all of the new foods, gets the athletes off of there extremely strict diet & times that they eat. They are all on strict diets to get the best out of there bodies so trying a bunch of new foods, off there regular times, gets them out of there important regiments.

So had we lost these games we'd have a ton of excuses. So instead of giving us the credit we deserve for overcoming several obstacles, beating teams that owned us last yr, everyone is discrediting our wins. Since we lost to Tampa it's been non stop negativity. We need to add Physicality. We don't have secondary scoring. We didn't add anyone in free agency. We lost Maroon, Moore, Gibbons, & Grabner. Kinkaids 2nd half success won't happen again. Schneider is over the hill & this surgery won't fix anything. Zacha still can't score. We have a bad Defense. We start the season 3-0 against teams we were 1-7 against & now it's Edmonton isn't a playoff team. Washington was in the 2nd half of a back to back & we didn't play Holtby. Even though there's no way he would've faired any better. And now it's well San Jose was at the end of a long road trip. When are our own fans & writer's gonna give us the credit we deserve?? We trounced the defending champs. We beat a Stanley Cup favorite. All with no goals from Hall Nico, & Wood which were 3 of our best goal scorers last yr. 13 players with points against Washington. Let's get excited & not make excuses for the teams we beat!!
- New Look Devil's

Devils fans seem to be purposefully (usually facetiously) pessimistic, so if the train goes off the rails at any moment, they can take solace in the smarmy wit of their precognitions of doom and gloom. It's easier to cope with losing games that you should have won that way. But do not mistake it for their support of the team. It's more of an emotional shield for those moments like when Hall was called off sides last year, calling back a beautiful goal, the Palms phantom "interference call" or when the Caps scored and had 6 guys on the ice plain as day.

This new Devils team is breaking down that cycle, however they will be guarded for sometime moving forward as the Rutuu and Tootoo days are still relatively fresh memories. Give it time. Either way I appreciate your comments and look forward to more.