Sam Woo: Sloppy Play and Execution Have Devils in Downward Spiral

Downright ugly hockey!

Frankly it looks like this team has completely turned this coaching staff OFF!! Not ready to start games, unable to complete basic passing and defensive positions is a product of coaching. This team is a marginal playoff team, ownership needs to bite the bullet and make changes NOW, not waiting until feburary and throw another season in the garbage, would be nice to see meaningful games in march and april for a change?

Fitzy needs to do something to shake things up, whether it's a trade or a coach firing. Something needs to happen to get the attention of the players.

This month has a ton of winnable games, and the next 5 games specifically. This stretch(Ottawa, Philly, Nashville, Isles, and Philly) will likely make or break the rest of the season, so it's time for the team to nut up or shut up. 3-1-1(7/10 points) is the absolute minimum imo.

Colton White has been assigned to Utica. Guess Jaros will be activated off IR prior to Monday or some other corresponding move will happen.

Don't worry Devils fans. You've got another game coming up against the Flyers soon.

There needs to be a complete coaching staff change. There also needs to be some changes on Defense:
Severson looks good if he was a forward. He seems disinterested in defense and has taken a ton of lazy penalties. He’s always out of position.
Siegenthal is soft and makes a ton of mental mistakes on positioning. He’s always out of position.
Subban is an awful d man. His sudden interest in borderline slew footing opponents should be looked at by the league.
Smith is having a tough season. He really needs a strong D partner to allow him to play his style.
Hamilton and Graves both look dejected by the teams lack of effort in the d end.
Fire Ruff and staff ASAP.

Losing to Ottawa sounds like a really good way to get a coaching staff fired and I'm all for it.

They’re just not that good. Yet. However they are on their way. But still need to find a power forward or two. Praying nolan foote can become that and maybeeee miles wood. Its nice to see graves seigenthaler and hamilton not get knocked off pucks but almost every forward does.

Fitzy needs to do something to shake things up, whether it's a trade or a coach firing. Something needs to happen to get the attention of the players.

This month has a ton of winnable games, and the next 5 games specifically. This stretch(Ottawa, Philly, Nashville, Isles, and Philly) will likely make or break the rest of the season, so it's time for the team to nut up or shut up. 3-1-1(7/10 points) is the absolute minimum imo.
- vlongo4419

11th overall pick is going to be a huge bust for this team

My question is... what's the plan with Smith and Severson?

Neither of them are particularly good in their own end... And if they acknowledge the obviously and declare it not a good pairing, what do they do from there? Get rid of Smith? Or get rid of Severson? You can't keep them both...

They "tried" them... it didn't work. A decision has to be made about one of them.

My question is... what's the plan with Smith and Severson?

Neither of them are particularly good in their own end... And if they acknowledge the obviously and declare it not a good pairing, what do they do from there? Get rid of Smith? Or get rid of Severson? You can't keep them both...

They "tried" them... it didn't work. A decision has to be made about one of them.
- archromat

They worked very well as a pair last year, but unfortunately Smith has been arguably the worst defenseman in the entire league this year. Severson has actually been decent-to-good this year when he's away from Smith, but his numbers look mediocre because Smith has dragged him down so much.

Smith-Severson together rock a 43.88% xGF%
Smith without Severson rocks a 34.76% xGF%
Severson without Smith rocks a 55.09% xGF%

Ty has pretty much been deadweight and is a net negative every single time he touches the ice this year. He needs to be in Utica trying to figure his poop out

Lines in practice today:

Zacha-Hischier-Bratt
Johnsson-Hughes-Sharangovich
Tatar-Mercer-Vesey
Kuokkanen-McLeod-Bastian/Boqvist

Same D pairs with Geertsen-Jaros skating as the 4th pair.

Fans have always hated Severson for some reason and I guess that'll never change.

I agree with sending Smith down, only if he doesn’t have to clear waivers. Not losing him for nothing. I’m firing the coaching staff before I trade anyone not named Subban. We (or at least I) knew Ruff and Recchi weren’t good before anyone took the ice, and Nas is average at his absolute best. See how the kids do with a different coach.
The question then becomes, who do you hire?? And how often do we see head coach plus assistants get swapped mid-season? Wonder if they’d all go.

Players new to our toxicity - graves and Hamilton, have only looked worse as the season has gone and they’ve absorbed the losing passive pathetic culture that’s been curated. Remember the first few games? We were so excited to finally have NHL- level defensemen. Now theyre looking more and more like everyone else.

I agree with sending Smith down, only if he doesn’t have to clear waivers. Not losing him for nothing. I’m firing the coaching staff before I trade anyone not named Subban. We (or at least I) knew Ruff and Recchi weren’t good before anyone took the ice, and Nas is average at his absolute best. See how the kids do with a different coach.
The question then becomes, who do you hire?? And how often do we see head coach plus assistants get swapped mid-season? Wonder if they’d all go.

Players new to our toxicity - graves and Hamilton, have only looked worse as the season has gone and they’ve absorbed the losing passive pathetic culture that’s been curated. Remember the first few games? We were so excited to finally have NHL- level defensemen. Now theyre looking more and more like everyone else.
- MartysBetter88

Gronborg

Boudreau on a two year deal in Vancouver. Would've taken him for Devils coach in a heartbeat instead of no-clue Ruff.

Gronborg
- RubberBiscuitz

Ah man I wish...what could've been lol.