Well holy shit, how 'bout our goalie, eh? That game wasn't exactly how you draw up the game script, but having Simone Biles in goal kind of helps. I am still trying to process how 6'6" Markstrom made a couple of those saves, especially the last paddle save. The funniest part of the night was all of the various hockey platforms (NHL, BR, Chiclets etc) putting out a "save of the night" video.. and each one was too late as he topped his own "save of the night" 3 times. Insane performance that will go down in Devils lore as the moment we dug out of our funk (note to Devils team: please keep this up and dig out of this funk). Their overall play was definitely better, minus a bad stretch in the 1st and some egregious chances against in the 2nd and 3rd. You definitely don't want your goalie to have to make bananaland stops, but it certainly helps when he does. Let's take a look at the tape and chat shall we? No? Well, you're here so ... ummm, I'm going to. The first 13 minutes or so the boys had the gas pedal down and were controlling play, every line had some good O-Zone time, PB&J was flying, all was sort of right with the world. Jack got robbed, Palat let a tough one slip through the wickets.. Chances were there, but that creeping "goalie'd" thoughts started in the back of my head, especially after Grubauer robbed Jack. But our handsome newfie Mercer showed some nice little netfront dangles after a nice Timo-> Nico set up and we are up 1-0. You can do that? What is this feeling? More please, we're up 8-1 in shots. Then.. The tide started turning for whatever reason... Did we take our foot off the gas? Did the Kraken wake up? Totally inexplicable, and while they do have good team speed and some nice players, we just .. stopped playing and they took over. You could FEEL them about to score. Their 1st line pinned our 4th line in the D-zone for an extended period, leading to a seeing eye shot from Larsson, anddddd we're tied. (your boy may or may not have placed some money on Larsson to score - follow me for more financial advice). Really would like to see Pesce be a little tougher clearing out the front there, as McCann's fat ass was in Marky's face and he didn't even see that one. Sorry about the fat ass comment if you wind up on the Devils, McCann. Marky wished him a Happy New Year with a love tap to the dick - clearly frustrated since he had just made his first of several holy fucking shit saves. You can literally see our xG flatline from that 13 minute point; that 8-1 shot advantage turned into 13-11 them and a whopping 4 High Danger chances. The second was probably our best period, albeit somewhat quiet, with the best chance coming from a turnover and Timo charging downhill - robbed by Grubauer again. I could hear the groan coming from the entire state of New Jersey that doesn't have Optimum or Comcast and that "goalie'd" thought crept in again. It looked like we were about to enter the third at 1-1 and while the Devils' play was better, the scoring struggles continued.. Then WOOOOOOOO.. Two of our new favorites connected on a set cross-corner dump-in play, Kovacevic and DJ Pauly caught their D thinking about intermission uncrustables and we are up! Definitely a little Oooopsie gonna squeeze this past ya don't ya know form Pauly. I don't care how when it's 2-1 us. The Kraken had 0 (zero, none) HD chances. That was the team we saw in December. At the end of the 2nd, and for the 5th game in a row, the refs decided to put their stamp on the game after Siegs buried one of the squid sticks. While that was definitely a penalty, someone in the Devils organization needs to take a fine or send some tape to the league about some of these phantom penalties against - I have no idea how Pesce gets 5 for fighting when he didn't drop his gloves AND got jumped by giant pussy Montour. Now we are down our two best PKers to start the third, and well you can see what's coming. New PP nemesis Shane Wright buried a nice little PP play from them. DIllon probably got a little too aggressive, and Lazar was late on coverage, but the little sauce from noted 3rd line bust Kappo Kakko to Wright and we are tied. Doom didn't have time to settle in as just 40 seconds later our superstar Jackie boy fed a little dish to noted sniper Palat who fucking buried one. What a goal, and we are up! Need to lock this down. And we're not going to lock it down. Holy shit did we bleed some silly HD chances against and Markstrom put on a fucking show. We only gave up 6 shots and almost all of them were white knuckle High Danger chances, and circus stops. The final buzzer - and we are out of our slump. Sometimes it's not pretty, sometimes it's not easy, but a 3-2 win is a 3-2 win. Run to the plane, buy your goalie a steak and a Rolex and a Porsche and a BJ and get home. It was great to see who scored our goals, Cotter, Mercer, and Palat. We needed more from all three of them and still think we need to take advantage of that with some line shuffling. Dowling had a great game won 66% of draws,and really had a low event game. With his two wings scoring, I'll take it. Dougie-Dillon needs to fucking clean it up. Their metrics graded out very well somehow, but they are legit a walking 2 on 1 against. Both pinch at inopportune times, go on strolls in the D-zone but wound up grading out as our best pair somehow: shot advantage was 25-7, xGF at 75%, Dougie had the 2nd highest game score. This is sometimes the problem with some of these advanced metrics, because it doesn't take much context into play, as all 7 of those shots were on odd man rushes or defensive breakdowns. If they aren't scoring, they are an absolute liability and we NEED them to keep it together. It's a goddamn roller coaster while they're out there. I love Dougie and I will defend the wall for him for his value is offensive, but if that isn't happening and he is pressing for offense it is a disaster. We might have a decision to make this summer. The 4th line was god awful and just cannot handle line matchups. The 1st line for the Krarken made them look like a fucking peewee team on their first goal. We need them to play lower event get it the fuck outta the zone and dump it in and change hockey. I said it last recap but we have 4MM and change tied up in easily upgradable pieces. Tatar is a worthless passenger and Bastian is a goddamn giraffe learning to walk. As Billy Beane would say, if he's such a good size guy why can't he size good? And nice try on the PR in between the 2nd and 3rd, we see you MSG (or some of us do). One thing that flew a little under the radar, Jack notched his 200th assist. Our babies grow up so fast, and he is now the quickest playing in franchise history to 200 assists, eeking out Gomer by a few games. Another fun fact, we now have 7 guys with double digit goals, tied for the league lead with Colorado and Washington. Vegas, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Columbus have 6, Carolina Florida and Dallas have 5. Need Jack, Bratt, and Nico to get back on the scoresheet, but if Mercer and Cotter keep scoring the need for more depth scoring will soften. I do think Fitz will be patient here and not get taken advantage of out of desperation, but he can't wait forever for an upgrade. Are we back to needing a top 6 wing so we can slide Palat down? I still think 1LW and 3C are the biggest needs, but there's only so much money to go around. Discuss amongst yourselves. It's kind of weird having all this much time off between games, I'm not sure what to do with my hands. Hopefully by Thursday, the jet lag will be worn off, get a couple crisp practices in, and get ready for those trash bag losers from across the river. The Rangers have been playing better, and won't be the pushovers we saw a few weeks ago, or will they? What do you think, Valiquette, ready for some more instagram hockey? |
