I was very excited to use this line for a title, and if you don't know what it's from, you should re-evaluate your life.
Nice solid dubya against a sneaky good team that had been playing very well of late. Reminds me a bit of the younger Devils - tons of promising young players, speed to burn, high end talent in Cooley, Keller, Guenther etc. They're gonna be a problem in short order.
The Devils came into Utah riding a wave of absurd inconsistency. The last ten 10 games; 5 wins. 5 losses, alternating wins and losses. BOOOOO. It's been so fucking infuriating, an a few of those Ls are against teams we should be beating. Like Utah, who is good, but we should beat them 7-8 times out of 10. Since the new year, we've only beaten one playoff bound team, Tampa and that was in OT. Get it together consistently you assholes.
Finally, we got off to a good start, that has been one of the more concerning trends - these tentative starts. We were on the front foot early, all 4 lines were clicking and rolling, I really liked what I saw. We were finishing through the body, Jack was dancing and I really like the Nico-Timo-Mercer line. Nico looked fully back - and sure enough he gets us on the board first. This was 90% Luke though, man what a play at the blueline, looked very Quinn-esque except taller. I can't express how big your nuts must be to pull shit off at the blue line like that. That's why you see most D-men just toss it back into the zone, or panic fire one into a pile of shinguards. Nico picks up his 400th career point - it's crazy how time flies - and he becomes the fastest Swiss player in history to get to 400. King shit.
We entered the first intermission feeling pretty good, would've loved a few more but Vameljka was playing well stopping two breakaways from Timo and Bastian. Our breakaway futility was going to be studied but the funding was pulled by DOGE. I really liked the D-play too, shots were pretty even, but HD Scoring chances were 6-2. You could see them collapsing well in front of Daws and clearing out secondary chances, and generally keeping the Utes to the outside. The whom? The Utes. Anyway, Brendan 'the Hammer' DIllon took on O'Brien which is a tough scrap with one of the better heavyweights in the league. Admirable effort, and the boys were fired up on the bench, I think Luke was hard as a rock watching based on his reaction. We finished off the first killing off a penalty without Dillon - and it was an OUTSTANDING kill, Utah kinda looked like us fumbling zone entries and unable to get even set up.
The second was a little tough, and Utah was trading chances with us - it was a little more open and for 5 minutes before their goal, we were pinned. Lazar with a nice reverse hit on the above-mentioned O'Brien, but O'Brien made a nice play to get it to the point and we couldn't get it out. Shocker. Puck came back to him since Lazar decided it was leaving the zone (it didn't), he finds Sergachev and bang bang it's in, Daws didn't really have a chance.
We got a second powerplay - and man this thing looks like a mess of late. We've fallen to 5th in the league at 27.2%, and it's been another issue that needs cleaning up. Still think it might be wise to give a Bratt-Timo switch a look, add some playmaking on the 2nd unit, and some shooting on the 1st unit. But I'm just some guy at a desk, what do I know.
The 2nd ended, 1-1, could've been 3/4-1 either way. if only Palat could lift the puck, but "veteran presence" right? I can't BELIEVE I expect a professional hockey player to be able to do something a 10 year old can, that was like a rec league game where a bunch of 8 yr olds are just jamming at the puck. Ugh he fucking sucks and it will be a failure if that spot isn't upgraded at the deadline. Our finishing woes continue.
Oh and great, Luke's arm is dangly. It shouldn't do that. If Luke is hurt, we are finished - I STILL think he is wildly undervalued by our fanbase, and for the dummies that think he's bad, go find something else to watch because you don't watch the games very well. He is elite and zone entry denials, puck retrievals, has one of the best sticks in the league, is the fastest player in the league, and leverages his skating better than any D in the league not named Quinn or Cale. "He's out of position hurr durr" - shut up you fucking dumbass, he can take chances becasue he can skate so well. The coaches give him rope to do that. Learn puck.
Anyway, sorry about that rant. Guess what, he's back, rant unnecessary! This is the third time he's had a dramatic exit, only to return like nothing happened (Philly, Colorado last season). A bit dramatic there, eh Lukey boy? Or did you get juiced up with Russian Gas or Torpodol or Cortisone - he was smiling like a goof to start the third.
Guys it's March.. guess what that means? It is actually, for real this time, Timo Time! For whatever reason this guy goes on late season benders, and as your boy wrote a few months ago (so all 4 of you are aware) he has scored 30% of his career goals after 3/1. Maybe he has seasonal depression? Maybe he's out of cuffing season? It is truly a weird phenomenon, but it'd be super cool if this guy decides to go on a heater again - he led the league in goals last season in March. Nice snipe from the handsome bull, more of that please. Also, selfishly, I can't stop betting Timo ATGs - Follow me for financial advice. (Timo please, I have a family and my kids think College is happening).
The next few minutes were some hold-on-to-your-butts hockey. But we bent but didn't break and picked up the Liberty Biberty goal.. Bastian won a nice puck battle in the corner, and got it up to Jack who fucking danced 3 guys on the boards (I truly can't understadn how he does that shit) lost the handle a bit, but Uncle Curtis was there to snipe one short side. Good to see him get on the board, it's been since 11/30 since a center not named Jack or Nico scored. Timo scores? Lazar scores? Surely Erik is up next, right??! HAHA just kidding, let's not get carried away here.
What a game from Dawsy. Love this kid, he just looks so calm and confident in there, squares up well, handled the puck well, and swallowed rebounds. Absolutely ROBBED Cooley on the doorstep like it was nothin'. The boys were eating pucks in front of him. Just nothing to dislike about his game. He's now sitting at 85 for 88 on shots, a .966 sv pct. In the wild world of cherry picked stats, he leads the league in GSAE/60, the only goalie over 2 GSAE (minimum 1 game played lol). Do we have a trade chip in Jake Allen? He only has a 3 team NTC.... something to think aboot, but with Marky's imminent return, we aren't going with 3 goalies.
This game also perfectly crystallized the needs we all know about. Top 6 to move Palat down (Tuch, Rakell, Boeser, McCann). Play driving 3C (Donato, Evans, O'Reilly). Donato has looked pretty good recently, potted 2 goals last night and is one of the best 5 v 5 players in the league. Are moves coming? Who knows! Fitz has gone Lou dark 30, and we have no fucking idea what he's cooking.
Oh, we play again today? Against Vegas you say? Greaaattttttttttt. This is a real test, need these two points boys and need to show we can take down a good team in their building.
Hahah almost forgot about you losers, Steve, how are they doing? OH NO! Cap dumping for next season, What a shame.
LGD
