Devils Flyers Preview

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[00:00:36] Hey everyone, Mr. Devil here, Kenny Danico, three-time Stanley Cup champion of the New Jersey Devils, and you're listening to the Uncle Puckers New Jersey Devils Podcast. Let's go Devils! What is up, Devil Nation? Happy Game Day to all who celebrate, and if you are listening to this, you are probably one who celebrates.

[00:00:59] I am Chris from the Uncle Puckers New Jersey Devils Podcast, and the Devils are about to embark on a first game of the year against the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday, January 18th, with a 12-30 puck drop at The Rock, and we're going to dive into a few of the things, some of the numbers. This is the first time this year that we are playing the Flyers.

[00:01:21] Right now, Philadelphia is 20-20-6. They are a perfect 500, and that is bad enough for fifth in the Metropolitan Division with 46 points, but there's still one of those teams that are right there trying to fight for that last wildcard spot, which is being held right now by the Columbus Blue Jackets, who the Flyers are six points behind. Seems a little bit insurmountable. The Flyers will not be making the playoffs this year,

[00:01:49] but I won't go as far as saying that the Flyers are dog poop, because John Tortorella has a group of mediocre to good players and some with great potential. He has them playing the right way. He has them, you know, just the little things that you need to win games. The Flyers do it. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're winning every game,

[00:02:19] because you do need the talent, and the Flyers are a little low on the talent, but they're high on the effort. So I guess the point of what I'm trying to make is, if the Devils take their foot off the gas, if they go into this game thinking that, oh, they're, you know, a 46-point team, we have, you know, 57 points, and we're so much better, and we're second in the Metro with a 620 winning percentage,

[00:02:46] we can just show up. You can't just show up, you know, but I don't think that that's going to be the case at all. The Devils, for the most part, have played hard in every game, of course, not getting the results every game, and we have been in overtime now for the last four games. So I'm really hoping that we can kind of put an end to that and hopefully take a dove in regulation. But let's look at some of the numbers compared to the Devils.

[00:03:14] Goals for the Flyers have scored 840. That's 11th in the NHL. The Devils at 143 is 10th in the NHL. It's just three goal difference. It's a wash. Goals against 157 goals allowed by the Flyers. That's 30th in the league to New Jersey's 115 for 5th in the league. Goal differential, the Flyers are a dash 17, and that is 25th in the league.

[00:03:42] The Devils are a plus 28. That's 6th in the league. And that's telling. You know, the goal differential when you get to the 40-50 game mark of the season, I do think that the goal differential tells you a story. It does, you know, and basically this is what the Flyers are, right? They can score. They're very dangerous shorthanded too,

[00:04:09] so Devils have to be a little wary of that when they get on the power play. Speaking of power play, the Flyers are 28th in the league. Their power play is clicking at 16%. The Devils are 27.9%. That's good for third. We had two power play goals in the game up in Toronto the other night from our handsome captain, Nico. So, yeah, the Devils power play is starting to come to life a little bit.

[00:04:38] I'd like to see more. We talked a lot about it on the last show, and Tim made really good points about, you know, just how we're just funneling everything to the front of the net, and we've kind of gotten away from that hard point shot from Dougie or from Luke, and whether or not Dougie's still battling an injury is a different conversation for a different time. Penalty kill.

[00:05:02] The Flyers are 22nd in the league at, what are they, 7.7%, 77.5%. Devil's 82.7%, and that is 7th in the league. The Flyers are dead last in team save percentage, 32nd in the league at an 872. New Jersey's got a 902 team save percentage, and that's 7th in the NHL. So those are the numbers that matter,

[00:05:32] and this is where the Devils are clearly, like we said, the better team. For all intents and purposes, if you look at this game and compare team for team, the Devils should have no problem whooping up on Philly tomorrow, because I do this on Friday night, but tomorrow in the afternoon at the Rock. But let's begin with the fact that it's a 12.30 start, right?

[00:05:59] It was afternoon games, those early games. Devils just can't seem to find their feet in the first period. I haven't watched a ton of Philadelphia Flyer games, but I did watch a game back. It was an afternoon game against the Rangers in Philly, and Philly came out red hot. So Devils have to be ready for that. Tortorella's going to have them ready to play this game. A, it's a rivalry game. B, it's against a divisional opponent.

[00:06:28] And C, it's a team that's well above you in the standings, a much better team. So Philadelphia is going to look at this as a bar. You know, they want to clear it. They want to beat the better teams in the league. So they're led by Travis Konechny. He's got 20 goals. He has 33 assists. Mitch Koff, who I, the little bit that I've seen of this kid, he has some serious skill. And I think that the Devils are going to be having problems with Mitch Koff for the foreseeable future.

[00:06:58] When he turns into a well-rounded NHL player, I think he's going to be very, very good. 13 goals so far on the year, 19 assists. Owen Tippett has also 13 goals and 15 assists. And we know who leads our team, right? It's Nico, it's Brat, it's Timo and Jack. Goalies. So Sam Erson has had most of the load for the Philadelphia Flyers. He's got a record right now, 12, 7, and 2.

[00:07:27] He has a 2.87 goals against average and an 8.88 save percentage. Kolasov is, I don't even know if he's their backup or if it's Fedotov, however you pronounce it. I don't know who the number two is. They do carry the three right now. Now, Kolasov is 4-8-1 and 3-4-5 goals against and an 8-70 save percentage.

[00:07:55] Fedotov is 4-5-3 with a 3-2-6 goals against and an 8-7-9 save percentage. Philadelphia has won three of their last four games. The last game that they played was Thursday night. It was a 5-3 win against the New York Islanders. They had a 3-2 loss against Columbus. Beware the Blue Jackets for all who are paying attention. This team is going to make the playoffs. They are going to get that second, possibly even that first wild card spot.

[00:08:24] And whether it's Washington or Toronto, who they have to play in the first round, they are going to give them fits. It's a very, very good team. And again, we'll talk about Columbus down the road when we face them again. And then they beat Florida 4-3 and they beat the Ducks 6-0. So they're, you know, on a, they got a nice little stretch going.

[00:08:50] Sam Erson's career against New Jersey, he's 2-2-0 with a 3-4-8 goals against average and an 8-8-4 save percentage. I have to assume that Erson is going to get the start at the Rock on Saturday. The question is, who are the Devils going to play? We do have, this is the first half of a back-to-back. We have the Flyers on Saturday. We have the Ottawa Senators at home on Sunday. Personally, I would like to see Jake Allen in net tomorrow against the Flyers

[00:09:18] and give Markstrom, who's been playing so great for this team, give him an extra day. Let him go up against, I think, the better team in Ottawa. And Jake Allen needs to get in. So I say we give him the start on Saturday. Jake Allen is 2-3-0 career against the Philadelphia Flyers with a 3-2-3 goals against and an 8-90 save percentage. Now, I didn't check what the numbers are for Allen and Markstrom against Ottawa.

[00:09:47] I should have done that, but I'll do that when I do the preview for the Ottawa game. Because if there is a huge difference, if by some chance Jake Allen just is that much better than Markstrom against Ottawa, then maybe you would flip him. Because Jacob Markstrom has a very good save percentage and goals career-wise against the Flyers. His record, you know, it's around .500, 6-5-1. He's got a .203 goals against and a .934 save percentage against the Flyers.

[00:10:16] I don't know how much that's going to come into play in the Sheldon Keith's decision. I would be fine with either Foley getting the nod. Personally, I think Jake Allen. And like I said, let's save Markstrom. For the Ottawa Senators, last season we played the Flyers four times. On November 30th, we beat them 4-3 in overtime. On the 19th of December in New Jersey, they beat us 2-3 in overtime.

[00:10:45] February 17th, back in New Jersey, was a 6-3 win. That was the most lopsided one of the four games that we played against them. And then on April 13th, back in Philly, they shut us out 1-0. So they have an overtime win. We have an overtime win. They have a regulation win. We have a regulation win. They were, for most of the season, all of the season, I'll just say all of the season, they were the better team last year than New Jersey. This year, that's reversed. This is the first of four meetings.

[00:11:14] I think that New Jersey really needs a win here. Also, we talked a little bit about it. Curious what you guys are thinking about the line combinations right now because they do seem a little bit stale. And with the lack of goal scoring, or with the lack of scoring from guys on the Devils not named Jack Hughes and Nico Heischer, it seems to be a bit of a problem. The lines do need to be juggled up here.

[00:11:41] Sheldon Keefe needs to start doing something to spark a little bit of offense in these guys. Curious, though, what he will do. You know, Holla is still out. So is the kid that we just frigging called up. And I can't remember his name right now, but it doesn't matter. It's late, guys. I worked a very long day. But the kid that we just brought in, we have Dowling playing on the third line.

[00:12:10] Do you maybe, you know, if the big question, too, is, of course, going to be if Brian Hollanen. That's it. Sorry. It just popped into my head. Hollanen, I'd like to see him in the lineup. He has some great numbers in Utica. You know, we need that spark. We need a big kid, plays physical. Let's see how he does. Stefan Nason. Is he has his tum-tum and his rumblings in his little belly subsided? Is the explosive diarrhea gone, Stefan?

[00:12:38] Are you ready to strap on the diaper and head back out onto the ice? Because we need you, buddy. I love this guy. This team just looks different, especially on the power play when he's not there. So I hope he's feeling better and he's going to get himself back on the ice. Now, I don't know. I maybe if you're going to start juggling lines a little bit. I don't know. I'd maybe like to see. I'd like to see what Stefan Nason can do with Jack Hughes.

[00:13:07] And just a thought, you know, maybe we can swap him and Brat. See how it goes. Maybe we can generate a little bit of offense. I know devil fans that are listening. They're just like, oh, we can't split up Brat and Jack. Oh, you know, why not? Why not? You know, let's see how it goes. A couple of ideas that we had for some line matchups. And our partner, Tim, he is big on you got to split up some of these defensive pairings. They just have gotten stale.

[00:13:35] You got guys like Hamilton and Dylan just getting caved in when they're on the ice together. I'm not against that idea either. I think that this game coming up against the Flyers is a good game to, I guess, experiment a little bit. Let's throw some different line combinations on throughout the game and see if there's any spark. You know, right now, the Devils are in a little bit of a funk.

[00:14:00] And just because they play their asses off for 60 minutes, even if a lot of that time is being spent in their defensive end, they do play their asses off, which is why they've managed to get points out of the last four games. When they were, especially in the Toronto game, severely outplayed for that whole game. But the Devils managed to pull out a point. Would have been nice if, you know, the crossbar won the post wasn't there in overtime.

[00:14:26] And Luke buries it, which is why I will stand by my idea to, you know, only when on the goals that we are scoring on. So I believe that for all New Jersey nets that we are shooting on, they should be about three or four inches bigger. And our goal should be about three or four inches smaller. I just think it's fair. We haven't been scoring. I mean, we need, we need something to pop or sliding nets.

[00:14:54] Possibly they can move up and down the ice. That would be kind of cool. Be really hard if you were a goalie. Anyway, I digress. Stephen Nason, we need him back in the lineup. Hopefully he will be. Will Sheldon Keefe struggle these lines a little bit? And I'm real curious to the listeners, if you guys would start juggling these lines, what would you do? Who would you like to see where? And hopefully that'll happen. And who's going to be in net? John Tortorello is going to have these guys ready to play. I think the Devils are pissed.

[00:15:21] I think that they have just, you know, they know they haven't played their best hockey. This is, you know, there's two ways of looking at this wire game, right? It's a get right game. It's a game against an inferior opponent that if the Devils play their game, they really should win it and win it handily. But then there's, this is a trap game. This is an absolute classic trap game against an inferior team.

[00:15:47] And if you are feeling down on yourself for whatever reason, and you're not up to play when that puck drops at 1230, these guys are going to make you pay. It's going to be a physical game. They want to get physical. And I think that there's a lot of guys on our team that want to get physical and not in an Olivia Newton-John sort of way. Look it up, kids. So, yeah. Excuse me. My sexy voice. So, that's it. Devils have to take this game extremely seriously.

[00:16:16] It's a four-point swing in a metropolitan division, especially in that bottom. Flyers are scratching and crawling. I mean, they have to believe, right? Just a little bit. Like, we get on a run here. We can start doing something. And what's better to kind of propel them into a run than, you know, beating the Flyers and then, I mean, the Flyers, beating the Panthers last week, beating the Devils, beating the Islanders suck. But, you know, still, they're starting to get a couple of wins together.

[00:16:43] Or, you know, are we going to be the team that says, uh-uh, you're not going anywhere. And this is why, because we are considerably better than you. And we just spanked you four to one. It was really what I'm hoping happens. But anyway, it's going to be fun to watch. I'm looking forward to this one. Real quick, if anybody would like to get their hands on an Uncle Pucker sticker like this, all you have to do is go to UnclePuckers.com. Check out the – go on to the Contact Me, fill it out, and we'll get them out to you free of charge ASAP.

[00:17:11] Also, we're starting to post all this stuff now on our YouTube channel. That's the Uncle Puckers on YouTube. If you find us there, subscribe, say hello. So, you know, there's five of us that, you know, get together three times a week that just love to talk hockey and devils. And whatever other stupid shit pops into our heads. The world's a crazy place right now.

[00:17:36] It's nice to have some commonality that we all can kind of get around and talk hockey. And if this is the one thing that brings us all together, our love for this sport and our love for this team, then I'm all for it. So, if you find us on the YouTube there, subscription, you know, like, whatever the hell else you guys have to do. Just we appreciate it.

[00:18:02] We love hearing from, you know, our listeners, you guys, especially Devil fans just in general, right? They're smart. I mean, we're a fickle bunch, but we're very smart. We know the sport. It's just a lot of fun hanging with you guys. So, I'm going to wrap it up now and send this thing out. And we'll be back talking about this game and a preview of the Ottawa Senator game tomorrow night. We will be back to do a full pod and that'll be out. So, thanks so much for listening, guys. Let's go Devils.