Devils, Kings Preview

Chris (00:01)
Hello there, Devil fans. This is Chris from the Uncle Parker New Jersey Devil podcast. I'm going to do a quick little preview about the upcoming game Devils are taking on the Los Angeles Kings Thursday night at the Rock. Those dastardly Stanley Cups stealing Los Angeles Kings. The team coming out east, we don't get to see a whole lot. So let's dive a little bit in.

to what's going on with the Los Angeles Kings right now they have played 28 games they are 17, 8, and 3 they have 37 points they are 5th in the league in winning percentage at 661 they are 14th in the league in goals scored with 86, 3rd in the league with goals against at 71 they are 9th in the league on goal differential they are a plus 15

Their penalty kill is shooting at 80.4 percent. That's good for 14th in the league. And their power play is 16.7 percent way down at the bottom, 28th in the league. And team save percentage for the Los Angeles Kings is 895. That's 16th in the league.

look it's the same old guys right it's copetar and kempe copetar is leading this team right now with eight goals twenty four assists he has thirty two points and kempe has got fourteen goals fourteen assists twenty eight points they're second in the pacific division just two points behind the vegas golden knights kings are on a heater to quote jack

they are they want six in a row now coming into this game their last win was tuesday which was a three one win at the island against the islanders who play on the island which yeah so yeah they've been hot and that's kinda wasn't sure what to make of the los angeles kings going into this year you know they they moved PLD over to washington they got darcy kemper over there to kinda hope to show up there goaltending

and I was never a big fan of Darcy Kemper but this is one of those trades that I mean if you take PLD's contract out of it but if you just look at player for player it seems to have helped both teams both Washington and LA I think both teams are better for those moves so they have David Riddich in goal and Darcy Kemper Riddich right now kind of looks like their number one he's 10-6-0 he has a 2.45 goals against average and an 891 save percentage

Darcy Kemper is 6-2 and 3. He's 2.37 goals against with a 9-0-7 save percentage. Kemper's played pretty well for them. He did play the game on Long Island. He let up one goal on 20 shots and had a 9-50 save percentage. So that's kind of what's going on with the Kings. The Devils, are on a two-game skid. Dropped the last game in overtime to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

just that's a frustrating game and the uncle puckers will be dropping a show after this king's game we're gonna talk a little bit probably a lot of it about the the game against toronto it was it was frustrating but on the plus side you know teams get goalie these things happen devils are in a very good spot right now they're still solidly in a playoff position which is not something we could say last year and

If they play this way against, honestly, like 90 % of the NHL, they're gonna light them up the way that they played last night. is there cause for concern? Hmm, not really. I would say my concern level is like a solid 5 right now. These next two games against the Blackhawks and against the Kings.

If they go the other way, maybe my concern level ticks up a little bit. But right now, it's, you know, like four and a half to a five. I'm not overly concerned. You know, Devils are 18, 10, and three sitting on 39 points with a 629 winning percentage. That's 10th in the league. 103 goals scored. That's fifth. Good for fifth. 84 goals against. That's good for 14th. They have a 19 goal differential. That's good for seventh.

Their power play has been ridiculous, not so much these last few games, but still 31.3 % is good for first in league. And if they stay at this pace, which is pretty impossible, but they would probably end up having one of the top one or two best penalty kills in the history of the NHL. So, I mean, power plays. I said penalty kills? It's late, guys. I meant the power play. Penalty kill 81.1, that's 11th, was doing a lot better.

they seem to be kind of good for one power play goal against each game right now and the team save percentage is 898 that's tenth this is kind of where the devil's troubles are in what we're going to get into next right so Jesper Bratt is

playing phenomenal, he's having a great season, he's got 13 and 25, he's got 38 points, right? Then you got Jack, he's 11 and 24 for 35, Nico's 15 and 12 for 27, Timo 9 and 11 for 20, even Dougie's in on the action with five goals and 16 assists for 21 points. Like these are our name players and our name players are delivering, but...

The problem is the depth, and this is what we thought we were getting this year, and it has not been that way. The depth scoring has dried up big time. And you're talking Mercer, six goals, eight assists for 14 points, and then it just falls right off a cliff. Eric Hala, five and six for 11. Andre Pallat, four for five for nine. Thomas Tatar, three and six for nine. Put this in perspective.

Andre Pallott, Thomas Tatar, Eric Halle, right? Five goals, Halle. Four goals, Pallott. Three goals, Tatar. Seamus Casey played eight games for the New Jersey Devils and he has three goals. And he's a defenseman. And he played eight games and he has as many goals as Thomas Tatar and one less than Andre Pallott. Let's just think about that for a second.

Our secondary scoring has been abysmal and we're going to talk more about these things in the upcoming show. And what can we do to fix these? Because you're not going to be trading people. So is it moving guys around from line to line? There's a problem here. Certain guys and the guys I just mentioned mainly, they're just not contributing in an offensive way.

you know we talked about everybody so they do the little things I understand that but tons of guys throughout the league do the little things and can contribute on an offensive pace so we know Jake Allen went down with the injury in the Colorado game it looks like it might be a little bit longer than we thought so Isaac Poulter has been called up from Utica but Jacob Markstrom is going to get this game

However, I know this might not be a popular idea, but I would totally give Isaac Poulter the Blackhawk game. Let's see what the kid can do. Throw him in there. you know, look, I think we can beat the Blackhawks. We play a game, you know, we play the way we played against Toronto. We will put seven up against Chicago. So put the kid in. Let's see what he can do. He's 24 years old.

in front of this defense you never know right? You just never know sometimes you strike gold I mean you might give up four goals on four shots but let's put him in I would it's probably not gonna happen Jacob Marks from this year you know he's as advertised he's playing as well as I think devil fans could expect 13-6-2 he's got a 9-06 save percentage 2.48 goals against

just needs some run support man. We're talking about the Devils have scored one goal in the last two games and for teams that boast Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes, Nico Ischer, Timo Meyer that's kind of you know that's unacceptable. These guys I don't want to say unacceptable but you guys know what I mean right? It's just it's not this team. This team is a very good offensive team and they're just it's not it's not going in right now. We've been goalied and

We hit some posts, but again, those guys that I just mentioned are not going to be the catalysts each and every night. And if you're going to win consistently, which is something that New Jersey Devils have not been able to do this year, if you're going to win consistently, then you need the depth scoring. You need guys to help out. And right now, they're not. Offensively, they are not. Just chew on what I said about Seamus Casey.

I went over that, I saw his numbers, and I mean, my eyes bolted out of my head. I'm like, are you f***ing kidding me? Like, yeah. So anyway, we played the Kings twice last year, they beat us twice last year, but you know, everybody beat us last year. We lost to them 2-1, and we lost to them 5-1. All time, the New Jersey Devils are 41-57, 11-4, all time against the Los Angeles Kings.

And Jacob Markstrom has a career record of 12, 6, and 4 with a 9-11 save percentage and a 2.83 goals against all time against the Kings. Most likely it will be Darcy Kemper against Jacob Markstrom tomorrow. So what to expect in this Kings game. The Devils have had a 5, around game 4 of a 5 game home stand. When this was the home stand that they were supposed to get right,

and kind of put the league on notice that the rock is a difficult place to play and if you have to come in here you're not going to win and it's going to be a brutal sixty minute test if you are going to pull two points out. Well that hasn't happened right? They're one one and one now on their home stand and so I think for that this king game is super important because and don't look past it thinking you know okay well we win this game

We'll get to the Chicago game when we get there. But again, you could make this a winning home record if you win tonight against the Kings. This is big. So what are you going to do? Play the way they played against Toronto. I mean, they played a fantastic game, right? They pressured them. They had tons of offensive zone time. They were able to, I mean, their board battles, their loose pucks, they were great with their sticks. I mean, the two...

Two shots to Toronto Maple Leafs, the big, bad, mighty Toronto Maple Leafs had two shots on goal in the first period. And that's a testament to the Devils. Keep doing that. You're not going to get Anthony Stoller's in net every single night. Just do it. Devils will be okay. They'll get back on the winning side. They'll play better. have, you know, they're not going to let this thing go. But don't underestimate LA. They are very good team.

So, I mean, I'm not going to sit here and say, Devils need to do this, Devils need to do that. Devils need to do what they did against Toronto. It's that simple. Follow that game plan. Follow that game plan, you'll be successful. We know why they lost that game. And like I said, the Uncle Puckers will dive into that. We're going to talk a lot about that game. We'll talk a little bit about the LA game and what's coming. We have a couple of new games, too, that we're going to talk about and start one of them, which should be a lot of fun.

If you are digging on this awesome cool Uncle Pucker New Jersey Devil sticker, you can have one for free All you have to do is go to the Uncle Pucker's website unclepuckers.com Go to the contact info Fill it out and we will get those into into the mail for you as soon as possible and They make a great stocking stuffer even a gift slap them on a Ranger fans car. Whatever you want I just watched a Ranger Buffalo game

Rangers aren't very good guys and Buffalo is even worse. let's pull the trigger on Alex Tuck. We'll talk about that all later. Again, I'm Chris, Uncle Pucker New Jersey Double Podcast. Check it out. Thank you guys so much for listening. Let's go Devils.