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anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy
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Those games have emotion and scrums. The NHL today is a bunch of fairies going up and down the ice. It's a pathetic product.
OT. NJ Devils. Are they turning the page?
- Thread starter WhiteBus
- Start date
If you only watch hockey for the fights, then why not just watch boxing or MMA instead? You won't have to deal with boring sideshows like speed, stickhandling, creating scoring chances, big saves, and hits...
Your in the giant minority. Must be a Philly Broad Street Brawler fan. If you haven't noticed the NHL is doing better than it ever been and the Flyers haven't won since the early 70s.
You are better suited for the WWF
4 in a row!
Lost the shutout and no penalties very late but another W for the Devils.
Winnipeg has some big f-ing dudes!
Great win.
Lost the shutout and no penalties very late but another W for the Devils.
Winnipeg has some big f-ing dudes!
Great win.
Finally starting to enjoy my season's tickets again. Team is looking good and the youngsters are playing well. Can't wait to have dinner with Ken Daneyko on 2/19.
Awesome. Daneyko is a great Devils ambassador. Ask him about the 334 Club. I'm a member. Appropriate for today's weather
Whoa that's awesome. How was the weather that day compared to today? Would that game have been postponed by today's standards in your opinion?
I was at a game in 2010 against the Flyers during a bad snowstorm and there were so few people able to make it there that during one of the intermissions they announced that anyone sitting in the upper level could move down to the lower level. I went by myself because I was given a ticket for free, so I found a single seat right up against the glass behind Brodeur. The roads were so bad that I wouldn't have driven there, but luckily this was while I was living above Giovanneli's, so I just walked right down Easton Ave. to the train station and had a good time.
Another nice win tonight. Usually these heavy teams like Boston and St. Louis give the Devils fits, but credit them with limiting the Jets chances. NJ has reached their high-water mark of the season at 6 games over .500. Their final game before the ASB has them in Pittsburgh, which has been a house of horrors since the Pens opened that new building. It'd be nice to get that one as they have a showdown with the NYR on 2/2 right out of the break.
I had a Ford Bronco II. Was off that day so drove up early to see friends at the track. Long story but I ended up parking under the overhang in front of the track. Slept in the Bronco after the game.
The bartender Marty who worked behind my section also worked downstairs in the club bar post game. Beers post game were free.
I was a season ticket holder for years. Never missed a game.
Game was delayed as all the refs didn't make.
It get got foggy after the 2nd period. [cheers]
Maybe it's a theme this week. The win over Calgary was their first since 2010.
They did it this way so that there would be more playoff series featuring divisional rivals. The lower wild card team plays the higher first place team, and the other wild card team plays the other first place team while second plays third. If the playoffs started today, the Devils would have the lower wild card spot, so they would face the Capitals who are first in the conference. The easiest way to visualize this is here. If you go look at the standings this way (on the wild card tab), it shows you the top three in each division at the top, and then the wild card race on the bottom.
I'm okay with this format, but I don't understand the need to do wild card teams when they easily could have just taken the top four from each division and had normal divisional playoffs.
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wildcard was required due to imbalance of teams across divisions. didn't want to make it top 4 because would be unfair to divisions w fewer teams re making playoffs.
Like old format better
I don't see how that fixes the problem. The two divisions in the Eastern Conference both have eight teams, and the two divisions in the Western Conference both have seven. The wild card teams stay within their conference for the playoffs, so every team has the same theoretical odds of making the playoffs this way as they would without the wild card. Either way, the teams in the West have a better chance of making it than the teams in the East, the wild card format doesn't make a difference, all it does is make it so that one division could end up with five of their seven or eight teams making the playoffs while the other division in that conference only gets three.
Devils on a roll with lunch pail and grinder forwards and solid defenseman and great goaltenders. Go Devs! get your Jersey On! A true Jersey team...playoff bound!
NJ is currently in playoff position, but they have also played more games than anyone ahead or behind them in the East. Right now, they're on pace for 92 pts, which is right on the cusp of the 8th seed. Though last year the 8th seed finished at 98. They have to keep stringing wins together and not winning 4, then losing 3 as they've done all season.
Regarding the playoff format, I can't stand the current setup. Logistically, it gives the teams in the west an advantage (14 teams fighting for 8 spots as compared to 16 in the East.) Atlanta's move to Winnipeg is what screwed up the alignment, but I don't understand why they couldn't have just moved Columbus or Nashville to the former Southeast Division to maintain the traditional 5 team divisions. It was easier to follow and meant for true rivals playing all the time. Now NJ plays the Rangers 3 or 4 times a year compared to the 6-8 times they faced off up until a few years ago. Now instead, we are force fed more games against Columbus and Carolina.
Regarding the playoff format, I can't stand the current setup. Logistically, it gives the teams in the west an advantage (14 teams fighting for 8 spots as compared to 16 in the East.) Atlanta's move to Winnipeg is what screwed up the alignment, but I don't understand why they couldn't have just moved Columbus or Nashville to the former Southeast Division to maintain the traditional 5 team divisions. It was easier to follow and meant for true rivals playing all the time. Now NJ plays the Rangers 3 or 4 times a year compared to the 6-8 times they faced off up until a few years ago. Now instead, we are force fed more games against Columbus and Carolina.
There were a lot of factors that went into the realignment. One issue was that Detroit was promised in the 90s that they would be moved to the Eastern Conference the next time a realignment happened, and Columbus was getting screwed in the West also because most of their away games were at such late times it was hard for their fans to watch them, not to mention the increased travel of being in the Western Conference.
I have a bigger problem with the two Florida teams being in the same division as the northeast teams, with an entire division between them. I understand they did it to preserve rivalries, but it just seems kind of artificially done to have divisions based on geography, but to make exceptions for rivalries. I think new rivalries would have developed anyway.
I like the new schedule though, playing the other teams in your division eight times was way too many, almost half of your games were against one of the same four teams, and as a result, there were teams that you just didn't play at all.
The nhl is a significantly better product than it used to be. Much more skill and pace, much less brick-handed Derian Hatcher grabbing and holding guys. If you liked hockey because of fighting and scrums, you weren't much of a fan of the game in the first place.
As of today, the Devils are in and would play Florida in round one. Keep in mind that the teams behind them have games in hand.
They would play Washington. They have the lower wild card spot, so they play the top team in the conference.
didnt say it made sense, but that was the sticking block when league first proposed the top 4 idea.
Tough loss tonight. But the Devils start the 2nd half again the Rangers a week from today.
A good time for a rest. Need to keep playing as they have been. The more I watch and looking at the remaining schedule they have a great shot to make the playoffs if they can keep this effort up.
A good time for a rest. Need to keep playing as they have been. The more I watch and looking at the remaining schedule they have a great shot to make the playoffs if they can keep this effort up.
Its divsion based. The top 3 from the divisions are in +2 wildcard teams. The 2 division winners play the 2 wildcard teams, and thh #2 and #3 teams from each division play each other in the first round.
But you can Think of it like this... 1 still plays 8 and 2 still plays 7, but now the 3-6 and 4-5 games are played between teams in the same division. I was skeptical, but it does make for great divisional rivalries.
They used to win their regularly, until Pittsburgh start tanking and Malkin, Fleury and Crosby came along.
It's a two way street. Devils own them in Newark. They were just talking about that last night.
IMO, Fleury can be good, but not reliable (consistent). But, I was always amazed at the level of tanking they did; think they were in the lottery four out of five years. I would find it hard to believe the NHL wasn't complicit in that whole charade.
The Devils have a very good goalie and are an exciting team to watch. Only problem is they're a horrible franchise. Constantly in the bottom of the NHL in attendance and net value. Idk what is up with you Devil's fans never supporting their team.
They put "back to back" 58 point seasons together in '03-04 and '05-06. Those Pens teams were an embarrassment. The Devils once beat them 9-0 in a game at the Igloo. Randy McKay and John Madden had 4 goals each.
Agreed, but those teams definitely "sandbagged." That was the part that I thought was messed up, and Mario was right in the thick of it.
It wasn't as much of a tank-job as when they ended up with Mario. If not for that, he would have been a Devil instead of Kirk Muller. This is why we now have a draft lottery.
Well when you're the newest team in the area and most people grow up rooting for their parents' favorite teams, it's not easy, especially when the next closest team has the advantage of playing in the middle of Manhattan right on top of Penn Station. If people who are born and raised in New Jersey would root for New Jersey, the Devils would be doing much better financially. I think they'll be fine with the new owners either way.
I really think they were just that bad. They were even on the verge of moving to Hamilton, but the NHL didn't approve the sale to Jim Balsillie because of how outspoken he was about moving the team there. Edmonton has been even worse lately than the Penguins were back then, but I don't think they are tanking either. The only recent probable of tanking I can think of was in 2009 when the Islanders had Brendan Witt go in a shootout.
They were in bad shape under Vanderbeek, but the new ownership group has breathed new life into the franchise. They're steady and have everyone pulling in the same direction, which was always the problem from what I've heard from people there. In terms of attendance, they are the youngest of 4 teams within a stretch of 100 miles and have not had the luxury of multiple generations being born into Devils fanhood. Those who were kids/teenagers when the Devils were winning Cups (like me) have grown up and now have the ability to buy tickets so the numbers should increase beyond the diehards that exist. I average 10-12 games per year and will blow by that number this season. Winning also helps. They consistently see a spike in attendance after the turn of the calendar year, so with the team fighting for a playoff spot, their average will increase as the season draws on. After the cup run in 2012, the team averaged over 17,000 per game in '12-13 and played to over 97% capacity. The fanbase can do it.
Sadly, I'm starting to believe that an NHL team in NJ just didn't make sense. I will say that devils fans deserve some slack because I would argue that the heart of their fanbase is between 18-30, thus they hardly fit the season ticket holder model. With that being said, South Jersey is Flyers territory for obvious reasons and it's easy enough to get to a Rangers game that no was really forced to give up their Rangers fandom in North Jersey. These are issues that a city like Seattle will not have to face.
Tanking? Buffalo last year is maybe the best example in a decade. Look at the moves they made as the trade deadline approached.
The fanbase growth was already starting to be realized by the 2012 playoff run. It was evident to anyone who went to games or watched on tv then that things were different than they were 10 or even 5 years prior.
Even now, this year's attendance is, at least in part, based on the least successful and entertaining season the Devils had (i.e., last year) in almost 25 years.
NJ is never going to be Toronto, but things aren't nearly as bleak as some like to make it sound like, and there has and will likely continue to be improvement as time goes on.
Not surprised to see RU Cheese trolling a devils thread. Guy must be jealous of all the success the Devs have had compared to his Rags and their1 cup in 76 years.
It's going to be tough to make it, but at the very least, the Devils should be in the race and have meaningful games through at least the end of March.
The advanced stats indicate right now that the Devils record has been better than their play would dictate it would be. To make it they will need to stay healthy and have Schneider continue to play like he has. As you mention, the stretch right after the AS break will be critical -- there are many divisional games.
