Post Game Thread: Florida Panthers at New Jersey Devils – 05 Mar 2024

38 comments

1. If it was November I wouldn’t be upset with this showing but alas

2. Im really sad but boy am I ever proud of the boys tonight. I hope they’re proud of themselves

3. Honestly, with the season at the point that it is, I liked what I saw today. The difference was (once again) horrible goaltending imo. But overall, held their own against the best team in the league. Gives me hope for next season

4. The result wasn’t surprising. I doubt we solve our issues this season. That being said they showed some effort today, but they still came up short like they have all season.

5. I need to understand why I heard Tierneys name so many times tonight😑

6. Loved the effort against the best team in the NHL. Kept us on our toes. Hopefully they can keep the buzz going

7. Can’t win against good teams in this league when your goalie gives up 2 goals more than expected, and that happens routinely on this team. That was the difference, we outchanced the best team in the league and lost because of a cheesy soft goal.

   Overall great effort. No moral victories this time of year but we have to accept the playoff hope is over. You saw that graphic that no team in the last 10 years has overcome the deficit we have at this point in the season, and without a literally historic run it won’t happen for us.

   Just want to see continued improvement, and come into next year healthy. And with a NEW #1 GOALTENDER

8. As a Panthers fan I know it’s been a tough season (trust me we’ve had a few over here) but your squad is fun to watch and shows a ton of promise. Find the right coach and fill in some holes in the roster and you guys will be back to being a threat in no time. 

   PS you guys are wayyyyyy cooler than the rags fans we had to deal with last night lol

9. For the love of god, focus on acquiring any sort of stable young goalie for next season. This year is done. It was a failure and you move forward. It is what it is.

10. Some of these comments at the end of the GDT seem very short fused. I guess I’m still relatively numb from the dark years

11. Stolarz wasn’t even good today. But you know what he did? He made the save when the Panthers needed it.

12. I think all the Devils goals were cool. Jack long range PP shot, Timo bulldozing his way in, Miller clap bomb. I’ll enjoy the things I can the rest of this season.

13. They were very competitive tonight. Trade Toffoli

14. Looked to me like more grit tonight than normally. Couple guys throwing the body more than the usually do. Really a game of bad bounces (and goaltending still subpar), but Florida is as good as it gets in this league even on a back to back

15. Team played better than it has at any point since the stadium series game. I’ll take that as a minor win. Some of the structural/systemic issues look like they may have been addressed, now we need to address that goaltending.

16. What hurts the most is that was yet another winnable game that wasn’t won. Take the coaching change out of the equation. The team played well by the standards of the season against the #1 team in the league and legitimately wasn’t out of it until it was too late. The hope is what kills you

    At least they had some fire in them

17. Better than expected. Would have won that one with proper goaltending.

18. They played way better this time around. Unfortunately our goalie situation is fucking depressing. We either run Daws into the ground, let Schmid give up beach balls or depend on Vitek coming back from an injury. Whatever.

19. Was the best game we’ve played in awhile, just really goaltending was the problem like always, if we had good goaltending this year we’d comfortably be in a playoff spot even with all the injuries we’ve had. This is known though.

20. I’ll see you sickos Thursday night for another round of defensive mistakes and subpar goaltending.

21. Heartbreaking, however we battled today way more than we have lately. It was good to see. Florida is a really great team and we almost beat them.

22. We’re in a playoff spot atm if we dealt for Markstrom asap

23. The only positive is that we know the main issue now and what needs to change for next season. We get a goalie and we are set hopefully, I think the right move is to come out and say “we wont trade for a goalie this season but over the off season 100%” and aim for someone like Saros. I am sick of seeing this team offensively play so well, failed every single night by the backend.

24. We have no leadership on this team. Did Nico even play tonight?

25. FIRE HYNES

26. The Caps are a point ahead of the Devils with two games in hand and they start selling today. The two teams are in different stages, of course, but still…if the Devils buy, it’s going to be a ludicrous idea to give up anything of value, like say…Holtz or Casey. Islanders are halfway between them and the three teams at 72 points. The chances of passing the Caps, Isles, and one of the Flyers/Red Wings/Lightning seems a bit remote considering the Devils keep, ya know, losing in regulation.

    Goalies historically don’t do well when traded at the deadline anyway, at least if memory serves. Find one in the offseason. I highly doubt Calgary’s ownership is going to relent on not trading Markstrom while they have a chance at the playoffs or enough of one to keep fans attending games.

    Finally, Schmid needs an opener, apparently. He sucks when he starts, but is amazing when he comes in for a pulled goalie. He’s the league’s first goaltending reliever! Send in Daws to give up the requisite first goal and then put Schmid in. Profit! Maybe the Devils can start the first bullpen of goalies.

    It’s been a long season.

27. Remember when Cory would put up like a .925 sv pct and ppl would talk about how terrible he was after we lost a game 3-1 while being out shot 47-21.

28. No matter what the donkeys on Facebook and this subreddit say, this team doesn’t ever quit. It is exceedingly rare to see a low-effort game from the Devils. Too often they fall short but are almost always peppering the net with chances and giving every effort to come from behind. But that’s the probelm, you can’t consistently win coming from behind

29. Eh what else is new

30. Its just not happening for us this season:

    * we see fight and grit and determination from the team and we get a bad start and bad goaltending
    * or we see sound defense and good goaltending and our offense dries up
    * or none of the above and everything is just the worst
    * I’ve been holding on to a potential miracle run to end the season, but I don’t think I can hold out for much longer.
    * look, I’m not happy Nemo was healthy scratched and I hear the critiques on Holtzy, but I still think the kid deserves a real shot.
    * I wasnt expecting wholesale change in twenty four hours or in one game, but I also didn’t see a lot of difference for the little things.
    * **what I did see was way more heart than Ive seen in a bit** and I think thats important to acknowledge. I know we dont have time for like moral victories or whatever, but given the state of this team and the organization, you gotta count the fact that these boys fought for most of the game.
    * I’m telling you, our finishing needs to improve at some point, this is just horrid luck at this point its not for lack of chances or talent, its just really fucky ass puck luck
    * slow starts fucking us again as always.
    * PP goal…but also we gave up a goal on the PK.
    * Timo Meier coming into his own is especially promising tho.
    * I wish we could keep it tied for a little bit longer instead of immediately surrendering the lead. Itd be nice to have a good feeling for more than a couple of minutes

    twenty games to go. I hate seeing that number dwindle. and the next two games aren’t even gonna have Bill and Dano and Bryce and Erika. rude.

31. Fitz and Green had pressers today saying how goaltending was an issue and about the human psychology of being a tender and having a goalie in net who could stop pucks.

    And then Schmid did the opposite of all of that.

32. On the bright side, this SHOULD knock any delusions of playoffs out of Fitz’s head, right? Right?!

33. Imagine this game but in early January? We would be pretty excited. Lindy gone, even with no real time to make adjustments the team automatically looks better. Would feel decent about our chance to make a run at playoffs.

    But it isn’t January. It’s March. Fitz missed the window and it cost us the season.

34. I wouldn’t be proud of this

35. Honestly they didn’t look bad tonight, but we’d now have to go 16-4 or around there to make the playoffs so I just think there isn’t enough time to make that ground up.

36. Lmfao I’m watching the post game presser and Travis actually, “That’s a good team over there” like all the Canucks fans said he would say 😂

37. Not unleashing kinkaid is on fitz.

38. I love how this fanbase can only focus on one bad thing at a time… it was lindy, no it was the goaltending, no, it’s the defense… I hate to break it to yall… all three were simultaneously the problem.

    Line blending right out of the gate. Our most consistent line has played like 160 minutes together… other teams top lines average like 600 minutes. (Coaching)

    Letting in the first goal on the first or second shot of every game is unacceptable. Consistently having .800 tending is unacceptable. The fact that our goaltending coach hasn’t fixed the fact that the entire league KNOWS Schmid is weak glove side high is unacceptable. (Goaltending)

    Watching our defensemen play catch with ever increasingly wild passes behind our goal that leads to turn overs is insane. Watching our defense dump the puck when under pressure is insane. Luke Hughes patented blind pass to our own crease [check] luckily Haula broke it up and they didn’t score. (Defense).

    We have ALOT of issues not AN issue…