Post Game Thread: New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia Flyers – 27 Jan 2025

38 comments

1. Remember when Nico accidently hurt Barkov like two years ago, and they STILL target him…

   Nico gets his ribs broken, and no one on the team gave a shit… Bastian gets his bubble blown up and no one gave a fuck… Someone ran into Markstrom and no one gave a fuck… team is so fucking soft…

   Dillon, Kovi, McDermid were throwing hands to start the season… Dillon and Cotter were throwing big fucking hits… we lead the league in both categories… what happened???

2. Need something to jolt this team right now, sleepwalking until 4 nations.

   Make a trade. Bench someone. Something needs to happen.

3. We need a center who wins face-offs, and a sniper desperately 🫣

4. Luke Hughes was bad tonight. Real bad. 

5. Being there in person was brutal.
   Faceoffs were ROUGH. Nico definitely would’ve made a difference

6. If this team starts the second period in a hole they seemingly can’t dig their way out of it even when they’re healthy. Need better first periods. Going 0-3 against Philly regardless of the circumstances is just poor hockey. Win on Wednesday, be mad.

7. Unfortunately at this point I don’t think a guy like Donato is enough. Kind of need a top 6 fwd and bottom 6 fwd.

   I feel for Bastian but he’s just not physical enough for his role.

8. Everyone here a month ago were on their knees bowing down and kissing their feet, one month later those same people ready to get their pitch forks and burn everything down. All emotionally challenged, raging and foaming at the mouth while the team is still top ten in the entire league.

   Fuck the fickle fans, and give me the fucking cup.

9. Wonder if the Bruins would move Geekie? Would be a really solid 3c

10. Ooph:

    * we did not play a good first half of this game at all. essentially from the four minute double minor onward we looked really bad. no passes connecting. not shooting enough. getting beat on the forecheck and the backcheck, just bad bad bad.
    * second half of the game, we finally showed sign of life.
    * it was just too little too late.
    * can’t put ourselves in that kind of a hole and expect to come back each time.
    * I think the way they finished this game gave me a bit of peace of mind that without Nico and Marky they can survive and steal some points.
    * I know we didn’t do that tonight, but I think this shows that they can and they’re not just gonna fold without certain guys in their lineup.
    * glad to see Timo get on the board, hope this starts a hot streak for him
    * we so desperately need at least Haula back.
    * and now Nate is injured as well?
    * bring up Legare! bring up Nemo!
    * I know that its hard to make a trade when no one is picking up the phone, but we gotta do something to survive here
    * to be honest given the short turn around time from the Saturday game and the loss of Nico being so fresh, I didn’t expect much from this game, but it ended up being a lot more of a game than I thought it was going to be.
    * we shot ourselves in the foot and thats that. too much of a deficit to overcome.
    * shake it off, throw it away, get back home, get a revenge game and then use the three day break to get healthier.
    * hoping to get a clearer idea of whats up with Nico as well.

    I’ll be at the game on Wednesday night so here’s hoping for a better result against the Flyers than the last two times we’ve played them.

11. We could use a guy like Connor McDavid. I think he would help. I think he’d be a good fit and would slide right in with our top 6. Hopefully Fitz sees this and makes a move. 

12. When will people admit they were wrong? It was not just a ‘rough patch.’

    This is a very mediocre team that plays only half of their periods with both intelligence and desire.

    Just…a mediocre group.

13. Everyone is hoping Fitz will make a trade yesterday, but realistically we won’t see any movement until just before the deadline over a month away.

14. Honestly I would love to know what the fuck these announcers are talking about…Allen didn’t play great until the third when he already blew the game, and the team didn’t play until the last 10 mins of the third. Trash effort, keefe needs to channel his inner torts asap, he also needs to start coaching…because Meier needs to be on pp1 and noesen and palat need to be switched…palat needs off the first line asap.

15. https://preview.redd.it/ntkcue1wenfe1.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b243641a5314c836e486b30d67b40a22c2d04bb

    also my hot take, which I’m ready to get booed for is that we should separate the Pesce-Hughes pairing because they’ve consistently been near the bottom of these cards for the past month and they’ve lost the magic they’ve had earlier in the season.

    I think its truly time to give Nemo a look.

    Go 11-7 and figure out if Luke Nemo works better than Luke Pesch.

16. lol Keefe just gave a 30 second presser

17. Went from being up by like 5 points on the canes to now being up only 7 points on Columbus….. I honestly don’t know what this GM is doing anymore

18. Rough watch, running out of runway to make a bold move because we saw last season – the trade deadline is too late. Time to win the next one

19. Gourde, Nyquist, Kunin. All we be major upgrades.

20. I’d be open to a few rentals for a playoff run. Everyone is healthy by then (knock on wood) and another goal scorer and depth person would do wonders.

21. NOT SO GENTLE REMINDER:

    IN ORDER TO MAKE A TRADE YOU NEED A TRADE PARTNER.

    once more…

    **IN ORDER TO MAKE A TRADE…YOU NEED A TRADE PARTNER.**

    too many teams are still in the playoff race for teams to be willing to pick up the phone and make moves.

    its frustrating, yes, but that is just the reality of the situation.

    we aren’t playing Dowling because we WANT to. we aren’t calling up Halonen because that’s our FIRST choice.

    we are doing what we can while there are machinations happening in the background that we are not privy to.

22. When I saw Nico was going to be out I had a bad feeling, but told myself no, this isn’t last season, they can beat this Flyers team without him especially after getting embarrassed on home ice by them JUST LAST WEEK, they are going to come out fired up and get this W. Well no, can’t have nice things. I’ve been trying to stay positive but this team was losing while healthy and now missing 2 of its best most important players, it’s.. not good. I like Allen as a backup, but what we saw tonight is what we’ll get, most likely an average of 3 goals a game, maybe some with more/“less but that’s the average meaning they need at least 3 just to get it to OT 4 to win in regulation which is a hard ask for this offensive on a regular basis. I’m not even going to get into Nico and everything he means to this team. The truth is with Marky and Nico playing this game maybe has a different outcome tonight but they are not and the rest have to rise up. Not the most inspiring performance tonight to think they can do that. I’m praying Nico’s ribs miraculously heal by Wednesday and Marky’s injury timeline is closer to the 4 week than the 6. I’m honestly nervous they might lose all 5 remaining games before the break if Nico doesn’t at least come back before then. Sorry for the dooming but you have to beat the fucking Flyers..

23. Seems like we getting a taste of our medicine and mojo. Devils media trolls the rags by sending dumpster fire post only for us to become said dumpster fire.

24. Not gonna win a game when you go 19/50 on faceoffs

25. The future is bright. The present.. not so much.

26. Look, I hate to be a bearer of reality but…this is a highly flawed group. This is very a mediocre team.

    They simply have not played good hockey since the return from Xmas break.

    And even when they were playing better before Xmas, the fact that they got shut out so many times and could never get past three consecutive wins was very telling. There were major flaws all along. They were totally healthy, playing like the best version of themselves, but…there were still obvious serious issues.

    A small dip in performance. An injury or two. And now the reality that was always there just below the surface becomes too obvious to deny.

27. On a somewhat related note, fuck this OTL point; I absolutely hate it. Trading used to be so much easier when teams ten games below .500 weren’t one tiny winning streak away from being in.

    They should move the trading deadline back if they are gonna keep this absurd point. And it should be two points or nothing (don’t say three). The league changes rules to fix old rules and then doesn’t take the old rule off the books.

    No more ties, I get it, so shootout. But then they had to add the OTL point to smooth over people who think the shootout isn’t hockey.

    Then OT gets boring as fuck because teams would go one or two shifts for real and then play for a shootout, so they made the (awesome) decision to go 3-on-3. Problem solved. Right then and there, the OTL point should have gone away.

28. Holy doomers we got goalied and Allen played like crap

29. I miss Erik Haula especially his faceoff skills

30. I’m just tired. I feel like 4 out of the 5 past seasons we’ve started out strong but hit some sort of midseason collapse that derails the entire season and causes us to miss the playoffs. Not saying that’s going to happen, but I’ve been hurt too many times to feel comfortable despite the early lead we paved before the break.

    Hard to win today when you’re out 2 centers and Jack is injured but this game should’ve been more competitive regardless with how injured/sick the Flyers have been themselves. Hoping the boys bring more energy Wednesday… they are going to REALLY need it.

31. Fitz needs to make a move soon, there are players in the bottom 6 that have no business playing in the nhl

32. This kinda games gets my blood boiling. How many games do we need to see them completely disconnected?!!!!!!!!! I’m too mad to write good night and go Devils!!!!!

33. The first period and a half were so bad, I’m not sure I’m ready to accept that the second half was ok. Let’s see it carry over to the next one.

34. CALL UP NEMO, we need something to spark this team

35. Call up Nemo and sit Luke for a game or 2. He’s a stud and will get better, but his defensive play has fallen off lately and it’s bringing Pesce down too. Give Nemo a game or 2 to see how he does and let Luke watch and learn a bit more

36. Fitz vacation is a bit to long

37. I’m not really sure what is wrong with the team, but this feels eerily similarly to the end of last season, when the team just could not pull it together and win. I don’t think we’re in nearly as bad of a place, but to be honest I think we have the same issues. And I don’t think people realize but we’re essentially like 7 points ahead of the wildcard teams and they both have games on hand on us. So we can go from 3rd in the metro to wildcard bubble team in around 5 games from now if we keep losing.

    I hate to say it, but there is a problem with our forwards and I do believe that the majority of our issues stem there. Our core team members who are supposed to be our leaders (Outside of Nico) are not performing and are soooo hit or miss. Jack, Bratt, Timo, and Mercer are all on track to score less than LAST year, and last year was a shit year. All of them have been on the decline since the 22-23 season. I know people don’t wanna hear it, but it’s the truth. Losing Toffoli this year really hurt us as well.

    We’ve completely revamped our goaltending and defense and yet we are still performing so poorly in the last month+. Nico and Noesen are saving our season by picking up the slack.

    People are calling for Fitz to make some miracle happen. We could pick up maybe 1-2 bottom 6 members to help replace Bastian/Dowling/Macdermid/Lazar but if our main forwards don’t pick it up then I don’t know how we ever become an elite team. We are capable of being that elite team, as they showed earlier in the season, but there is something missing from these guys. They’re so disconnected and it feels like once they are down, there is no pulling them out of a slump. When we’re down a goal it feels like the game is already over. If we fall behind by 2 goals you can pretty much guarantee it’s a done deal. We used to be the comeback kings! I can’t even think if there is one game this year we came back from a 2 goal deficit to win. We suck in OT, our PP has turned to shit, which the PP was a major reason we were doing so well in the beginning of the season. We haven’t won 4 games in a row in OVER 2 years!!!! We got shut out so many times this year, which only enforces my belief in the forwards being off.

    I believe in the team, but our core needs to figure out their issues. If they don’t get their shit together, then it doesn’t matter who Fitz picks up, this team will be cooked just like it was last year. I also am a bit disappointed in Keefe, I’m really not sure what to think at this point. His press briefings after some of our losses sound troubling with him writing things off. The most recent line scrambling were odd. Also, no disrespect but his family I believe still lives in Toronto and Keefe has not moved to NJ and flies back to Toronto in his free time. Totally love that he’s a family man, but we need someone dedicated and the back and forth does not seem the most productive. I don’t want to knock this against him, but if your team isn’t playing well and then you’re busy flying back and forth to see your family and you can’t be with the players, it’s not a great sign.

38. [Bratt, Dillon, Keefe Following the Game in Philadelphia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVrY62EVo4Q)