I won't ignore the other reasons you stated, but surely this isn't serious?
Sutter's system got them bounced in the first round twice and has done nothing for Calgary.
DeBoer is a far superior coach and it's not even close, imo.
Once we get a faster team, it'll be easier to gauge, but my intent wasn't necessarily to compare coaches.
I just think there are too many even strength breakdown in the Dzone right now. They were better about it lately but still worrying. Perhaps a better personnel would do wonders as well.
For the first time in awhile, I have no issue with NJ's offensive scheme and forwards. That is a pleasant change.
I think it'll be 2-3 years before they can do this again. It takes a lot of luck and teams that go on deep runs tend to get worn out the season after unless they are very young or if new personnel take over. But it's possible, never saw this run coming .
The only thing I do not like at all about Petey's system is their inzone coverage. It is so unorganized and half the time players don't even know who is supposed to be where. How often do we see a guy wide open on the off side or floating into the slot because no one picked him up?
Credit to Sutter for having a forechecking system and a great D. That really did wonders for them. If Pete can get a D system in place, I'll be 8x more confident than right now.
Odd man rushes and stuff are a symptom of his D pinching so I can live with that. Hopefully the goalie of the future can as well.
I think lack of organization was a matter of being unfamiliar with the system.
There were a couple of personnel changes throughout the season and a handful of injuries scattered about.
The transition was rough on the defense, and it definitely showed.
I think, as the season went on, we saw tighter and tighter coverage. Defenders were becoming better at clearing the crease and staying out of Marty's way.
This past series is hard to judge because I think mental fatigue wore them all down and caused a lot of stupid errors.
With a season under their belt, I think we'll see a more solid team in all 3 zones in the fall.
Got to be honest...I didn't think that was too farfetched during last summer.
Salvador being expected to be a regular after missing an entire year and his previous years hadn't been all that stellar to begin with...
Zajac with a horrendous injury that typically takes 6 months to just get out of the soft cast.....
Josefson being expected to be a top 2 center out of the gate....
Parise returning to form was a complete unknown....
Fayne as regular, not knowing if his play last season was fluke and considering he tailed off a lot during the end of the season - there were major questions...
The Defense looked like it was going to be disjointed again this season with only Greene, Tallinder and Volchenkov as known commodities and who the hell knew what to expect from the rest....
The Center position at the start of the season looked worse than it ever had, the Right wing depth looked abysmal.
What this team achieved this season is miraculous. It is one of the most unlikely best seasons I've ever seen.
What about Clarktard's 30-goal season and Sykora's 21-goal season?
NO ONE could've predicted that either. What a wacky year....
Something that needs to be considered here too was the physical wear and tear our team faced. I mean, the Kings dominated every series they were in almost to the point where it wasn't even close. We had hard fought series in each and every round, even the Flyers one that only went 5 was still physical and chippy.
I know it shouldn't be used as an excuse or anything, but I really feel like we limped into this series no matter how close the games played out. Which is another reason why I'm so proud of this team. You could easily pin point several guys who were laboring physically who still busted their ass and gave 100% at the level they could.
Dat optimism. I admire it. I feel like **** today.
I have some optimism. I don't think we'll be better next year, but I think we will stay strong and maybe make another deep run. Our window is not closing, guys like Henrique and Kovy have wrenched it open again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by haakon84
To think we have a top defenseman and a clutch performer emerging over the next couple of years. Not to mention probably the most dynamic sniper in the league.
Lots of excellent pieces here already, and if Parise stays, that's one more. I'm expecting great things from our defensive prospects too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uli Hiemer
The finals follow Sykora. It's absolutely insane how many finals he's been in.
That's a good point. Our window is definitely not closing. We need a solid goaltender though otherwise we get blasted in the finals this year and might not go on a run again in the future. I expect Marty to play 1 more season in his legendary career. I'd love to see him go out with a bang but that'd be a hard bet to make.
Kovy and maybe Parise are still prime and the Henrique and Josefson are young bucks. No comment on Elias. Zajac is still young too. Our D will hopefully be the area of the most turnover as it is the easiest place for improvement.
The key is how well our 4th line played and if Lou will be able to get retreads capable of being that solid again. The current group will find raises from this run and I'm expecting Lou to go out and find more depth guys again.
I'm sure we'll pick up a couple more reclamation projects for our bottom 6, our top 6 is still pretty good, especially if Parise returns, we'll find a quality goalie, and our defence will replenish from within. We'll be fine going forward.
The finals follow Sykora. It's absolutely insane how many finals he's been in.
Which is why I think we should bring him back since he seems to always find himself in those situations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saugus
But he keeps falling short. Only two Cups.
Doesn't matter. He at least gets the opportunities on whatever team he ends up with. That's why I'd love to have him back at least one more year....maybe his mojo helps land us back in the Finals again?
I hope he does win the Calder, even if they probably gave it to Landeskog. He deserves something more than just the Prince of Wales trophy out of this season.
I am so proud of this team. I can't believe they made it this far, and even though we ended up getting ****ted on by the referees, LA was pretty much unstoppable, and we played them the best out of any team. We did it with the no name defense, a broken Kovalchuk, and the heart of lions.
I am very proud of Zach Parise as well, captaining a team like this to the Stanley Cup. I will have the utmost respect for him if he comes back next year. He has unfinished business here and if he leaves, he is a *****. This is his team and it only toook him one year to get to the SCF, he will be there again if he stays.
First time poster but not a new Devil fan. I have been a fan since way back when seats on the first level at the Meadowlands cost only $17 a game. Been through some really tough years when we had to amuse ourselves at some games by yelling at some guy to "Give the kid the puck!". Oh well guess you had to be there! We have also had some awesome times as well (3 Cups!). Anyhow, I just had to subscribe to say Thank you to this team. They played their hearts out. I am so proud to be a Devils fan. Yeah the loss hurts but I am so proud of the season they had. Way to go Devils!
I'm a lifelong Kings fan, and after experiencing the hapless Canucks and whiny Coyotes, it was great to watch a real team play hockey. The Devils took their lumps and bad calls in stride, played their hardest, and could have easily won several of those games. I wish Ilya would have been healthy so we could have really gone at it, but the playoffs are always a marathon.
My dad lives in Jersey and went to Game 1 wearing black and silver. Nobody hassled him. Nobody even seemed to care except for a few masochistic Rangers fans who gave him a thumbs up. You guys are class all the way through.
Here's hoping our teams meet again in the finals within the next few years. You know a team is great when you wouldn't mind most of the players trading sweaters next season.
I'm a lifelong Kings fan, and after experiencing the hapless Canucks and whiny Coyotes, it was great to watch a real team play hockey. The Devils took their lumps and bad calls in stride, played their hardest, and could have easily won several of those games. I wish Ilya would have been healthy so we could have really gone at it, but the playoffs are always a marathon.
My dad lives in Jersey and went to Game 1 wearing black and silver. Nobody hassled him. Nobody even seemed to care except for a few masochistic Rangers fans who gave him a thumbs up. You guys are class all the way through.
Here's hoping our teams meet again in the finals within the next few years. You know a team is great when you wouldn't mind most of the players trading sweaters next season.
Thanks, man.
And those Rags fans who gave him the thumbs up are losers who lived vicariously through the Kings knowing that this is as close as they will EVER get to a Stanley Cup winner.
