Question – aren’t neckguards required on goalie masks? Because I’m watching the Pens vs. Blues game, and Brent Johnson doesn’t seem to be wearing one.
Is Rypien trying to be the new Sean Avery? I think he went a weeeee overboard. (Who was the one who beat up the cab driver over about five cents? Patrick Kane?)
Yep.
Why is Ilya Kovalchuk a healthy scratch tonight?
Well My Red Wings are frustrating again. They I was hoping Salei would put the D up a notch. But really other than the first game of the year the D had played bad enough to make every game a close contest.
But at least this year as opposed to the beginning of last year they playing iffy and barely winning as opposed to barely losing.
Canes avoid losing. 10 time zones and 12,000 miles later they are 4-3, which beats 0-14 any year. the post should have been the second star, and Rod Brind’Amour needs to teach Eric Staal(and all the other players) how to win faceoffs.
I’m not picking on the Devils again, but I don’t care if Kovalchuk slept with Lou Lamoriello’s wife, I can’t see any reason to bench him.
Given all the crap they went through to get him, I’d say anything other than bringing about hunger and ending world peace would be good cause. Something like that anyways.
Or given that this is the Devils we’re all talking about, I’d say it’s his habit of scoring goals instead of playing ridiculously strict and boring defense.
I’ll keep saying this. When three guys move on the puck carrier leaving one guy entirely wide open on the other side of the net, that’s the fault of the coach and not the players. It’s not as if every player for the Red Wings completely forgot the friggin’ fundamentals of hockey. It only just looks that way.
Huh?
Any other thoughtless, untrue myths you’d like to perpetuate? I’m honestly quite surprised you didn’t break out the much-reviled “neutral zone trap” term that so many continue to insist the Devils play, though the implication is certainly there.
So, do you have any actual information regarding the circumstances, or are you just taking the opportunity to bash a team you don’t like? What’s next… have any attendance jokes? Oh, how about the “Marty is fat!” line… haven’t heard any of those lately. Ah, and don’t forget to mention everyone’s favorite “New Jersey smells” refrain.
Woosh, or because I’m feeling explanatory: I reversed the “ending hunger and bringing about world peace.” It was a joke. I was also implying that because of the large and comical contract he signed in the off season (twice) that anything other than being miraculous would be a disappointment to team officials and that is why he was benched.
Explaining jokes always makes them more funny.
I’m sorry. I forgot to mention how they are all ugly, and that their mothers dress them funny.
Seriously. I was joking. Lighten up. Not my fault your team isn’t known for their freewheeling offense and high scoring barn burner games. Also not my fault the Devils tend towards a more defensive style. I’m not saying they play boring clutch and grab hockey (though I’m looking at you Nashville and Vancouver). They just tend to be more defense centered. Much like you apparently.
I don’t hate New Jersey. I don’t even dislike them. I usually pick them in the playoff predictions, though that’s more because of Brodeur than anything else. You should probably attempt to develop a sense of humor, especially since you’ve got Kovalchuk signed for another three hundred years. 
Out of ignorance and no effort to insult the Devils - I really don’t know much about plays/strategy in hockey, but I thought I understood the neutral zone trap (at least in concept) and it sure looked to me like that was what was happening in the game against the Habs last week. Most of the guys in the neutral zone, forcing the other team to the outside and blocking off passing lanes…isn’t that kind of the overall concept? And I do associate that kind of game with New Jersey. It seems to work, too, even if it leads to low-scoring games. Why is it a bad thing if the team doing it wins? Is it just a perception/“boring hockey” thing, or is it something else?
Phoenix playing the Habs tonight. Doan is still serving a suspension, so the only family connection on-ice will be Pyatt v Pyatt (Doan is Price’s cousin, btw). I was out with friends on Saturday, some of whom were from Ottawa, and I had a great time rubbing in the shut out! I hope they keep that momentum and play well today! I need a GOOD game - today has sucked and I want to be cheered up!
Part of it is the association (and deservedly so considering the era of it’s greatest employment) with clutching and grabbing. The trap and clutchy/grabby were used to slow down fast and talented players by teams that were much less so. It worked, but the game got really dull. I mean really dull. Not just because the games were low scoring, but because there were fewer scoring chances, fewer big plays, etc. It worked though. Can’t skate with Gretzky? Make him slow down to your speed. IIRC, stuff like that caused Lemieux to retire from the game. He just got tired of trying to skate with another player just about literally on his back.
Even now, it can still be boring to watch. A few years ago (mebbe three) Dallas played the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs and they both used a tight defensive system. Holy god was it boring to watch. Most of the play took place in the neutral zone.
All told, it’s really not a bad system. It’s even better if you’ve got faster players able to take advantage of the turnovers it creates. If nothing else, it can win you some games, though I’d hesitate to say it can win championships anymore. The game has changed enough to make it far less effective than it once was. I’d say the larger problem is that you have to have the right players to work it and to work with it. Minnesota used it well, but it wasn’t a good system for their star at the time Marian Gaborik. My thought is that Kovalchuk will have similar problems with it.
Oh, it was a joke. I see. I guess.
It’s the tone and the implication. I’ve had to listen to lazy reporters harp on the trap and how the Devils single-handedly killed hockey and caused the lockout, and fans of other teams thoughtlessly perpetuate the narrative for years now and, frankly, it’s a bit tiring. I’ve come to expect it on a standard message board, but not one whose credo is to abolish ignorance.
Even your statement that they’re not known for offense is a back-handed insult based in historical mythology and not current fact. Since the lockout, and particularly under Sutter (and, believe it or not, Lemaire) and now MacLean, they’ve been pretty aggressive offensively. They’re not Washington Capitals offensively oriented, but, for instance, they were tied for 8th in the East last year in goals for. Of course, no one recognizes or acknowledges that… all they see is the Jennings Trophy and so they must be “boring and defensively oriented.”
It’s a ridiculous double standard: There’s nothing wrong with being defensively responsible like Buffalo or Boston or Montreal or whomever else, unless you’re the NJ Devils… then you’re boring.
Most teams run a version of the trap at some point, usually late in the game when they’re just trying to protect a lead, because it’s not conducive to offense. The Devils did sit back after going up 3-0 in that game, but throughout the game up to that point they were not playing a trap.
The calling card of the NZT is the 1-2-2. One forechecker in the middle of the offensive zone forcing the puck carrier to the side, and the two forwards and two defensemen forming a box in the NZ closer to the boards, limiting passes and hoping to either force a turnover, the puck carrier to the boards where he can be knocked off of the puck, or a dump in.
It’s a very vague term, really, and you can see how any team that has four guys in the NZ could, technically, be considered to be playing the trap.
They and their coach in the mid-90s, Jacques Lemaire, were most famous for it, but it was used pretty effectively by the Canadiens of the 70s (where Lemaire got it from), and a variation, the left-wing lock, was used heavily by the Red Wings of the 90s. I don’t know why the Devils always catch all the flack for it… maybe because they were the most successful with it, but during the “dead puck era,” most teams employed a variation of the NZT and some teams continue to use it today even though its effectiveness has been diminished somewhat with the extra attention payed after the lockout to restraining penalties and the addition of the trapezoid behind the net.
Personally, I have no problem with the system and always view those that gripe about it to just be full of sour grapes (Waaa! You shut down my team! Waaa!), but the stigma of the trap and “boring hockey” clings to the Devils no matter what they do and it gets infuriating at times because it’s not just fans, where one might expect it, but even the MSM that just reports the same old story without checking their facts.
That’s the key to any system, really.
Except the Devils don’t play a trap system.
Even if they wanted to and it was MacLean’s plan from the start (which, by all he’s quoted as saying, it isn’t), they’ve been so defensively horrendous this year that they rarely play with a lead, and trying to make-up a goal or two is not the time to sit back and play the trap when you’ve got offensive weapons like Parise and Kovalchuk champing at the bit.
Kings are getting fat on Northwestern Pork.
That puts you in the bottom half of the conference…
Edit:
Since when is Buffalo a defensively responsible team?
Well, they are seventh in the league in shots against, with 27.2 per game.
We’re what, 6 games into the season? That’s not enough of a sample size. Last year they were 21st.
And? I didn’t say they were an offensive dynamo, I said that their offensive output, which is usually pretty mediocre and middle of the pack, gets dismissed because of their reputation.
Saying “they’re not exactly known for their offense” is an off-handed insult because there are lots of teams not known for their offense. It’s more accurate to say that they’re known for not being known for their offense.
They were fourth in the league in goals against last year, 2nd in PK% and boast the reigning Vezina winner and Calder winning defenseman.
Nice straw man, by the way.
It’s funny, but it seems you’re the only one here who thinks “defensive style” is an insult. They aren’t known for their offense because they tend to play defense. That’s it. No insult, except in your mind. Relax. I didn’t say they were dull. I didn’t blame them for the downfall of hockey (I blame sun belt teams, and Crosby worship)
Their defense appeared to be strong only because their goalie is sick talented, which they used to back stop their offensive game. Buffalo plays some wide open hockey, which I can tell you from experience is a blast to watch. And it’s not defensive. Hell, Detroit had a rookie of the year caliber netminder and some of the best defensemen in the game. That doesn’t mean they play defense.
Also, I said that Kovalchuk wouldn’t do well in New Jerseys defensive system, not that they trapped.
I’m honestly asking. Why do you have such a problem with the Devils simply being a defense oriented team? Nobody else here does.
Sheldon Souray needs to fight an AHL player? Story
I guess Derek Boogaard needs to take on a junior league player now!
Really? Because above you said, “Or given that this is the Devils we’re all talking about, I’d say it’s his habit of scoring goals instead of playing ridiculously strict and boring defense.”
Oh, right. You were joking. I get it. If only I hadn’t heard that joke before countless times by people who were also only kind of joking. Sort of.
It’s an insult because it’s wielded as one. There is nothing wrong with playing responsible defense unless you happen to be the NJ Devils. Then it’s boring. That’s my point.
The term “trap” has developed such a negative connotation and become synonymous in the public’s mind with the Devils, that the average fan (and journalist it seems) uses the term as an insult.
It may seem silly and petty to you, but after a decades of hearing the same stupid uninformed comments, even in jest, it gets really old… and we are here to fight ignorance, eh?
It doesn’t matter how good a goalie is (and Miller is excellent), if the team is not defensively proficient then he doesn’t win 41 games and post a .929 S% and 2.22 GAA.
Regardless, I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time trying to convince you that Buffalo should be considered a defensively responsible team. If you wish to exclude them from an arbitrary list I made up off the top of my head, so be it. It doesn’t change my original point, that defensively responsible teams are lauded for being defensively responsible, unless that team is the Devils. Then they’re ridiculed.
The two terms are generally used interchangeably, but even more importantly, you actually said exactly that:
Emphasis mine.
I don’t. I have a problem with people continuing to spread misinformation about their style.
I’m beginning to wonder if you play on the team… 