Man, we really can’t score without Mercer in the lineup

Taking a short break from the Hellebuyck stuff to remind everyone that Paul Cotter has cooled off and has once again disappeared.

I keep hearing from haters that Hellebuyck chokes when it matters most. Then I looked up "Hellebuyck Gold Medal" and now I'm confused.

Haters: Don't worry, Hellebuyck will suck as always in the playoffs. Me: Wait, that means we'll make the playoffs!!!!

Game Day. Let’s Go Devils!

Fun game last night for sure. The possession game was insane and the shots/shot attempt ratio was crazy. With that being said, the power play needs serious work and Timo should not be out there in OT. His errant backhand pass to no one almost cost us the game.

Do you think we lack some snarl and toughness in this lineup? Aside from the big goalie questions, one thing I think about is while we've improved in the skill department, do you think we will be tough enough?

I'm pissed about Connor Brown being out. I truly wanted to see what our offense looked like fully healthy. I know it's unrealistic to expect that for a whole season but man, can't we just catch a break for a bit? I think the difference this year is we finally have depth at O.

According to Ranger fans, from now on, you're not allowed to cheer in preseason, especially if the matchup isn't "fair." Saying "woohoo!" is forbidden and high 5s are banned. When Hughes scored, you were supposed to yell "But this doesn't count because they were the AHL Rangers"

Every Ranger fan right now: We had an AHL tonight! Of course we lost. You don’t sound very high on any of your prospects I guess.

Clearly we’re not going to all overreact to a training camp practice power play unit right? Right??

I’m seeing a lot about how we have too many forwards even with Bjugstad out a while. I just see it as depth. When injuries inevitably happen, your ability to play real NHLers is crucial. We haven’t had that in so long.

Claude Lemieux was an absolute beast and was responsible for so many fond memories in my childhood watching him help the Devils to cup victories. What an absolute one-of-a-kind legend. This is devastating.

Can you imagine how could we’d be if Jack Hughes, Bratt, Mercer, and Timo remembered how to finish? Third line carrying us right now.

Favorite memory of Dougie: Scoring the OT goal in Game 3 against the Rangers which kickstarted our series comeback. Dougie also kickstarted our rebuild by signing here when no one else wouldn’t. Something has to give though. It’s time.

For some reason I cringe when the Devils are getting destroyed early on and one of the announcers say "still a lot of hockey left." It's like when I was the shortest kid in my middle school and my dad said "Still a lot of time to grow."

I don't claim to know what goes on in an NHL locker room, but it feels like the Q. Hughes debacle has soured things. Guys were asked to waive no move clauses and declined. Luke and Jack wanted their brother here and our GM failed to deliver. I can't imagine it's a fun room.

I remember a time when we used to join together to yell at Ranger fans. Now we fight with each other over administrative decisions and imagined trade scenarios. The only time we join together is to boo or try to get people fired. Not as fun. But this is where we are.

My biggest knock on Fitz (because I do like some of his moves) is how long he sits on his hands. When we had no goaltending he just let a season go to waste. When Jack went down this year he did nothing to stop the bleeding. His actions are fine. His inactions are indefensible.