Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the Jeff Marek Show on what is going on with the New Jersey Devils.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Okay, let me get to another goaltending issue. It seems like you’re right, like we’re talking about goaltending on a daily basis, but you know this, this head has reared itself again, and it’s reared itself once again in New Jersey.
And I really, I keep going back and forth on, is it the goaltending issue or is it the blue line in front of the goaltenders? And I’ve come to the conclusion after observing now for four months or three months or however long it’s been, that is both. That unless you’re going to have, if, if you have an elite goaltender, then you can afford to lose veteran defenseman. Dougie Hamilton injured. Ryan Graves no longer there. Damon Severson no longer there. There is a lot of new faces on that blue line. Luke Hughes is gonna be really good defense, but somewhere down the road in the NHL, you may make the argument he might already be there. Simon Nemec is going to be that guy. Kevin Bahl as well.
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Like they’ve replaced a lot of veteran blue liners on that team with a lot of younger players and your goaltending’s not great. But all anyone wants to talk about is Lindy Ruff. How do you see Jersey?
Friedman: “Well, I think to Jeff, like, like another, like another guy that or that, someone was mentioning to our pod this morning. And they said that one of the other things that unfortunately has hurt them, is that (Jonas) Siegenthaler has really struggled. Because that was a guy that they looked like they, they thought they really hit a home run on and they did and they extended him and he’s had a rough year. So that’s been another issue that they’ve, that they’ve had to deal with.
Like, you know, like, we’ve talked about the bumps, you know, Edmonton got the new coach bump. Minnesota got the new coach bump. St. Louis has won three out of four. But Ottawa, like Ottawa’s now under Jacques Martin. He’s a great technical coach. They’ve blown to third period leads. They’ve lost two games in a row. (Sens won on Saturday against the Penguins)
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And like I wonder if, if New Jersey is as much a, as you said, like a structural or like just an inexperienced issue, a struggling issue as opposed to a coaching issue. I think if you, if you make the coaching change there without doing what you need to do roster-wise, are you really solving your problem?”