Quoting: SlimTJ100
I think it’s simple, both teams are great. Your forward group is better, but our d corp and goaltending are better. Doesn’t mean the devils d corp can’t gain on them tho. Goaltending is where we can really only beat you imo. Devils scare me
I think our dcores are honestly eerily similar.
Fox-Lindgren and Siegs-Hamilton are similar pairings. LIndgren and Siegs are the same style of dman, but I believe Siegs is a step above. Obviously fox is a top 3 dman in hockey, but Hamilton at least matches offensively. Overall the rangers pair is better
Hughes-Miller and Gus-Schneider feel like similar pairings with youngster-vet, but Hughes is the offensive minded one for the devils while gus is for the rangers. I'd take the devils 3rd pairing tho as I expect Gus to come down to earth a bit and hughes to only get better and better
on the 2nd pairing I'd take Marino over trouba, just much better defensively and takes on much tougher assignments. MIller is definitely better than Bahl tho, who I don't think is ready to take over the graves role yet. I'd say this is pretty even tbh, but if the devils move for hanifin like I want them too it's them by a large margin
Yeah like you said the goaltending is the massive gap
I was hoping for average goaltending from vanacek, and quality backup play from Schmid. Schmid has been underwhelming, but good in his last 6 outings.
Vanacek has been horrific. Last year he'd never make the real tough saves, but wouldn't let in bad ones. This year he's still not making those big saves but letting in a bunch of ugly ones as well