r/devils • u/gleeson630 #1 Tom Fitzgerald - US Gold Medal Ass. GM • 6h ago
Thank you Sheldon Keefe
Thank you Sheldon for becoming a good coach instead of a bad one. Everything he does now has been flawless, whereas every decision he made before sucked.
Honestly just been a great performances from him lately. From coaching for his job and having the worst system in the league to having the best process and results in the league. Who would have thought?
Whatever he changed over 4 games most have made the team elite.
Thank you Sheldon for not being an idiot. You are a gem.
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u/Socomseal224 5h ago
Sheldon isn't a bad coach. His systems last year might of sacrificed offense but the Devils didn't have as good of a lineup up front last season as they did this season. Evangelista, Rodrigues, Boqvist, Mantha and Lombardi all added. Gritsyuk is developing as well. Not every new addition has been playing as good as they can but this team he has legit depth on offense. And added a top 6 wing with Evangelista (externally) and Gritysuk (internally). We don't have to play glue guys in the top 6 anymore out of need.
Defense as a whole has been steady. Luke is looking poised to handle the most amount of minutes on the backend. Dougie has been solid on both ends. Pesce, Siegs and Kovacevic know their roles.
Our goaltending has been average before we got Hellebuyck , now it can hopefully become one of the best duos in the league.
Devils have a good team to work with and Keefe is a good coach. The person who needs a ton of credit for this is Sunny Mehta. He has came in and made a bunch of changes in a short time. He gave Keefe a better roster to work with compared to previous years and he did it all in a short amount of time while being creative and calculated.
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u/gleeson630 5h ago
Yeah what’s also good about Sunny is he is working with Keefe well, Most of the concern from last year are basically totally gone imo. That changed after how they started playing the very end of last year and then we got a new roster essentially now. Keefe’s roots are actually a more offensive coach than what we witnessed in the “can’t score a 5v5 goal era”. And sunny checked every box I wanted if he wasn’t gonna get a top tier forward. Gave up players I was totally fine moving or was wanting to move…like markstrom, Mercer, Nemec…for basically a full win now team.
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u/Kornja81 5h ago
Just needs to switch up pp1 and put grits or Timo out there instead of Bratt imo. Not that Bratt is bad, but they need someone with a shoot first mentality
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u/gleeson630 5h ago
Yeah it’s not Bratts fault it’s just that Luke and Jack will never be demoted. And unless Bratt is super aggressive he’s not that effective. The style that Bratt, Jack, luke bring all at once is not great. They’ll still score bc they’re talented. But there’s an issue there. They over-complicate it with possession and another guy on the wing would help stop that. The whole point is to exploit that you have an extra man advantage, they kinda just move it around like they don’t.
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u/SubElitePerformance 5h ago
I’ll credit the man where it’s due.
This is genuinely only the second time I’ve ever seen him make adjustments during his tenure here. Both times has been for the better.
We’re defending without resorting to caveman hockey, and we’re playing to the identity of our forward group.
We should be celebrating this.
Also, it was very comforting having Hellebuyck there to back them up. Very comforting
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u/pretzelogically 5h ago
Notice how whenever the Stars had some good looks a true #1 goaltender shuts it down and gets a freeze & a reset ending the chaos instead of flopping or leaving dangerous rebounds.
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u/LaHondaSkyline 5h ago
I am seeing more priority on quick zone exits and quick transition, as well as a bit more 5v5 D pressure on on the puck higher in the D zone. I also see more buy-in on winning board puck battles.
Oddly, this has not yet produced many goals off the rush.
But that will come.
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u/SubElitePerformance 5h ago
We’re still not structurally set up for that.
They’re getting up ice faster which is preventing the 1-3-1 from getting set up but they still start to deep in the zone to truly generate dangerous rush opportunities.
But if they’re going to cycle this well, then does it really matter?
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u/LaHondaSkyline 5h ago
Just 12 games, but I like the O-zone process better than last season.
Nonetheless, getting the rush scoring going will be important.
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u/acecyclone717 5h ago
It was a tall task getting the locker room chemistry back in order after the impending trade that never happened hanging over the team. Between that and the Luke contract talks hanging over dougie and pp1 to start the year. We might not take it into account much, but there have been enough rumors or leaks in the past year that we know it has had a large effect on the team.
Which is why it feels that much more awesome to see them out there playing together flying around and having fun.
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u/vonbonds 4h ago
Keefe was always good. We now have better talent. There’s no roster whisperer out there, talent matters the most. Keefe is your classic structured defense first and counter attack offense coach. That’s probably 95% of the coaches out there
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u/thedirewolff21 5h ago
ive had the argument with people here. last year he was given a tub of chicken shit and told to make chicken salad. hes won at every level hes coached. but the roster last year was not nhl caliber. he doesnt have that excuse anymore and he has the boys locked in buying in and playing great. he deserved another year after last year. now he has a competent gm and a roster. let keefe cook.
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u/Binforda94 5h ago
The players have gotten more acclimated with each other. Evangelista, Brown, and Dillon have made impacts too.
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u/saxmachine69 5h ago
I still don't think he's a good coach, but the team has enough talent and depth to succeed regardless of coaching.
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u/pretzelogically 5h ago
Love the sarcasm. Still don’t like the guy. Never did. Never will. But he’s our guy right now so we’ll see what happens when some adversity hits and he needs to make some adjustments.
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u/LilSebastian96 5h ago
One can hope frank the tank will stfu about torts now. Man I love sitting balcony shoots twice side, but gd is dude annoying
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u/DevilJacket2000 4h ago
I figured if the team had a poor showing during the series of games to end October, that might have been it for him. Instead they’ve played their best hockey since 2023.
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u/SwiffJustice 4h ago
Feels like the first time we’ve been good in all positions since the Brodeur days
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u/SmashesMonkeyLitter 4h ago
Everything that I’ve seen as either an issue or something to track he’s addressed. After that Islanders game the D has just been what we need
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u/TheBigMotherFook 3h ago
I dunno if I would call Sheldon Keefe a good coach yet, but he looks like he's definitely turned a page. The teams current composition seems to benefit Keefe's style a lot.
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u/crazyFlyingChicken 5h ago
Sunny did a good job getting players who buy into his systems and it’s starting to show. There’s still work to do, special teams on both sides need fixing, but 5 on 5 we are locked in right now