New Jersey Devils: It’s Time To Talk About Andy Greene

The New Jersey Devils are drowning in a six-game losing streak. It’s time to take a hard look at the play of the captain Andy Greene.

I hate this. You should know that I really, really hate this. I love Andy Greene, both as a player and as a captain. He was the perfect choice to take over the “C” when Bryce Salvador retired in the 2015 offseason. However, now we have to have a hard conversation about the captain moving forward.

Greene isn’t going anywhere. He signed a five-year, $25 million contract back in 2015. Back then, he was easily the Devils best defenseman. He was grooming Adam Larsson to become a great defender while playing shutdown defense on the top line. Greene was leading a defense that looked like it would be good for years with young players like Damon Severson, Eric Gelinas and Jon Merrill still in the pipeline.

As we know, the Devils defense looks very different now.

Only Severson is still around from those four young supposed studs. He can’t even stay in the lineup. The Devils were forced to trade Adam Henrique for Sami Vatanen (still a good trade, by the way) just to avoid a sieve on the blue line. Will Butcher is an assist machine, and plays decent defense, but he can’t be relied upon when absolutely necessary.

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After that it gets even worse. John Moore has been better with Vatanen, but is still prone to the back-breaking mistake. Ben Lovejoy isn’t good at professional hockey anymore. Steve Santini has fallen off an absolute cliff since playing like a shutdown guy to start the season.

Then there’s Greene. It’s hard to blame him for a lot of what’s going on. He isn’t exactly a traffic cone in the defensive zone, but he’s lost more than a step. On this Devils team, that’s very detrimental. This team is very fast, but with fast comes plays going the other way.

Greene at 35 years old just can’t make up for those plays like he used to. He’s chasing more this season than I’ve seen him in any other year. Even last year, when the Devils defense was the worst I’ve ever seen, he always felt like the one in the 2-on-1 situations. He wasn’t the problem last year.

Is he the problem this year?

That question is hard to answer. I get that +/- is a flawed stat, but being only a -1 is hard to argue he’s been all bad. I’ve seen him save a few goals by himself by clearing the zone. There was also that sliding save he made against the Florida Panthers to stop a sure goal. He shows glimpses of great plays, but the Devils just need more right now.

Here’s the thing, even the most prudent fans calling for Greene to get benched, that just means more Ben Lovejoy. While Lovejoy has been better this season than last, I still don’t trust him more than Greene.

It seems like the shuffling of lines affects Greene more than anyone. He’s played with everyone over the course of the season. Gone are the days where Greene and Larsson are your top line, then figure everything else out later. There is no real top line on this team. The pairings aren’t working out that way.

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So looking at the big picture, the Devils have to stick with Greene in the lineup. There’s no reason to trade the captain midseason. What that would do to the locker room is anybody’s guess. What we all know is we need more from Greene. He needs to play like a captain. He could be the key to ending this Devils losing streak.