What’s Wrong With the New Jersey Devils and How Can They Fix It?

The New Jersey Devils currently sit 2^nd in the Metropolitan Division despite being 2-5-3 in their last 10.  In those last 10 they have one, yes I said one, regulation win.  So what’s the issue and how can it be fixed?

First, let’s take a look at the bright spot on this team.  That is the Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt line.  Bratt is scoring at the lowest 5v5 rate of the trio at 1.75 while Hall and Hischier are scoring at rates of 2.69 and 2.35 respectively.  Ideally Bratt would be above 2.00 but the 19 year old is doing just fine.

Secondary Scoring

The issues arise once you get beyond that first line.

Coach John Hynes seems to finally be shaking things up as the Marcus Johansson, Travis Zajac, and Kyle Palmieri line had been awful thus far.  Johansson is scoring at a 5v5 rate of 1.82. That’s respectable, but Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri are both below 1.00 and only Drew Stafford is scoring at a lower rate than those two.

As we saw against Detroit, the loss of Taylor Hall hurts this team.  His absence only strengthens his Hart Trophy candidacy and really hampers the lineup.  Hall drive’s the play on that first line and allows the Devils to field three balanced lines.  Without Hall the primary scoring disappears and the secondary scoring is nowhere to be found since Brian Gibbons first quarter magic wore off.

The Good News

There is good news though.  Despite their low production numbers there are signs that Kyle Palmieri, Pavel Zacha, and Drew Stafford aren’t far from beginning to produce.  Zacha for example is shooting 4.55% while posting a HDCF% of 59.31.

Palmieri, who’s never shot below 9% at 5v5 in his career is shooting 4.35%.

After a tough loss at home to Detroit, the team heads up to Boston for the second half of a back to back against a team that’s had their number since 2013.

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The Hall-less Devils will face a tough matchup coming off a bad game with only one game left before heading into the All-Star break.

The Devils are a young team and the expectations this year were low.  They’ve exceeded expectations so far and it won’t take much to right the ship.  A healthy Taylor Hall and some secondary scoring from the middle 6 should provide a huge boost to this team.

The Devils best line last night was Mojo-Zacha-Stafford and we’ll see if those three can finally break through and end their streak of bad puck luck.

All stats from NaturalStatTrick.com