New Jersey Devils: Ben Lovejoy Appreciation Post

This isn’t a joke.  April Fools has already passed.  Ben Lovejoy is having a great year for the New Jersey Devils, and it’s time for people to stop bashing and start appreciating what Lovejoy brings to this team.

Ben Lovejoy has had a phenomenal year for the New Jersey Devils, and its time that he was given the praise he deserves.  Solely based off his 2016-17 season, Lovejoy has been on the receiving end of far too much negativity from this fanbase.  That negativity included me coming into the 2017-18 season as I wanted Lovejoy nowhere near the ice for this team.

2016-17

There’s not much to say here.  Lovejoy is not a first pair defenseman.  Lovejoy played in a first-pair role with terrible zone starts against opponent’s top players.  He came over from Pittsburgh on a 3 year deal with AAV of 2.6 million.  That’s not top-pair defenseman money.  That’s a 3^rd pair guy who can fill a 2^nd pair role.

He got obliterated alongside Andy Greene.  His CF% of 43.89 was awful and he ended the year with a 5v5 GF% of 43.84.

This is where we stop talking about 2016-17 and start talking about the positives.

2017-18

Lovejoy has played 54 games for the Devils this year.  He has the 2^nd highest CF% at 52.18 in that span.  He’s anchored rookie Will Butcher in the 3^rd pairing, but we’ll get more into later.  But here’s a quick look at Lovejoy’s 2016-17 campaign vs 2017-18.

The results are night and day.  While you should never expect Lovejoy to be a major offensive contributor, his performance with similar zone starts and lower competition has been phenomenal.  All of his metrics are great, and while this tweet and chart are from late February, the only major change is that as expected his scoring dropped.

Using Rob Vollman’s player usage chart from www.hockeyabstract.com we can get an idea of how Lovejoy is being utilized and how he’s performed.

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Again, with a high Defensive Zone Start Percentage, Lovejoy is still finding success.  You can use that tool on the website to look at the comparison to last year, which was not great, but in a smaller role Lovejoy has more than excelled.

That chart actually labels him an effective depth defenseman. I think that summarizes Lovejoy well.  He never should have been given a top pair role, but given the roster last year, he and head coach John Hynes had to play the hand they were dealt.  With the addition of Sami Vatanen as a first pair RD, and Damon Severson filling the other RD role, Lovejoy is in a much more fitting 3^rd pair role.

The Butcher-Lovejoy Pairing

Will Butcher has received a ton of praise this year, and rightfully so.  He’s posted over 40 points as a rookie defensemen, has looked like he belonged all year, and has been a major powerplay contributor.

While Butcher deserves praise for his play, so does Lovejoy for allowing Butcher to feel comfortable enough to play his own game.

Here are two examples before we get into the numbers using heatmaps from Micah Blake McCurdy, or @ineffectivemath on twitter, who’s website www.hockeyviz.com is an invaluable tool in player and team evaluation.

First, let’s look at Butcher and Lovejoy.

That is a ton of blue.  The Devils zone, and Lovejoy’s side specifically, is an ocean.  That’s phenomenal.  This pairing, featuring a defensemen that Devils fans love to hate, is phenomenal at suppressing shots.

Now look at Will Butcher WITHOUT Ben Lovejoy.

There’s almost no deep blue and there’s way more red.  There’s especially more red in high danger areas.  You can’t illustrate the impact that Lovejoy has had on Will Butcher any better than this.

We’ll keep going anyway.  The pairing has played 412:09 at 5v5 together, posting a CFrelT of 7.01, SCFrelT of 8.31, and HDCFrelT of 7.96.  That’s a dominant 3^rd pairing, and arguably the most successful defensive pairing on this current Devils team.  With Lovejoy and Butcher on the ice together, the Devils are at almost 60% for HDCF!

For reference sake, Will Butcher has posted a CF% of 51 without Lovejoy, and clearly those shots are coming from more dangerous areas.  With Lovejoy that’s over a 4% increase to 55% and they are very effective at keeping in low danger area’s.

Penalty Killing

Lovejoy is the Devils 2^nd leading defensemen in TOI for the penalty kill despite playing only 54 games.  He’s actually been on the ice for 16 more minutes of PK time than John Moore and has been on the ice for 4 less goals in that time.

So let’s sum up what we’ve discussed so far.  Ben Lovejoy is a great 3^rd pairing defensemen.  He’s allowed Will Butcher to play his game when paired together and they’ve been pretty dominant as a 3^rd pairing together.  Lovejoy anchoring Butcher has given Butcher the freedom to play his game, and Butcher has joined a list of 9 active players who have posted more than 40 points in their rookie campaign.

They are: Dion Phaneuf, Tyler Myers, Zach Werenski, Shayne Gostisbehere, Kevin Shattenkirk, Torey Krug, John Klingberg, and Cam Fowler.  That’s pretty good company for a rookie and while he deserves a ton of the credit let’s not ignore his defensive partner in the process.

Off the Ice

We’ve talked about his on ice performance, but Lovejoy brings a presence off the ice as well. Veteran leaders are important on a team that’s fighting for a postseason spot.  Veteran leaders that have been to the postseason are important for a team that’s roster is primarily made up of players who have no post season experience.

Lovejoy has played a total of 58 postseason games, mostly in Pittsburgh, and found himself in a similar role when he won the Cup with Pittsburgh in 2015-16 averaging 17:46 a night in 24 games played.

I’m not a huge believer in “leadership and intangibles” but when that comes with solid on ice performance it’s a huge bonus.

Let’s sum it all up

Don’t focus on 2016-17 and don’t focus on one bad night in Montreal.  We all want Damon Severson in the lineup.  He’s a talented young defensemen but don’t take his being scratched out on Ben Lovejoy.  Lovejoy has been great for the Devils this year and despite that people like to zero in on Lovejoy as a punching bag.

So next time you see someone irrationally hating on Ben Lovejoy you can kindly direct them to this article.  It’s not his fault he was signed to be a 2^nd or 3^rd pair defenseman and was thrown to the wolves last year and given a more fitting role this year he’s been great.

And let’s not forget that on top of all this Lovejoy was the first active player to pledge his brain to CTE research.

Stats from:

www.naturalstattrick.com

www.offsidereview.com

www.hockeyviz.com

www.hockeyabstract.com

www.hockey-reference.com