New Jersey Devils: 5 Things To Watch In Week 4 Of Season

Finding Some Secondary Scoring

Does this sound familiar? The Devils are near the top of the league in scoring with 3.6 goals per game (5th in the NHL), and ranks 6th in the league in goals against with 2.6 goals against per game. However, when you look at the stats as a whole it’s a lot coming from one line. The top line to be specific.

Kyle Palmieri leads the team in points with 11, and Taylor Hall is right behind him with 10. Nico Hischier is tied for third with Damon Severson, but they drop all the way down to six. After that, nobody has more than four points. The secondary scoring has gone from sparse to non-existence as the weeks go on.

In the past three games, only Damon Severson and Brian Boyle have scored goals outside the top line. Nico Hischier found his scoring touch, thank goodness, because if he hadn’t it could be really bad this past week. The Devils need something from the second and third lines. Hopefully the return of Zajac will help, because that line looked much better on Thursday. They need something out of the Pavel Zacha-Marcus Johansson line this week. They have two points between the two. Add in Stefan Noesen, and the line has four points. From a second line, that is pathetic. The Devils must get more, especially from Zacha, or major changes could be coming.