The New Jersey Devils have the worst power play in the league. After being the only team to go scoreless through 11 tries, we try to diagnose what’s been going wrong.
The New Jersey Devils are 0-2-2 to start the season, and one of the main reasons why is special teams. The penalty kill being terrible is harder to explain. This team is last in the league in both power play percentage and penalty kill percentage.
We decided to separate the special teams issues, and we’ll look into the problems with the power play first. Mostly, because they are easier to diagnose.
It doesn’t take an expert to see the issues with the power play. Despite having Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri, and P.K. Subban on that top line, the Devils cannot even get in the zone, let alone get some decent chances. We’ve seen Hall make some plays that got stolen, specifically this play from Carter Hart.
We were salivating at the thought of having a second unit consisting of Jack Hughes, Nikita Gusev, Nico Hischier and Will Butcher. For years, the Devils second power play unit struggled to provide offensive pressure. This unit surely wouldn’t have the same issues, right?
It’s actually surprising, since they haven’t had that much less time than the first unit. Taylor Hall obviously leads all forwards in power-play time, but he’s played some double shifts. Outside of Hall, Wayne Simmonds, Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac (the rest of the top line) played between 10:30 and 11:00 of total ice time on the power play. Gusev and Hughes played around 9:15 each.
So, let’s look at the chances for each line. Hall, in 14 minutes was on the ice for 23 chances for on the power play. That’s not bad. What’s better is P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds are also on the ice for chances a piece. It falls off from there, and nobody has more than 20 chances.
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Now, the Buffalo Sabres have had the best power play unit in the league. How many chances are they getting? According to Natural Stat Trick, Sam Reinhart, Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin all have 43 chances for on the power play. That’s in only five more total minutes than Hall. Five players on Buffalo have been on the ice for at least 40 chances for.
The Sabres have the best power play, so let’s look at another team. The Florida Panthers have a good power play themselves, and their underlying numbers are even better. Mike Hoffman is on the ice (prior to Friday night’s game against Buffalo) for 40 chances himself in just 15 minutes of ice time.
What this says is the Devils top line needs to get closer to three chances for per minutes, when they’re actually getting one. How does one get more chances? Well, entering the zone usually helps.
Take a look at Buffalo’s goal against the Montreal Canadiens the other night. It will look eerily familiar.
With his @NewWaveEnergyCo PPG tonight, Victor Olofsson is on a four-game point streak! 🚨#Sabres50 pic.twitter.com/I2GNqtdBJR
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 9, 2019
That looks like the Taylor Hall goal, right? So we should be able to at least say that the power play has been somewhat unlucky. Here’s the thing, the Devils only have that one chance that was that good. The Sabres have done it over and over again.
The weird thing is the Devils actually have more high-danger chances per chance. Basically, Hall has four HDCF against 23 total chances. Hoffman has seven HDCF against 40 total chances. This just tells us the Devils need more chances overall.
The Devils have to find a better way to get in the zone. They’ve been trying this same power play strategy for so long, where they pass back to build up speed and try to find a break on the blue line. The issue is the other team just stacks the blue line and causes a turnover. Then, when they try to dump and chase, the other players are flat footed on the blue line and always lose the race to the puck.
The Devils need to be trying the dump and chase, but with all players already skating towards the zone. With how teams are playing them, the Devils could actually catch them flat footed and get to the puck in their zone faster. Then, the other team would attempt to adjust, and on the next zone entry there would be more room to just enter.
This is the clear need for now, but more needs to happen. When the Devils power play was at it’s best, they were using passes to get closer to the net, closing in on the defense as a whole. Instead of keeping the puck on the outside of zone, they can move it inside towards the goalie. This pushes the goalie into his net, giving the Devils more places to shoot.
The Devils need to figure it out, and fast. They have to know what they are doing isn’t working, right? Going 0 for 11 with a man advantage is pathetic, and this team is better than that. Some takeaways, the Devils need to figure out a better way to enter the zone, they just need to get the volume of chances up for as often as they’ve been on the power play, and they need to be better once in the zone to hold on to the puck.