5 Lineup Changes To Help New Jersey Devils Scoring

Move Zacha Back To Center

Listen, this isn’t advocating for Pavel Zacha to be a full-time center, but this is basically trading Zacha and Mercer. In years past, we thought it would be necessary to get Zacha going to drive the Devils’ forwards, but it’s just not happening. He’s playing pretty terribly as of late. Despite scoring against the Toronto Maple Leafs this week, he’s been awful.

In the past 16 games, he’s failed to score or get an assist in 13 of them. 13 scoreless games in a month is unacceptable. Take out the fact that Zacha was a former sixth-overall pick, Zacha was this team’s top scorer in 2021. He needed to have a similar season to that. At the beginning of the year, it looked like he just found his stride and he could be a 50-point scorer. He had his eighth goal by game 17 this season. He has had three ever since. He’s not getting assists, he’s playing badly defensively, his special teams’ time has dwindled, and it’s becoming an even bigger bust to have Zacha on the team.

So, put him at center on the new fourth line. Let him play with some of the players that come up with grit and determination. Zacha is missing some desperation in his game. He needs to see some of that on the ice. He is playing timidly on the defensive end which is causing the other team to get high-danger chances. Then, he holds his stick too tightly on the offensive end.

He has 42 shots in 360 minutes of ice time since December 1st. Zacha should just shoot the puck at will when he has it. Being the only option on the ice might be good for him.