There’s not much going right for the New Jersey Devils lately. They just lost a game to the New York Islanders on Monday night. They needed that win to ensure the New York Rangers game didn’t mean as much. Well, now the Rangers have a chance to take over second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Despite all that’s gone bad, there is some that is going well. One of those things is Timo Meier since he joined the Devils.
The Devils have been playing its worst hockey of the year. Lindy Ruff has changed Meier’s lines over and over again. Since Meier joined the Devils, he’s played 86 minutes at even strength with Jack Hughes, 62 minutes with Nico Hischier, and 35 minutes with other centers across the lineup. It leads to terrible counting stats, but the advanced stats remain.
Meier is fourth on the Devils in Corsi For percentage with 56.78%. Curtis Lazar leads the team with an incredibly small sample size. Jesper Bratt and Tomas Tatar are the other players ahead of him. He’s fourth on the team in high-danger chance percentage. Nolan Foote, another player with an incredibly small sample size, is one of the players ahead of him.
Timo Meier is playing better than the stats says he has since joining the New Jersey Devils.
In 13 games, Meier has been on the ice for 50 high-danger chances. He’s been on the ice for two high-danger goals. There’s a level of luck involved here.
One strange stat is Meier has the worst on-ice save percentage on the team. Maybe it’s just timing, but goalies stop just 88.2% of shots when Meier is on the ice. Is his physical style having trouble meshing with Lindy Ruff’s up-tempo style? That seems pretty clear, but it is likely more than that. There’s a lot of luck involved.
He only has four goals since joining the Devils. Four goals on 24 individual high-danger chances (all stats come from Natural Stat Trick). It just can’t keep happening like that. The Law of Averages says things will turn around in the scoreboard. For now, the advanced stats tell the story. Meier is going to be a menace in the playoffs once his lines solidify.