The New Jersey Devils have a problem in the top six. This is still one of the most skilled groups of forwards in the league, but it seems like if they don’t get the pairings right, players don’t tend to score. Whether it’s an issue with chemistry or skill sets don’t mesh well together (which is basically the same thing), there are certain players who just haven’t worked well together.
The opposite can also be true, as we’ve seen with Tomas Tatar and Nico Hischier or Tyler Toffoli and Jack Hughes last season. Sometimes unlikely pairings make great lines. The Devils have been on both sides of this.
However, today we are discussing a line that doesn’t work. That line is Timo Meier, Jack Hughes, and anyone else. Sheldon Keefe has come in and tried to put the two talented forwards together, something Lindy Ruff tried and eventually gave up on when it was clear he couldn’t make it work.
The stats speak for themselves. First, let’s discuss what happened in Hughes’ first preseason game back after suffering yet another shoulder injury that ended his season a few months ago. We don’t want to judge entirely on that one preseason game (which was pretty bad before the third period) when most of that lineup is learning a new Sheldon Keefe system. However, the pattern was exactly what we’ve seen from Meier and Hughes before.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for New Jersey Devils on 2024-09-25:#NJDevils pic.twitter.com/LzZcGzZm6V
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) September 26, 2024
It is not good for the “top line” to be at the bottom of the hockey GameScore chart. There should be no world where Jack Hughes is this low on a chart like this. Hughes has always been an advanced stats dynamo. Even at his worst, we saw something in the advanced stats that said there was a 100-point player in there. However, those stats aren’t the same when paired with Meier.
In this preseason game, Meier and Hughes (who also had the amazing Jesper Bratt on their wings) were on the ice for seven high-danger chances against in just 13 minutes. They collectively had one 5v5 high-danger chance. At the same time, Nico Hischier, Tomas Tatar, and Dawson Mercer allowed zero high-danger chances against and had two of their own. It wasn’t just the opponent. Hughes and Meier didn’t work.
Last season, Natural Stat Trick reports that Meier and Hughes spent 168 minutes together at 5v5. Despite having a positive Corsi For percentage, they allowed more high-danger chances than they secured on the ice. They were on the ice for 12 goals against and scored just seven goals as a line. This is while the line had 54 offensive-zone faceoffs and just 21 defensive-zone faceoffs.
It might be as simple as “Meier and Hughes both need the puck to succeed,” and that dynamic isn’t working. Maybe it’s something more complicated than that, but by every metric, Hughes and Meier doesn’t work. It’s time to understand they should be on different lines at all times.