Injuries have taken their toll on the New Jersey Devils so far this season. They’ve lost games from players at every position this year, both for short and extended periods of time. While it worked for a bit and the team was able to tread water and continue to amass points, they’ve hit a bit of a wall as of late. While home was a haven for the Devils early this year, the last three games have all been losses, and there’s been some pretty ugly moments in all three games. It’s led me to wonder: why have the forward lines stayed stagnant across those three games?
The defense pairs saw some adjustments as there were struggles across the first three quarters of the current homestand, but the forward lines (outside of some mixing and matching during the games themselves, mainly due to special teams) have remained static. Maybe you would argue that the scoring was good enough and that if the defense and goaltending did more of their job in not surrendering five goals, the results would be different. While I do agree that the defense and goaltending weren’t good enough, the forward support hasn’t exactly been helping and the combinations put out on the ice are not helping with that either.
Last week, an entire article’s worth of space was spent on talking about how Ondrej Palat should not be an every night player anymore. He might not be the only one who fits this definition at this point, but he’s the only one who makes $6 million; he also still has been on the second line during this three game losing streak. He may have finally scored a goal, but it’s only his SECOND of the season through 27 games. A third of the season gone, and second line wing Ondrej Palat has all of two goals, on pace for a whopping six. The fact he keeps being placed so high in the lineup when Dawson Mercer and Arseny Gritsyuk could probably produce more points with an actual NHL player next to them is insane.
Speaking of insane, why are the Devils best three forwards all together on one line right now? With Jack Hughes still out, you would think that the team would want to divide Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier to spread out the talent. At least moving one of them to a different line would create more difficulty in matchups for opponents. As it stands right now, teams only need to shut down that line, and the Devils chances of winning drastically go down. Mercer’s line? They’re basically playing a man down at all times anyway, no worry for opponents here. Paul Cotter, Cody Glass and Connor Brown? There’s some talent there, but that line is cold right now and they’re a depth scoring line that also probably not going to be consistently putting pucks into the net anyway. Stefan Noesen, Luke Glendening and Juho Lammikko? The very definition of a fourth line just being there right now; not a dangerous line on any night, especially considering how Lammikko has been a black hole for offense all season. Meanwhile Evgenii Dadonov, who has shown he can produce an the NHL level, has been a healthy scratch while having only appeared five times due to his injury earlier this season.
I’m not saying that the Devils should be shuffling their lines every game, but after consecutive 5-3 losses at home against teams they should be beating, would it hurt to try something different? Why not let Connor Brown play a game with Mercer and Gristyuk? Why not give Dadonov an extended chance and scratch Palat to try and light a fire under him? Again, how about splitting up the top line to spread out the talent and attempt to create more difficult matchups? I think Sheldon Keefe is a good coach, but I also think he’s either stubborn or prone to making some bad decisions. With how tight the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference are right now, there’s little to no room for many more bad decisions, especially with the Devils still being down Jack Hughes, Brett Pesce and Johnny Kovacevic. At some point, all of the underachievers have to be held accountable, and maybe that means Palat, Lammikko, Cotter and whoever else rotate out as healthy scratches until the results begin to change.
What are your thoughts on the Devils line combinations; do you think spreading out the talent would help? Do you think the second line needs a new left wing? Will the eventual return of Jack Hughes help with the scoring balance and defensive responsibilities of forwards? Should underachievers be rotating into the press box until the team finds something that works in the meantime? Leave any and all comments down below and thanks as always for reading!