Through six games,
the New Jersey Devils are still winless.
While the defense has been garnering a lot of the blame, and rightfully so, they're not the only players struggling. One reason the Devils have been losing a lot of games has been the production from Ryane Clowe, or lack thereof.
I defended the Clowe contract in the summer on the basis of him being better this season off pure luck alone. Last year he shot less than 3% which is completely unsustainable for someone who sees as much ice as Clowe.
I expect more production as the season goes on, but to this point I haven't been at all impressed by him. He has just four shots through six games and has only one assist. Clowe has looked slow, especially in the neutral zone, and looks afraid to carry the puck for any length of time.
Pete DeBoer has moved Clowe up and down the lineup and played him with a variety of different players, but nothing appears to be working right now.
Clowe is the worst possession player on the team among players with 25+ minutes of 5 v. 5 play as he's driving play at a 43.9% rate. That means when Clowe is on the ice, over 56% of all shot attempts are taken from opposing teams. Anything close to 60% is elite so he's essentially being dominated at evens.
If you go back and watch the tape, you'll notice more often than not Clowe is spending most of his shifts chasing pucks around in his own zone.
Possession numbers often correlate with success when players are doing well or poor in that regard. With Clowe, what we're seeing is no different. The Devils are allowing many more shot attempts than they take when Clowe is on the ice and as a result they're allowing more goals than they score.
The Devils have scored only two goals in over 83 minutes of 5 v. 5 when Clowe is on the ice. They've allowed six.
What makes Clowe's early season play even more discouraging is that he's starting a ton of his shifts in the offensive zone. Despite Clowe starting over 40% of his shifts there, which is 2nd among Devils forwards, a lot more shot attempts are heading the Devils way than going on the opposing net.
When Clowe has been on the ice, it's been severely tilted against the Devils despite DeBoer's best efforts to prevent that from happening.
It's a long season, but Clowe's early season numbers haven't been encouraging. He needs to be much better.
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