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With a little ways to go in the off-season, I decided to sift through last season's data to see just how good the Devils were with certain players on or off the ice.
As usual, I elected to go with 5 vs 5 data, as most of every game is played there, and there's a larger sample size to work with.
That in mind, I tabled the 5 vs 5 goals for numbers to see exactly how the Devils fared at full strength with each of their forwards on or off the ice.
To nobody's surprise, Jaromir Jagr and Travis Zajac were atop the leaderboard. They spent much of the season together and
were one of the best duos in hockey, so that data more or less tells us what we already knew.
At first glance it's surprising that Dainius Zubrus also had a positive differential, but his numbers are inflated because he spent a good chunk of the season with Jagr and Zajac.
The only other forward with a positive differential was Reid Boucher. The sample size is very small, obviously, and he used in pretty favorable situations when in the lineup, but it's encouraging he handled it well.
On the flip side of things, Steve Bernier highlighted the worst of the worst. He wasn't great while playing on the 4th line, and when he was ludicrously used in top-6/top-9 situations, he was crushed in the goals department.
With the additions of Mike Cammalleri and Martin Havlat, that certainly shouldn't be a concern in 2014-15.
One would hope, anyways.
Devils posts
A look at the NHL's best F/D duos
A look at the NHL's best forward duos
Guessing the forwards
On the league's best offensive penalty killers
On Metro Division goaltending
Jackets posts
Are things about to get ugly between Blue Jackets, Johansen?
Sonny Milano will join OHL's Plymouth Whalers
Paying Enforcers
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