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A couple New Jersey Devils thoughts on this off-day:
1. Though Jesper Bratt has hit a wall of late – especially offensively – I'd like to see him remain in the lineup down the stretch.
I think his style of play fits perfectly with the system John Hynes employs and that, despite his struggles, a ceiling game from him is much higher than a ceiling game from Drew Stafford, for example.
Also a factor is, unlike Stafford, Bratt can still contribute if he's not scoring as he's a valuable member of the penalty kill.
In fact, a strong argument could be made he's the best available PK option the Devils have if Pavel Zacha is unable to return in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are lethal on the power play, too, so he's a guy you want around.
Listed above are the only five forwards on the roster who have logged at least 60 minutes while down a man. As you can see, Bratt ranks 2nd to Zacha in both shot and chance suppression.
While Zacha and Bratt are linked closely together, the gap between Bratt and the next closest penalty killer (Blake Coleman) is rather significant.
Even if Bratt sees limited ice on the 4th line, his ability to kill penalties, and score in shootouts, is enough to warrant a spot in the lineup.
2. Anything can happen in a single game but one would think the Penguins will have the big advantage at 5v5 tomorrow night.
During that game state, the Pens have out-chanced their opponents in seven consecutive games by an aggregate of 54 (+7.7 per game). It's not at all surprising the Pens have fared so well given they have elite talents on each of their top-3 lines. They're a matchup nightmare.
While the Penguins are tending upwards in a big way, the Devils are going the opposite direction having been out-chanced at 5v5 in nine of their last 10 games by an aggregate of 39 (-3.9 per game). That's a massive differential.
Potentially getting Pavel Zacha back should help but the Devils are going to need to be much better across the board. If they're not, they could get blown out of the rink again.
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