The 1st half of the season went as well as anyone could have imagined for the New Jersey Devils but there is still plenty of room for improvement.
The biggest area of concern remains the defense, although I think the Devils can get more out of their blue line with a couple alterations.
The most notable change I'd make is putting Damon Severson in Steve Santini's spot alongside Andy Greene on the top unit.
Playing tough minutes doesn't help, but the latter two have been caved in on a nightly basis and I don't think they compliment each other all that well.
Generally, you like one player's strengths to help cover the other's weaknesses and that's not the case with this pairing. They're cut from a very similar cloth, which is easy to see using @CJTDevil's new …‹All-3-Zone tool…‹.
We're not dealing with extreme sample sizes here, but this shows Greene should be capable of making up for Santini's deficiencies – he *loves* going off the glass – in terms of moving the puck out of the defensive zone.
After that, this pairing runs into some trouble. Neither player is good at pushing the play up ice and when the Devils do manage to get into the offensive zone, this pairing is severely lacking the ability to help generate chances and sustain pressure in the offensive zone, which leads to short and wasted possessions.
That's where I think Severson would really help.
Severson has been effective pushing the play through the neutral zone and helping the Devils set up shop in the offensive zone, be it from carry-ins or hitting teammates in stride to attack open space.
Once the Devils set up shop there, Severson has the offensive instincts to read defenses and act accordingly to find targets and create offense – much more so than Santini.
I'm not saying Severson is perfect but I think he compliments Greene a lot better – the underlying numbers suggest that's the case– and flipping him and Santini could really help balance the defense.
The Devils would then have attacking players with offensive ability on all three pairings. Not to mention, I think Santini's conservative defense-first mentality would be better served complimenting more of a rover in Will Butcher.
Whether John Hynes and the coaching staff make these changes at some point remains to be seen but I think the team would benefit from trying.