1) The New Jersey Devils' defense has been suspect for much of the year, but it's been particularly bad over the last month or so.
The team has bled goals of late having allowed 51 over their last 13 games. While many have pointed to goaltending as a big part of the problem, I think the struggles of Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid have a lot more to do with the play in front of them.
They've been screened by their own teammates on numerous goals and, on the year, the Devils are allowing way more scoring chances than they have in years past.
The Devils are giving up ~8 more scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5v5 than they have over the last two seasons. pic.twitter.com/S9rLDpWFxB
— Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell) December 12, 2016
As you can see, the Devils are giving up ~8 more scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5v5 play than they did the two seasons prior to this year.
The shot attempt numbers are actually pretty similar to recent years -- five attempts over 60 minutes shouldn't make a huge difference -- but the drastic change in scoring chance numbers suggests it's not the volume, but where the shots are coming from that is the problem.
That won't surprise anyone who has followed the Devils this season as they've given up a ton of high-danger looks and have struggled to clear the net and prevent rebound opportunities in dangerous areas.
2) Given the Devils will probably have to find in-house solutions (i.e adjusting ice time for certain players) let's take a look at which guys have been most problematic to the defensive woes.
Up front, Kyle Palmieri and Adam Henrique have struggled the most among forwards with 25+ games (this excludes Pavel Zacha and Mike Cammalleri, who have also struggled but missed a few games).
On defense, John Moore has allowed the most chances/60. That was the case last year, too, so it's clear defense isn't his specialty. He can do some nice things with the puck and is a good skater, but he's a big time liability in the defensive zone and that's unlikely to change moving forward. He should see less ice.
New Jersey's best chance suppressor up front, among those who play meaningful minutes, is Taylor Hall. On defense, only Yohann Auvitu has been on the ice for fewer scoring chances against/60 than Damon Severson, but the former plays soft competition and is spoon fed offensive zone starts. Meanwhile, Severson logs big minutes on the top pairing. That he has fared so well is very encouraging.
3) If the Devils want to pry a top-4 defenseman from a team it won't be cheap. Chances are, any team will want a current roster player who a) can contribute right now; b) is not past his prime and; c) has term remaining on his contract.
One player I would listen on just to see what's out there: Adam Henrique. I know he's a huge part of the Devils' recent history, and people will always be attached to him because of what he did during the Stanley Cup run, but you have to give to get.
The Devils aren't loaded with quality NHL centers right now but Travis Zajac is enjoying a resurgence of sorts, Zacha is in the NHL for the long haul and Michael McLeod is only one or two years away. The team could probably find an undervalued stop-gap (like Minnesota did with Eric Staal) in free agency as well.
Just something to think about.
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