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A few notes on this off-day:
1) John Hynes has taken a lot of heat for his lineup decisions this season, particularly of late. And I get it. Nobody makes the optimal choices all the time. The results not being there only adds fuel to the fire. For the most part, I'm on board with how Hynes has handled things. Or at least OK with it.
Realistically, playing Steven Santini instead of Ben Lovejoy, Egor Yakovlev instead of Mirco Mueller, or Drew Stafford instead of Stefan Noesen won't make much difference in the grand scheme of things.
In saying that, I don't agree with everything Hynes has done. The biggest difference of opinion is about Jesper Bratt's usage.
Over the last six games, Bratt ranks 11th among Devils forwards in 5v5 ice averaging 9:46. That's...interesting considering how much Bratt drives the offense.
Among 13 forwards who have logged at least 150 minutes at 5v5, Bratt ranks 1st in on-ice Corsi For/60 (62.11), 4th in on-ice Scoring Chances For/60 (27.52), and 3rd in points/60 (2.36).
For a team that struggles to fill the net consistently, especially when the top line isn't firing on all cylinders, it seems odd to give Bratt so little run. Let's change that, shall we?
2) Mackenzie Blackwood was left to the wolves in his debut start. He faced 38 shots, 33 chances, and 17 high-danger looks. All well above the nightly average. Really, the Devils were lucky the game was even close.
If they were to bounce-back vs Ottawa, they needed to be a lot stingier. The Senators are a train wreck defensively – as we saw last night – but they generate a lot more offense than you'd expect given their personnel.
The Devils completely neutered their attack giving up just 50 attempts, 19 chances, and only three high-danger looks. That's a top-5 defensive performance in terms of attempts. With regards to chances, New Jersey only conceded fewer against Edmonton at the beginning of the year.
It's impossible to defend that well every night, obviously, but it'll be interesting to see if they can put together another strong performance Sunday or if they revert back to the way they played against Columbus last time out.
3) New Jersey has been very strong on the penalty kill for much of the year. They've taken it up a notch of late, though. Over the last four games, they've conceded just once (while scoring one of their own) and didn't give up even one high-danger look in three of those four games.
In 10 games since December 1st, the Devils rank 1st in Corsi Against/60 (58.04), 1st in Scoring Chances Against (24.07), and 2nd in High-Danger Corsi Against/60 (7.08). Small sample size, of course, but those are legitimately better defensive numbers than the Devils have posted at 5v5 over that stretch.
That will absolutely not continue over the long haul but it puts into perspective how strong the Devils have played while down a man.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
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