Passivity Is Often A Road to Nowhere

When a team struggles to go on the offensive, they can’t be expected to go anywhere.

When I recapped the win over the Edmonton Oilers last week, I pointed to an aspect of the Devils’ approach that is worrying me. The Devils have been playing their cards much more defensively than ever this season, and it is starting to limit their offensive chance generation. Yes, I expect the team to suffer without Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton. But when I watch the team try to win by being cautious and defensive, I ask myself: why does the injury to Jonas Siegenthaler not change the team’s approach?

The fact of the matter is that Simon Nemec is not playing like a defense-first defenseman, even in Sheldon Keefe’s system. Brian Dumoulin, who is a good player, is not a one-to-one fix for Jonas Siegenthaler. Therefore, Keefe’s apparent message to the team that, to make the playoffs, they need to play even more cautiously – and that they need to rely on goaltending – is flawed, in my opinion. Siegenthaler has not been given the respect he deserves for handling the role he did, performing to the level he was at prior to his injury. He was even much more in his element than Dougie Hamilton was. I don’t think it’s a good assumption that Dumoulin and Nemec can boost the team’s defensive ability to the extent that they can turn into a total trap team. To be a trap team, they need Siegenthaler.

Then, and probably even worse, is how he has the offense set up. Despite Tom Fitzgerald’s trade for Daniel Sprong, who is an offensive upgrade at wing over about half the team, Keefe has refused to shift Erik Haula to fourth-line center duties in order to inject a proven bottom six goalscorer in Sprong into the lineup. This is how the Devils are lined up today.

Sprong has 87 goals in 365 career games. That’s more career regular season goals than any two of those fourth liners combined. Mind you, Daniel Sprong is a career plus-player at even strength (+18 at 5v5), so defense is an old and tired excuse for not playing him. So, yes, sit the person who generated the third-most chances against Pittsburgh — a game where the team could not generate shots and still gave up seven goals to the opponents. Sit the person who was one of four to not be an even strength minus against Pittsburgh, sure. That will definitely help the team generate offense. Until Keefe commits to a real, threatening lineup, instead of one where his only move is a binary choice between Erik Haula or Daniel Sprong at third-line left wing, he is going to keep seeing his team play disjointed games.

The greatest flaw plaguing the New Jersey Devils is their inability to handle heavy-forechecking teams. Their breakout passes are too telegraphed, their puck movement is slow, and their passes are still often off the mark entirely. That spells disaster for a team trying to win with a trapping defense and a counter-attacking offense. Johnny Kovacevic might make a nice play on the puck, but if he cannot move it back out to the neutral zone quick enough, Jacob Markstrom or Jake Allen will be dealing with a chance in front of the net. Simon Nemec might be a talented 21-year old, but he’s roving too much in the defensive zone and not getting enough offensive zone opportunities.

There is one player who I think has responded to the injuries at hand perfectly — Brett Pesce. With Hamilton out, Pesce is not playing it as safe in the offensive zone, pushing and pinching to create more offensive opportunities. Pesce might not be the most offensively gifted player in the world, but he has very good instincts of where the puck should be going. That’s why he had two points in the win over Edmonton. On top of this, Pesce has not regressed defensively, even while trying to be more of an offensive creator. Pesce knows that if his pairing isn’t on the ice for offensive chances, the team is probably going to lose. Dumoulin-Kovacevic will rely on forwards to create offense, and Dillon-Nemec is zone-dependent and better off for now as a sheltered pairing.

Now, could forwards come in and help more against forechecking teams to alleviate pressure on the defense? I think that the team’s forwards have occasionally been caught standing and waiting too often in the neutral zone, which contributes to that stilted breakout mentioned earlier. On top of that, Keefe should probably be asking his team to play a harder forecheck in general. If you know that your biggest weakness is pressure on your defensemen when they handle the puck, force the puck down the ice as quickly as possible. Dump it in at the red line — do whatever — but the time of waiting for the perfect pass to Jack Hughes cutting up the seam is over.

The Devils had injuries in all areas — not just on offense. So, when you hear that the Devils will need to rely on defense and goaltending to win, ask yourself if you really trust two goalies in their 30s to bail a leaky trap team out over and over again en route to a Stanley Cup. Given what I have seen this month, I really do not think Jacob Markstrom was ready to return, and Jake Allen was also running out of steam a bit when he was handling the starter’s load before and after the Four Nations break. Adding that the Devils are one of the worst comeback teams in the league — they usually win by holding the lead from early on — and I am increasingly of the thought that the defense-reliant approach is going to be the downfall of the team.

Your Thoughts

How do you think the team has looked since Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton got hurt? Do you think the defense has improved or worsened? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.