New Jersey Devils: One Improvement Each Line Must Make

At 11-13-5, the New Jersey Devils have not been playing particularly well, but they are still certainly in a competitive spot in the Metropolitan Division.

Cory Schneider has kept New Jersey in a lot of games this year, but the team needs to improve its overall play to have any chance of making a playoff push. That change starts with the forwards.

Injuries have devastated the forward corps of the Devils most of the season, but the team has enough talent to improve upon its play nonetheless. 

Here, we will take a look at what each forward line can do to get the team moving in the right direction again. 

The lines used are from the morning skate on Thursday, December 11.

Fourth Line: Stephen Gionta, Jacob Josefson and Steve Bernier

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Steve Bernier, Stephen Gionta and Jordan Tootoo celebrate Tootoo's goal during Tuesday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Keep It Simple and Do the Little Things Right

The trio of Jordin Tootoo, Stephen Gionta and Steven Bernier had both goals for the Devils in the team's 3-2 shootout loss to Chicago on Tuesday. With some forwards returning from injury, it appears Jacob Josefson will be sliding down to the fourth line and replacing Tootoo, but the advice for this line remains the same.

While any goals the fourth line can chip in will be a huge boon to New Jersey, which struggles to score goals, that is not the top priority for this line.

Rather, if this group can just focus on playing smart, simple hockey, its play on both ends of the ice will improve. 

The Devils as a whole have struggled all year with clearing the defensive zone and turning the puck over in bad places. A quick look at the two goals against this line when it has been on the ice for in the last two games shows they have had problems in this area as well.

Against Carolina, the fourth line was on the ice when Justin Faulk scored to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead. The Devils were pinned into their end for a long stretch, and finally Bernier found himself in a one-on-one battle down low with a chance to clear the puck.

He failed. The puck wound up on the stick of a Carolina player, and a few seconds later, Faulk had put the puck in the back of the net.

The next night against Chicago, the fourth line was on the ice when Chicago tied the game at one. A turnover at the top of the offensive zone due to a miscommunication with Seth Helgeson turned into a three-on-one the other way, on which Bryan Bickell beat Keith Kinkaid on the glove side.

Of course, there is some blame on Helgeson as well, and Kinkaid perhaps should have done better on the shot. But the Devils need to be able to trust that a line of experienced forwards is going to make the right decisions regularly, particularly when on the ice with a rookie defensemen and a goalie making his first NHL start.

Offensively, this unit's goals (two against Chicago and two against Toronto) come from the same mentality the defense needs to come from: hard work and doing the little things right. 

Both goals against Chicago came as a result of hard, smart forechecking and capitalizing on turnovers created by it. 

If the fourth line can continue that work offensively and make more intelligent plays defensively, it can be a huge asset to New Jersey.

Third Line: Tuomo Ruutu, Dainius Zubrus and Mike Sislo

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The Devils celebrate Dainus Zubrus' opening night goal. He has only scored once since then.

Find a Way to Chip in Offensively

Tuomo Ruutu averaged 19.25 goals a season from 2008-09 to 2011-12. He last scored on November 22.

Dainius Zubrus has averaged 13.5 goals a season in each full season he has played in New Jersey. He last scored on October 28.

Mike Sislo had six goals and four assists in 20 games in Albany before being called up. He has no points from the four games since his most recent call-up. 

None of this is to say that the Devils' third line ought to be an offensive juggernaut, of course. But it needs to find a few goals to contribute to the cause. 

Ruutu and Zubrus have both been shuffled around the lineup more than head coach Peter Deboer probably would like, but injuries and the failure of the Damien Brunner experiment have left him with little choice, and he needs these two to show their 30-plus collective years of NHL experience by finding a way to deal with the constant shifting.

The recall of Sislo might be related to the failure of the Brunner experiment as well. The 26-year-old winger has speed, something the Devils certainly lack, and management seems to be giving him a chance to prove his worth at the NHL level.

In fairness, this group may also suffer offensively for its defensive ability. This group will likely see a lot of defensive zone faceoffs, given that they are probably more defensively inclined than either of the top two lines. This means less offensive zone faceoffs and therefore more work to be done to create opportunities. 

So this line, perhaps more than any other, needs to clean up its defensive zone breakouts. If these three cannot get out of the defensive zone and through the neutral zone, it will have no hope of creating scoring chances, not to mention it may put the team at risk defensively. 

Second Line: Mike Cammalleri, Adam Henrique and Michael Ryder

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Adam Henrique celebrates a goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Get Michael Ryder Scoring Again

With Michael Cammalleri returning to the lineup after a brief stint away due to injury, this line has two of the Devils' top three offensive performers this year in Cammalleri and Adam Henrique.

It is the third member of this line that has given Devils fans and coaches the most headaches this year.

Michael Ryder scored twice against the St. Louis Blues on November 6. He has not scored since. 

Ryder hit a new low on December 2—he was a healthy scratch when the team played against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Upon returning to the lineup against Toronto two night later, he responded with two assists but still has not been able to find the back of the net.

His 10 assists are encouraging, of course, but Ryder is on the team to score goals, and the Devils are in desperate need of his scoring prowess. 

So what can the rest of the Devils do to get him back on track?

For Henrique and Cammalleri, there is little more that can be done. They are second and third on the team in points, respectively, and are possibly the two biggest reasons the Devils are still hanging around .500. Both players need to keep creating and capitalizing on chances and show they still have confidence in Ryder.

For the coaching staff, keeping commitment to Ryder is key. Benching him against Pittsburgh on December 2 was a decent move at the time—Ryder's defensive play was putrid, and the team had other healthy options at forward. 

But injuries and continued lack of production from other sources have put the Devils in a position where they need Ryder. 

Ryder has always been a streaky scorer, and his performances from last year proved it. If he gets hot, he can be the player who turns the season around. If he does not, the Devils may well not score enough goals to make a serious playoff push anyway.

So the coaching staff needs to keep playing Ryder and letting him know they believe in him.

For Ryder himself, the problem is unclear. He is second on the team in shots on goal with 60, but he might benefit from shooting even more. This season, he is averaging 2.14 shots on goal a game, but in the three seasons he scored 30 or more goals, he averaged 2.96, 2.69 and 2.57 shots on goal a game.

Past that, much of it likely comes down to confidence. There, the only person who can help is Ryder himself.

First Line: Martin Havlat, Scott Gomez and Jaromir Jagr

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Jaromir Jagr celebrates his goal against Carolina with Scott Gomez.

Get Goals from Players Other Than Jaromir Jagr

Jaromir Jagr's mind-boggling defiance of Father Time has continued into his second season with the Devils. The 42-year-old Czech leads the team in points with five goals and 12 assists, not to mention playing an average of 18 minutes a night. 

He does not need to change a thing about the way he is playing.

The other two players on this line need to step forward, though. 

Scott Gomez has only played five games so far, and his performance has been decent. He picked up two assists in Monday's 2-1 win over Carolina, and he has been killing penalties at times with the team ravaged by injuries. 

Gomez has never been a big scorer. He scored 33 goals for the Devils in 2005-06 but has never topped 20 outside of that outlier season. Still, if he could match his average pace of around 15 goals a season, it could earn the Devils a couple more wins. 

More than likely, though, his biggest role may be helping set up the other winger on this line.

Martin Havlat has been with the team the entire season, and so far he has been a dud. He has missed around half the season due to injury and has struggled when in the lineup. He's managed only two goals and four assists over 16 games, with his plus/minus at an abysmal minus-seven. 

For Havlat, the issue has been two-pronged, with one perhaps leading to the other. 

First, he has not been good in possession. Havlat has been one of the biggest culprits in the Devils' inability to move through the neutral zone. His positioning and passing decisions have been poor, and he lacks the speed to make up for his mental mistakes. 

Second, he only has 16 shots on goal this season, giving him an average of one per game. No player, Havlat included, is going to be able to score regularly with one shot per game. 

Part of that issue is probably offensive zone decision-making and lack of accuracy on shots, but Havlat is surely not aided by his neutral zone struggles. If the team cannot get into the offensive zone when he is on the ice, obviously he cannot get many shots. 

Playing with Gomez, who is defensively responsible, and Jagr, who is a possession machine, may help Havlat in that department. 

But if Gomez and Havlat are both to get more chances, and more goals, Havlat's play in the defensive and neutral zone must improve.