New Jersey Devils: Changing Of The Lines

It’s an age old hockey tradition to mix up the lines when scoring dries up or a team comes out flat. But, is that a good or bad idea for the New Jersey Devils? It’s open to debate.

All off-season long, everyone talked about how great it was going to be for Adam Henrique to reunited with Taylor Hall to relive their salad days with the Windsor Spitfires. Most New Jersey Devils fans seemed to believe that their chemistry was undeniable and it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

However, that combination lasted for all of one game. Against the Lightning, we saw Rico on the second line with Hall centered by Roberto Duran (oops, I meant Travis Zajac, I often get them confused because they both have Hands Of Stone).

Does this make sense? In my opinion, no. There is value to building cohesion within a unit. Anyone who saw how the substitution of “Big V” for Lane Johnson impacted the Philadelphia Eagles offense against the Redskins should have an appreciation for that! Of course, that was a forced substitution, but it illustrates how impactful one change in the sporting equivalent of a well-oiled machine can be.

Actually, I’m not meaning to criticize John Hynes per se here. More like questioning a common practice in the sport. As any fan knows, tinkering with lines is a universal hockey phenomenon. Hynes is not alone in engaging in this practice, far from it in fact. If we hearken back only a few years in Devils history, we will all recall how our dearly departed friend, PDB, often tinkered with lines during a game when things weren’t going well.

But the question I pose is, does shuffling up units actually help? Do you really generate a “spark” just by mixing up line mates? Or, would a team be better served to just keep the combinations like Mr. Hall and Mr. Henrique together in the hopes they will jell over time.

I think you can guess my opinion. I’m in favor of setting lines and maintaining a Lou Lamoriello-like status quo for a certain period of time. Not forever, but an epoch like 10-15 games seems reasonable to me. I believe in such a period it is more likely than not that linemates get to know one another and the benefit of the time together begins to pay dividends. But I certainly agree that if you see nothing after say a month or so, at that point trying new combinations makes all the sense in the world.

This is one of those questions in life where there is no obvious correct answer, of course. It will always be an interesting debate. We’ll see how Coach Hynes plays it in the coming weeks. Go Devils!