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A couple notes on another off-day for the New Jersey Devils:
1) I've pumped Taylor Hall's tires a lot this year and recently suggested he would be a legitimate Hart Trophy candidate if the season ended today.
Many thought I was getting a little carried away but hear me out.
Hall leads the Devils in assists, points, primary points, shot attempts, shots on goal, scoring chances, high-danger chances, and ranks 1st among nine Devils forwards (minimum 200 minutes at 5v5) in Corsi For% and Scoring Chance For%.
Not only does he lead in all those categories but, in some cases, the difference is massive. Take scoring chances, for example.
The Hart Trophy is supposed to go to a player deemed most valuable to his team. Given Hall leads the Devils in so many categories, and shockingly has them within one point of 1st place in the Metro Division – which may be the league's toughest – I have a hard time believing many players have been more valuable thus far.
Will he continue to play at this level? Will the Devils continue to pile up the wins? Maybe, maybe not. All I'm saying is, to this point, Hall has played at a level where he deserves to be in the mix for MVP.
2) At 5v5, the Devils rank 19th in Expected Goals For%, 26th in Expected Goals Against/60, and have a negative penalty differential so many, myself included, expect them to come back down to earth at some point.
Beyond Hall playing like an absolute monster, and Cory Schneider returning to form, the Devils do have one big thing working in their favor that could help them prevent that from happening – at least for a few more weeks: an easy schedule. Like, really easy. The easiest, even.
Based on average Expected Goals For% of opponents, the Devils have the softest schedule in the league leading up to the new year, according to TSN's Travis Yost.
I don't think I can overstate how big that is for the Devils.
They've already banked enough points to put themselves in a spot where they can stumble over their feet a little bit and still make the playoffs. For example, a 27-24-7 record to finish the season would give them a ~76% chance of getting to the dance.
If they can take advantage of an upcoming lull in the schedule and bank some more points, they'll be in a spot where they can play sub .500 hockey the rest of the way (even by NHL standards, not overall wins and losses) and still make the playoffs.
They've worked their way into a really favorable situation. Now they just need to take advantage of it.
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