G3 New Jersey Devils @ New York Rangers: Switching things up

After a couple of poor showings at home, Lindy Ruff has taken out the blender in advance of Game 3.

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A few notes to get you set for a crucial Game 3 for the New Jersey Devils:

So crazy it just might work

Playing Timo Meier on the 3rd line is one thing. He is one of the team’s only natural goal scorers and he plays the physical, blunt style that teams gush over at this time of year. Slotting him somewhere he’s likely to play ~16 minutes – rather than 18-20 – seems counterproductive.

Pairing him with Mikey McLeod, the team’s everyday 4th line center, feels like even more of a head scratcher. But it’s so crazy it just might work. Hear me out.

You all know I am not a water carrier for Lindy Ruff. If I don’t like something, I will be sure to point it out; and I don’t overly care for the lines he came up with for this game.

That being said, there is reason to believe Meier and McLeod might actually work out together.

We know Meier is an elite scoring chance generator who can finish plays off. That is a skill set you generally want to pair with a high-end playmaker.

While I wouldn’t classify McLeod as such, the numbers paint a much brighter picture than you’d think.

McLeod averaged 1.46 assists per 60 minutes during the regular season. Only Nico Hischier ranked ahead of him among Devils regulars. Of the 252 forwards to log 800+ minutes at 5v5, McLeod ranked 42nd in assists per 60; just ahead of William Nylander, Brad Marchand, and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Craziness, I know.

Using my shot contributions data, we see that McLeod has a very pass-first tendency; more so than anybody on the team.

I tracked 45 Devils games during the regular season. In those games, 58.94% of McLeod’s shot contributions were shot assists. Jack Hughes was the closest teammate to him at 52.85%.

McLeod is flawed but he is a surprisingly good puck distributor. Pairing him with someone like Meier – who wants to shoot every chance he gets – might not be the worst thing in the world.

The extremely early returns would back that up. They only played 14 minutes together during the regular season but, in those minutes, the Devils out-chanced opponents 13-3 and controlled 76.7% of the expected goal share.

This duo is crazy; but it just might work.

At this point, it’s worth trying a different look the Rangers haven’t yet seen and adjusted to.