New Jersey Devils notes: On Ruff striking gold, Severson SZN, and more

After a ton of tinkering, Lindy Ruff appears to have found the quality middle-6 line he's been looking for. Plus, Marino's return has allowed Severson to feast on opposing depth again.

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A few New Jersey Devils notes on this off-day:

Lindy Ruff might’ve found something

It has felt like the Devils have been a two line team for months now. They’ve had the Nico Hischier/Jesper Bratt unit and whichever one Jack Hughes is on. That’s it.

No matter which combinations Ruff has gone with to try and find another decent scoring line, it just hasn’t worked. Until now.

We’re dealing with small samples but the Yegor Sharangovich - Erik Haula - Fabian Zetterlund combination has been really impressive since it was put together.

The Devils have won the xG battle 3.51-1.58 (68.97 xGF%) through ~43 minutes with that trio on the ice.

Zetterlund has been absolutely lethal with the puck on his stick. He has consistently found himself in dangerous areas of the ice to rip shots on goal and his playmaking has been surprisingly good.

Haula has won a ton of faceoffs, puck battles, and done all of the dirty work he usually did alongside Hughes; and Yegor Sharangovich has shown great chemistry working off both of them.

They have shown the ability to generate offense in the cycle game on grind-it-out shifts and, with good speed and timely passing (especially from Zetterlund), they’ve also caused real problems off the rush.

I thought Dawson Mercer was good Thursday in St. Louis but he has generally been lost without Hughes. Considering 86 is expected to return Saturday, I think the following combinations are worth a go:

Tatar-Hischier-Bratt
Palat-Hughes-Mercer
Yeezy-Haula-Zetterlund

That top-6 could play with anybody and, in its current form, I think the 3rd line will cause a lot of problems against an older and shallow Penguins team.

Severson SZN is upon us