New Jersey Devils notes: On the 9-1 run, Zetterlund's strong play, and Vanecek righting the ship

The Devils have won nine of their last 10 games; and they haven't needed the aid of unsustainable percentages to do it.

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

On the 9-1 run

I can’t say enough good things about the Devils and the form they’re in right now. Most lengthly winning streaks – even with a sound process attached – are fuelled at least in part by unsustainably strong percentages. This one isn’t; not one bit.

Whether you isolate 5v5 play, or focus on all gamestates, the Devils rank 1st in high-danger chances for and against over the last 10 games. They’re steamrolling teams.

Even so, they’re still not scoring – or getting saves – at an abnormal rate. At 5v5 they rank 10th in shooting percentage and 15th in save percentage.

Across all gamestates, their shooting percentage drops to 15th best but their save percentage increases to 9th.

So, depending on the situation, the Devils are either a little above average shooting the puck – and smack in the middle in terms of getting stops – or vice versa.

For perspective of how ordinary the team’s percentages are, the Anaheim Ducks rank ahead of the Devils in 5v5 PDO (shooting percentage + save percentage) over the last 10 games. They’ve won three times.

The Arizona Coyotes slot ahead in overall PDO over the same period. They’ve won four.

While the Devils are obviously not going to continue winning nine out of every 10 games, they haven’t done so due to lucky breaks, bounces, and/or their players shooting the lights out.

They’ve won nine of 10 because they’re smashing their opponents in the mouth in the Grade A chance department and beating them on volume.

This team is legit.

Zetterlund is a problem