On a lack of production from the bottom-6 and the schedule softening

The Devils aren't getting any offense from their depth lines – that doesn't mean they're hurting the team. Plus, the Devils have some exploitable opponents upcoming.

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Here are a few New Jersey Devils notes on another off-day:

The bottom-6 is holding its own

New Jersey’s bottom two lines have been a popular topic of conversation in recent weeks – mostly for the wrong reasons.

The Devils have struggled to score at times and the finger naturally gets pointed at the depth lines when that becomes an issue. Why? They’re not scoring at all.

While it would be great to get more production from those units, this isn’t a dire situation where they are objectively harming the team. That’s far from the case.

They’re not contributing offense but they’re not giving any up and are still controlling the run of play.

Take the past 10 games, for example. Dawson Mercer, Paul Cotter, Erik Haula, Tomas Tatar, Curtis Lazar, Nathan Bastian, and Justin Dowling have combined for four points at 5v5 and Mercer accounted for three of them.

The Devils are getting zero offense from that cast of characters yet have still made out just fine in their minutes.

Each of those seven players owns an on-ice goal differential of even or better. Cotter’s been on for two goals against while Haula, Bastian, Lazar, Tatarm and Dowling have conceded one (or zero).

Save for Lazar, who only dressed four times in that 10-game stretch, Cotter posted the worst xGF% among all regular bottom-6ers and still came in at 53.59%.

If playing even hockey while controlling the run of play is ‘bad’ play from the team’s bottom-6, the Devils are in damn good shape.

The top portion of the roster features a lot of high-end talent that can consistently win best-on-best minutes.

The B6 has turned into a group that simply punts its minutes and turns it over to the big guns to win or lose the game.

While the losses can be frustrating because it feels like the players up top have no help, it’s generally going to be a winning formula when there’s so much elite talent – and the proof is in the pudding through 40 games.

Yes, the bottom-6 could use a jolt. Yes, it’d be preferable to find a way to get more offense from that group.

But, even scoring as infrequently as they are, the bottom two lines are still doing more to help the team than hurt them.

Finish the trip in style