This makes one thing clear...

This made one thing clear, the Devils have a new plan than they did two years ago, and why not? Sonny Mena spent the whole entire offseason working on it, and the numbers right now show this is about to break open in a very good way. Welcome in, Devil fans. Glad to have you here today. If you haven't already, please go ahead, hit the subscribe button. We always appreciate when you guys stick around and talk more Devils hockey. It also helps out the channel a ton. so yesterday a little bit of a surprise before the game started uh Brendan Dillon was out of the lineup for Jonathan Kovacevic Kovacevic was injured um healthy enough to return last night and he makes his season debut so this might have felt like a little bit of a surprise because you think Brendan Dillon you know the past two years with New Jersey he's played in every single game veteran presence it's clear the players in the locker room like them you know I like Brendan Dillon but why did they choose to take Brendan Dillon out of this lineup well I mean it comes to showing how this team wants to be built and let's think about when you go one way what happens what are the results well a perfect example of this would be Tom Fitzgerald's offseason two off seasons ago because you think about what Tom Fitzgerald did in that off season he went and he got physical he went he got guys like you know Paul Cotter, Stefan Noesen, Brendan Dillon part of that off season as well he went out and he got physical because Florida did a very good job you know Florida has won two of the past three Stanley Cups have been in three of the past four so Florida knows what they're doing and Tom Fitzgerald you know sees that and he goes and goes and gets more physical devils need to be more physical well it's ultimately what got him fired because i always say this when i think of Tom Fitzgerald's tenure with the Devils he had two different careers you know one career he's going out and getting guys like Tyler Toffoli Timo Meier 30 goal scorers you know that was one side of it the second half well you're letting go of guys like Tyler Toffoli you're bringing in less goal scoring 2023-24 five on five Devils are the worst goal scoring team in the NHL so they're letting up goal scoring instead of impacting it after being a top goal scoring team they're going on getting guys like Timo Meier Tyler Toffoli when the goal scoring goes down well that kind of got away they no longer even found their fourth line center so when Sunny Mehta came in here it's clear Sunny Mehta values offense look the Devils want to be more offensive team and when you look at this so far this short season short sample size you know New Jersey's gonna be a much better offensive team gonna score a lot more than they already have because they're top of the league in terms of expected goals for they are number one in Cors i know i'm sorry i don't have that graphic up right now but just to show how much luck they're getting go look at their PDO they're 93.6 their expected goals against is still top 10 and they have a 93.6 pdo so when you put these things together it's showing that New Jersey is going to start scoring a lot more because they get a 93.6 pdo i mean i'll put it in perspective for you the worst team last year had a 97 one that was New Jersey what do you think about Sunny Men has done this offseason he's run and he's gotten guys like Luca Evangelista he's run on guys like Evan Rodriguez Jesper Boquist Lombardi i mean these are guys where he's already reinvented that fourth line he's been able to put Cody Glass back on the fourth line he's been able to add another top six at a good price point sign long term these are the type of things Tom Menage has been able to do so when you think of the Devils right now they're going to start scoring more and they don't want to get away from it so why do you take Brennan Dillon out of the lineup and not a guy like Declan Chisholm you know Brennan Dillon's played the past two years he's played in all 82 games 164 games he's a veteran liked in the locker room what do you think about Brennan Dillon's playing style and you throw into the rest of the Devils defensive group Luke Hughes offensive Dougie Hamilton offensive Jonas Siegenthaler good in the transitional game Brett Pesce very good defensively so what does that leave you with well Declan Chisholm that could be a name on the board who you might want to say he can come out the devils don't want to stay overly physical they want to score and when you're bringing a guy like Jonathan Kovacevic well there's not too much goal scoring going on with Jonathan Kovacevic. When we look at Brendan Dillon and the difference between him and Chisholm, let's look at Brendan Dillon's numbers first. You know, his core seat's usually under 50%. His on-ice expected goals percentage, it's also under 50%. When he gets off the ice, I mean, relatively, the Devils score more. That doesn't make Brendan Dillon a bad player we're just trying to understand the impact we need right now how much of it we need now although and I'll say it I'd rather Brendan Dillon in the lineup I think at least some nights over Jonathan Kovacevic so it's it's not like he can't fit a role it's just about how much of that role do we need when we already have Jonathan Kovacevic in the lineup who's not going to add too much offense do we really need another physical force on the defensive side or do we need to prioritize the offense because when I go and I look at Declan Chisholm's numbers well it's better teams score more often when Declan Chisholm is on the ice he's got that one year 2025 he played 26 games but outside of that teams does okay I mean we're third pairing defensemen these are pretty good so when you think about what's going to work what's going to help Sonny get his plan across they need to be more offensive on the defensive side they want to produce more offense and right now it shows it when you're a top five team in the league and expected goals for when you're number one in terms of your Corsi when your PDO is a 93 yeah when you're toward the bottom of the league and goals scored that's going to change it's going to change for New Jersey and New Jersey they're sticking with the course they want to see this thing through so um Brendan Dillon out of the lineup look I do think he gets back in like I said there are nights where I'd rather Brendan Dillon in over Jonathan Kovacevic but it's something you can a little bit more of a trade-off similar playing styles um it's something where you don't want too much in the lineup and they don't add some of the things that you know a Dougie Hamilton Luke Hughes at so that's what we saw um we'll see what happens in the Ranger game there's been no official update on the lines um unfortunately I won't have a post game for that tomorrow so it won't be out there tomorrow but I appreciate you guys tuning in tonight um please go ahead hit the like button hit the subscribe button we always appreciate when you guys stick around and we'll be back on Friday but unfortunately no post game for tomorrow but let me know anything down in the comments as well with Brendan Dillon coming out of the lineup do you like it would you rather see him be chiseled give a different idea let me know down in the comments i'll definitely get back to all of them thanks for tuning in tonight and see you guys all real soon