I don’t understand why so many people only talk about the d-men when it comes to DZ play, as if there aren’t three other skaters out there impacting what happens. Let’s not forget that in this goofy system, they are the ones responsible for reading the play and covering the most dangerous area of the ice when the d-men go fishing for the puck behind the net/in the corners. They are also the ones blowing the zone way too quickly with no regard for the situation with the puck.
I think we focus on the defenseman because it’s not surprising that the forwards are poor at covering the slot and for making the reads necessary to determine where they should be.
The system appears full of fairly unique reads so I’m not surprised when they get screwed up by the forwards. The forwards would have less to screw up if the defenseman got to play a more traditional down low style.
Additionally, even when covering down low the forwards kind of stink at it, not a total surprise since that’s not a skillset a forward uses very often but the Devils ask them to use frequently.
So I think the forwards get a bit of a pass on the down low coverage because the reads are hard and the Devils are putting round pegs into square holes by asking them to be as good as defenseman covering that area.
Forward blowing the zone early is a feature, not a bug, so I agree it’s bad but it’s also what I believe the system asks them to do so I can’t fault them there.