A Look at the Consistency of the CBGB Line

After the dissatisfying finish to the New Jersey Devils 2012-13 campaign, there are few bright spots for fans to continue hope. One of those positive aspects going forward is the CBGB line. Last season, Stephen Gionta played in the final game of the season against the Senators and managed to score his first NHL goal. Gionta's play was good enough for the Devils to keep him with the Devils throughout the postseason. In the postseason Peter DeBoer put Stephen Gionta, Steve Bernier, and Ryan Carter together on one line. Little did Devils fans know, we were about to witness the formation of a very solid line we named, The CBGB Line!

In order to compare the performance of the line, I'm going to compare the performance between the 2012 postseason and the 2013 regular season. Below are the basic stats from those two periods of play.

The consistency of this line is actually kind of ridiculous. The line as a whole played about twice the amount of games in 2013 than they did in 2012. They also scored about twice as much. In 2012, each player put up seven points while they all put up either 14 or 15 points in the 2013 season. All around, the line is very balanced. The only negative from these basic stats is the swing in plus minus from positive 11 to -7. In order to get a better look at game-by-game performance, I broke these stats down to a per game basis. The tables are below.

Again, we can see that this line is very well balanced, especially for a depth line. Each player put up around 0.3 points per game in 2012 and pretty much the same scoring pace in 2013. While these numbers aren't amazing, they show a very good line that needs to be taken into consideration by the opponent. Another interesting note is that each player played around the same amount of minutes. The three players all played between 525 and 550 minutes of 5v5 time in the 2013 season.

As for possession, in the 2011-12 playoffs, all three players corsi on were well below -10. Their possession as a line was not all that great. During the 2013 season, Carter and Bernier brought their corsi-on up to 9.08 and 7.76 respectively. However, Gionta was only a 0.34. This line has stuck together quite well and has improved their corsi. As for the reason of their improved corsi, I've got two theories. The first is that they have grown accustomed to playing together and have some "chemistry" together. The other theory is that their competition was not as strong during the season than during the playoffs. However, the quality of competition was actually lower in the playoffs than during the 2013 season, so that theory might not hold.

Overall, the CBGB line has been consistent throughout the time they've played together. While they haven't necessarily produced more, they have produced consistently and managed to increase their puck possession. Overall, I think the Devils have a solid depth line for at least another season. Given that these three players are 28 or 29 years old, I would hope the Devils lock them up for a few more season if they have another successful season next year.