NEWARK -- Damon Severson has twice as many points as any other Devils defenseman and is tied for sixth on the team, but his rate has slowed down since a red-hot start to the season.

That strong start included 12 points in first 15 games, with a pair of goals mixed in. Since one of the Devils' leading scorers over that stretch, Severson has recored 14 points over next 45 games -- all of them assists.

"I was very hot at the start of the year scoring-wise. I've cooled off a bit in that regard, but it hasn't been from the chances cooling off," Severson told NJ Advance Media. "I just haven't got a bounce that I've been looking for here to get things started."

Severson saw a brief break on the power play in the middle of the season before becoming a fixture in the second group again over the past few weeks.

Now he said it's just a matter of time before one finds the back of the net and building off his current 26 points.

"Sometimes when you go into little slumps like that, you haven't scored for a while, it's one of those things where you're hitting posts, you're hitting bodies," Severson said. "Last game, I walked into a slap shot, and one of our guys deflected it over the net. From my view, it looked like it was going in. So it's just one of those things where you just have to keep working at it."

Severson's biggest asset in his game is his scoring and passing, and he classifies himself as an offensive defenseman.

To get back to his expected level of production, he said he needs to trust what got him to this point.

"I feel fine. That's my instinctual part of the game," Severson said. "As long as I'm playing in the offensive zone, let the instincts take over as much as possible and that's where I try to help the team succeed."

Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com Devils on Facebook.