Devils Fire Head Coach John MacLean And Bring Back Back Lemaire
Added on Dec 23, 2010 by J Merrill in
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After 189 days33 games, the New Jersey Devils have just 20 points and nine wins, and the New Jersey Devils have decided to relieve John MacLean of his head coaching duties. Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello announced today that they would be bringing back former head coach Jacques Lemaire to take MacLean’s place.
Lamoriello announced “Maybe we teased with signs at different times (to make a coaching change), but, as I’ve said, I take responsibility for waiting to try to get it to where it should be and under no set of circumstances should all this responsibility be on the coach. Responsibility lies on the players and myself for what couldn’t be done. Lately, our power play and penalty killing were good but our 5-on-5 play, or whatever reason. I called Jacques (Wednesday night) and had a conversation with him and asked him where he’s thoughts were and how he felt. He’ll help whatever way he can. I asked Lemaire to come back for the second half so we can find out who we are and where we’re at. I also felt that there is time to get back on track. He’s totally committed and will be coming to stay to get the job done.”
Lamoriello said that MacLean’s career with the Devils isn’t over, but also said that he can’t speak for him either. He continued, “John is a professional and it’s no secret John spent a lot of time with me in different capacities over the last few years so it wasn’t easy on both sides, but he understood. John is a class act in every way and a franchise and organizational person. We’ll get together over the holidays and he’ll be right back in work within the organization doing something. I do not feel his coaching career is over, if that’s the career he wants to pursue. In my opinion, he’s an outstanding coach but this is the profession we’re in. For different reasons it happens, you see it everywhere. I take that responsibility standing here in trying to get it to work.”
This will be the third time the 65 year old Lemaire will be behind the players in New Jersey. His second head coaching stint was last season, when he led the team to their ninth Atlantic Division championship while reaching the 100-point mark for the 12th time in 15 full seasons. He resigned following the team’s five-game setback to the Philadelphia Flyers in the quarterfinal round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Devils goalie Martin Brodeur didn’t like hearing the news, but he said we could see some quick results from the change, and he was upbeat about working with Lemaire. He said “It’s exciting. When you see a defensive-minded coach come in, especially when we need to keep it out of our net a little bit and play better 5-on-5 play. Our power play and penalty killing the last 10 games has been good. I think stability defensively is important. We’re struggling offensively, but struggling defensively also and that’s why we’re last in the League. Jacques knows how to get his players to play, so we’ll see the offense we can create. It’s a familiar face coming back, so the period of adjustment shouldn’t take to long.”
Devils forward David Clarkson was bothered by the decision, but said that he understood that these decisions needed to be made sometimes. He said “It’s tough, you feel bad for Johnny. I had him a long time as an assistant coach and now as a head coach and around this time of the season. We weren’t doing the job. It was a situation where something was going to happen, but you feel bad. You don’t want to see that happen to anybody, especially the type of person he was. I had a lot of respect for him, I liked him and it’s tough.
He concluded that this might be what the team needed, but only time will tell. He said “I think, at this point, anything can help. We don’t have too much positive going on. Jacques is a really smart coach, he knows the game really well, so I’m sure there’s little things he’ll be trying to do to get us going and working again. Do I think Johnny was doing anything wrong? No. It’s just the situation that happened.”
Lemaire will be coaching the team tonight when they face the New York Islanders(7-18-6, 20pts) tonight in New Jersey.
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