Being a member of the New Jersey Devils organization is similar to the Hotel California.
One checks out,but never truly leaves.
Players leave and return to New Jersey at a higher rate than most teams and coaches are not immune to that either.
The trend continued with the return of Jacques Lemaire as the Devils bench boss.
Lemaire is bringing Mario Tremblay along with him as his top assistant and kept Tommy Albein and Jacques Caron on staff from the current slate of coaches.
Tremblay replaces John MacLean on staff as MacLean will be the head coach of AHL Lowell in order to gain leadership experience that could eventually tab him as the replacement for Lemaire.
The hiring was not overwhelmingly popular,but not universally panned either.
Most of the negative opinions were from people that figured that Jacques Lemaire meant the return of the trap or as Ryan put it-"back to Devils are boring jokes".
Maybe that could be the case,but I would not guarantee that.
At least I am trying to think positively anyway!
The game has changed since the last tour of duty for Lemaire and the overly defensive style seems to be a bad fit with the makeup of the current roster.
Marian Gaborik didn't seem to be hindered by Lemaire and I would bet that Zach Parise would not be either.
The defensive corps does not have Stevens,Niedermayer or Daneyko either so Lemaire's suffocating defensive style would not be nearly as effective as in the old days and I cannot imagine that he would try.
One positive thing is this-Brian Rolston was never as effective in his career than he was under Lemaire in Minnesota and after a year of Rolston struggling with Brent Sutter,perhaps Lemaire can reignite Rolston to the goal scorer that he was with the Wild.
One more comment for those that believe that the trap is returning to New Jersey.
Consider that Lou Lamoriello has been slowly changing the type of player to fit the new brand of play and if Lemaire has an insistence of the old style,then this will be a short marriage indeed.
Lou knows that the Devils have major contracts coming up in the next few years with Parise,Zajac (a longer term deal) etc and the drafting of players that will arrive in the next few seasons that have strengths that will not be as effective in a defensive minded system.
If Parise feels stifled under a bend and don't break system,the chances of keeping the first offensive star that the Devils have developed in years will certainly decrease and I don't think that Lou will allow that to happen.
I cannot say I am jumping for joy as I would have preferred Ted Nolan,but there were certainly worse options than Jacques Lemaire.
Lemaire knows the game,has had success in every stop and maybe a smidgen of defense could put the Devils over the top.
At least I can hope anyway....
The Devils signed Yann Danis from the Islanders to serve as Marty Brodeur's cad
dy for next season.Danis shared time with Joey McDonald filling in for the injured Rick DiPietro last season winning 10 of 31 appearances.
The high point of Danis year was a 40 save shutout of the Devils in February that surely boosted his status in the eyes of the Devils.
More later with some goodbyes,some talk for the seamheads and some words on tonight's Hagerstown Suns autograph night...
Photo Credits
Devils:Chris Creamer's sports logos
Danis:NHL.com
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