John Hynes was fired after the Devils were so bad last night that even describing the loss was difficult for me.
Why?
Well, I watched the game that saw the Devils allow three goals before they even placed a shot on the Buffalo net and in the time that it took me to make a sandwich allow two more.
At that particular point, I had enough and flipped to something else.
I'm used to watching poor play (Other than the powerhouse Ohio State Buckeyes) from my teams, but that was so bad that I just couldn't even get through it.
One can argue that Hynes could have been relieved earlier, but I think his relationship with Ray Shero did come into play as Shero wanted to give him every opportunity to turn around a team that drafted the top player in the draft (Jack Hughes) traded for a star veteran (P.K. Subban), traded for the top player from the KHL (Nikita Gusev), signed a solid veteran (Wayne Simmonds), would have a returning former MVP from injury (Taylor Hall) and looked to be substantially improved entering the season.
The Devils have not been improved, losing their first four games (two in extra play) and have won only nine of twenty-two games.
New Jersey's 22 points are more than only one other team (Detroit, who has five points less and have played four more games! What a trainwreck THAT must be!) in the league and have already fallen TEN points behind the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Hynes finished his tenure with a record of 150-149-45 over four full years plus this season's one-third season with one playoff appearance.
Hynes did well with what he had early in his Devils career, but as the talent improved, Hynes didn't loosen the reigns for his players and rigidly stuck with a system that has left them next to last in the league in goals scored, does not have a player that has reached double-digits in goals and is next to last in goals allowed per game, it was long past time for this move to be made.
Alain Nasreddine was promoted from an assistant spot as the interim head coach with Peter Horacek moving from scouting for the organization to replace Nasreddine into the assistant slot.
Nasreddine was a journeyman defenseman in a career spent mostly in the minors and came to New Jersey with Hynes as part of his first staff.
Nasreddine has never been a head coach at any level, so it seems to me that he is likely to be a placeholder while Shero investigates potential replacements.
I would think that Nasreddine wouldn't be more than a long shot for the permanent position longer than the end of the season, although his chances would improve, should the Devils turn things around under his hand.
Peter Horacek has been a long-time assistant in the league for several teams and twice has been in the boat that Alain Nasreddine is currently in- interim coach as he was the Panthers (2013-14) and Maple Leafs (2014-15), so Horacek will be the staff presence that has been there before to help Nasreddine ride out the storm.
I'm not sure if this turns things around, but it had to be done.
It's likely too late to save this season, but allowing fiascos such as in Buffalo cannot continue to be tolerated.
Much of the blame can be passed along to the players as well as Hynes.
Far too many players have underachieved this season and some of those players need accountability as well.
John Hynes isn't around for the players and the fans to blame anymore- If the play doesn't improve, who is next to receive the blame.
I'll be back later tonight with the debut of Alain Nasreddine for the Devils against the visiting Las Vegas Golden Knights.
No comments:
Post a Comment