This afternoon Jacques Lemaire, the head coach of the New Jersey Devils, announced his retirement.
Various sources claim he will still remain in the organization with another job, but as a coach, this is the end of a glorious career in the National Hockey League.
As a player, Lemaire won eight Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens and two more as their general manager. He then won his last one in 1995 as head coach of the New Jersey Devils, where he would put the stamp on the organization for years to come, even when he was no longer there.
Lemaire would grow to become unpopular with fans as he played a strict defensive system known as the neutral zone trap. It was in Montreal that he created it, and in New Jersey where he let it thrive. He would also bring it to the Minnesota Wild, where unfortunately, was never able to capture previous success.
The trap was, without a doubt, a very boring style of hockey, but it yielded results. Lemaire won forty games or more nine times, won one Stanley Cup, and made it to the conference finals two additional times. This style was able to transform a not-so skilled team into one th ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Greg Caggiano
Jacques Lemaire, New Jersey Devils’ Coach and the Embodiment of Class, Retires
April 26th, 2010 by Greg Caggiano Leave a reply »
Advertisement