The New Jersey Devils have been known for a lot of things over the years. Three Stanley Cup Championships, constant playoff appearances and also, constant coaching changes. The decision to fire John MacLean after just 33 games can't be a total surprise considering the history of the Devils' coaching carousel.
MacLean, the rookie coach, was dealt a very tough hand with all the hoopla surrounding the Devils this year. First, he had to deal with the Summer of Kovalchuk, and everything that came with it. Training camp was held with the salary cap situation looming over it. Then, after some injuries temporarily solved the problem, he lost stars Anton Volchenkov, Zach Parise and Martin Brodeur at several points of the season. He also had the benching of Ilya Kovalchuk to deal with.
It just seemed there was always some kind of distraction there to take away from giving MacLean time to breath. I don't think by any stretch of the imagination, you can put a bulk of the blame on him for the Devils 9-22-2 start. Sure, he was a major part of the problem, but I think it's obvious he wasn't the only problem. The p ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by levinakl
New Jersey Devils Fire John MacLean, Bring Back Jacques Lemaire
December 23rd, 2010 by levinakl Leave a reply »
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