Well crap on toast.

Another new coach for the team to adapt to?

Wondering if he really wanted to retire, or if Lou gave him an out. I won’t lie and say that I liked him as a coach. I blame him for not righting our slumping, but with that said… I’m sure he worked hard this year, and you always hate seeing someone walk away from something that they love doing and that is hockey. Keep in mind that all our players and coaches sacrifice time with family, friends and where they choose to live when not working with the Devils. I have to respect that. He is a legend and we were lucky to have him coach us to one of our cups.
Good luck to you coach Lemaire. You have done hockey proud and made it a better game.

I don’t like the idea of having a new coach to adapt to, BUT here’s to new opportunities and new beginnings (again). cheers

it would have been nice to give a legend like that a little better send off(shades of shanny) but ohwell.i was a fan of lemarie i always thought he could get kind of alot out of very small amounts of talent.

prehaps he is having health problems,i just cant imagine him stopping for anyother reason.

Wow.

I would have figured Lemaire would have stuck around for at least another year. I’m really surprised by this news. I don’t know exactly how effective Lemaire truly was for the Devils this year, but I thought generally speaking (except for the horrific playoffs) he actually did a good job this year.

Especially considering he didn’t have a completely healthy lineup until March.

I really just don’t know how I feel about this quite yet. As much as I thought Lemaire was great because he coaches our style of hockey (defense first), I don’t necessarily think his message was getting through to the players towards the end of the year anymore. Quite a similar situation to the end of his first stint here. Some people claim that the new NHL passed Lemaire by, and his methods have become outdated. I, for one, never necessarily agreed with this assumption.

Regardless, I guess we need to regroup and find a new coach…yet again. Just when you thought the Devils would have a consistent coach, the rug has been pulled out from under our feet once again.

I have only one thing at this time. Holy Crap. That just came out of no where.

Johnny Mac time? I would think so. He seemed to do fine in Lowell considering he lost a lot of players to NJ and injury.

Ken Hitchcock
would be very very simular to lemarie not a bad thought.

IMHO, he won’t mesh with Lou well. I know more about him from personal experiences, but will just say anyone but Hitchcock.

I think we could see Scott Stevens, though I don’t know the situation with how old his kids are and what he’d want at this point in his career. Johnny Mac did well getting Lowell into the playoffs, but I think Lou likes Scott more. I think.

I would think MacLean would be the first in line at this point. It seemed as if Lemaire was around just to allow Maclean to develop a little bit in the minors. But there’s no experience like that in the NHL and I could easily see Lou pulling him in.

Just a favor, can anyone invite me to the site. It’s invitation only now apparently. My e-mail is devilssan2@yahoo.com, if someone can do that for me it would be much appreciated

Is this an opportunity in disguise, or is this really bad?

Lou built this team and by his own statements thinks it should have gone deep in the Playoffs. I want Lout to get behind the bench and make it work.

Well i guess it’s time to give Johnny Mac his shot.

But I managed to put up a reaction piece anyway.

Thanks Steve and the commenters for contributing to it.