The New Jersey Devils are in 14th place in the Eastern Conference playoff race and nine points out of the eighth and final playoff spot while having played an Eastern Conference high 36 games. They rank an abysmal 28th in the NHL for goal scoring and an uncharacteristically high 19th for goals against.
With no life nor margin for error Devils President Lou Lamoriello fired fourth-year head coach Peter DeBoer on Friday. Lamoriello will fill in behind the bench with Devils legend Scott Stevens coordinating the young defensive corps while former Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates will run the aging forward lines. Former Ottawa Senators head coach Paul MacLean is thought to be the top prospective full time candidate.
Deeper than DeBoer
DeBoer led the Devils to the 2012 Eastern Conference Championship before his Devils fell to the Los Angeles Kings in six games for the Stanley Cup. That proved to be the last moment of glory for a franchise that has been in decay since 2010 with just that one post season bid of 2012 since that time. A look at the Devils issues reveals that this is a team in decay with problems far larger than their former head coach.
Over the Hill Gang
The slow and plodding Devils have the oldest roster in the NHL with an average age of 30 per player. Even more odd is their bizarre hybrid of a young defensive corps to go with an old forward line that is led in scoring by the 42 year old Jaromir Jagr, who has five goals and 15 assists good for 20 points. This blame for this inept roster falls squarely on Lamoriello, who has not prepared well for the future.
Hall of Famer Losing Midas Touch
Lamoriello is a Hall of Famer and rightfully so. The franchise won three Stanley Cups from 1995 through 2003 and was a regular playoff team from 1990 through 2010 in a remarkable run that was strong and credible enough to get the state of the art Prudential Center built and opened for business in 2007.
During the Devils days as a perennial Stanley Cup contender it was Lamoriello who held the franchise together and outsmarted other teams despite having a low budget, frequent ownership changes, and a small though hardcore fan base.
In his later years, however, the 72 year old Lamoriello has failed to keep pace with the other top teams in the Eastern Conference. In 2012 such Devils as Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, and David Clarkson were part of a core that made the Stanley Cup Final. They all have departed and Lamoriello failed to restock the cupboard. DeBoer said it best years ago after he was fired by the Florida Panthers stating that “you have to have the horses to be successful in this league.” DeBoer only had thoroughbreds in his first and most successful Devils season as Lamoriello failed to keep them locked in the barn.
Lamoriello used to be the master of restocking his roster as he would bring in such studs as Scott Stevens, Scott Nidermayer, Claude Lemieux, Alex Mogilny, Bill Guerin and draft with astute excellence such players as future Hall of Fame G Martin Brodeur. But in recent years there has been no such brilliance.
Not Playoff Ready
Lamoriello has put together a bizarre roster that not even Toe Blake or Scott Bowman could win with. He has wasted money on Ryan Clowe ($24.5 million), Michael Ryder ($7 million), Anton Volchenkov ($25.5 million), and Henrik Tallinder ($13.5 million). And yet he could not come up with the cash to keep star Zach Parise, who would have been willing to stay, but instead went to Minnesota after the Wild backed up the truck in 2012. It was the beginning of the end.
One characteristic of the Lamoriello years has been a fully revolving door of coaches. Lamoriello has now made 19 coaching moves during his reign as Devils boss. This firing of DeBoer however comes off as a desperation move of a man fighting to save his own job.
New Ownership with New Priorities
When Josh Harris and David Blitzer bought the Devils in 2013 they knew what they were getting into from the aging roster and the leaks of the roof at the Prudential Center following Hurricane Sandy. The Devils had creditors banging on the door and the new owners had to repair damages both literally and figuratively. Harris and Blitzer have state of the art minds and are “in it to win it.”
Lamoriello may not be long as Devils Boss without a massive turnaround that the current roster is not capable of.
