Get Real

It happens sometimes that players don't do well in a new system

RD as an administrator for this forum your should resign because of your mouth. How's that you want to throw me out again?

I guess you don't read all my posts. Many many times.

Don if the NHL collapsed I would miss your post, maybe.

Typical Triumph got it wrong again. Only Stevens fits the bill IMO and that's hate him here and anywhere else but I do give him lots of credit for playing well when he has a good game or series of games.

I don't think Carpenter is ready. The article said I thought or some other article said Ftorek may not even be with Albany next season. I can't imagine him behind the bench for the Devils as head coach again. I am surprised it's not Larry but then what does he want and what has Lou to offer. Offense will be the key in the future, but championships will be won with both and the team that can score but shift to defense quickly will win it all.

Whatever the reason and regardless of money. Let's wish him the best. Maybe he wants a different style of hockey. Maybe it's location. Wahtever, he has given us all a great game while here. And yes, hopefully he will stay. Certainly the Devils could use him.

Some of you must realize that this lockout has product a common goal for all and that's MONEY. Loyality is gone for every in the NHL. It's all about MONEY Each player will want to make MONEY and some will get excited about winning the cup. Niedermayer did terrific things for the Devils. He did what he got paid to do and did it very well. he has never bad mouthed the Devils or any of the players. I can only wish him the best for him and his family. If he didn't like the deal the Devils offered for whatever reason that's his decision alone. Good luck to him, and if he chooses to stay he will do his best to give his all for the Devils. The same way he will play for any team. He deserves the max pay allowed under the new terms he is a premier player heading to the Hall of Fame.

Don, any coach as player/coach would be a disaster for the Devils. I don't think Carpenter would be a good head coach based on the job he did in Albany. He maybe a good assistant coach. The Devils might not care about this issue in this coming season and go with other than an experienced coach. Like waste a year while every thing settles in. After all they need to be ready with the best they can get when the new arena opens.

Neither Looks like lots of opportunities for making the wrong decisions because they will be made on money and not what's best for the team playing wise. But some would say that a mediocre product is better than none.

Doesn't sound like Robinson is the guy or Lou isn't talking, yet. http://app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/.../507130498/1002 Robinson, Lewis left out of Devils' plans? GM Lamoriello has direction in mind Published in the Asbury Park Press 07/13/05 BY MIKE KERWICK STAFF WRITER If Larry Robinson is going to be introduced as the next head coach of the Devils, it's news to him. If Dave Lewis is going to be offered the keys to New Jersey, nobody's bothered to tell him. Robinson said Tuesday afternoon that New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello had not contacted him to inquire if the former Devils head coach was interested in returning to lead his old team. Lewis said he had not heard from Lamoriello either. "I tend to think Lou has somebody in mind," Lewis said. "I haven't heard anything." Robinson and Lewis, the recently deposed head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, were believed to be the top two candidates to fill the void created when a second bout with cancer forced Pat Burns off the Devils' bench. Now it sounds possible that neither one will take the reins in New Jersey if and when the NHL returns for the 2005-06 season. "I think we know what direction we're going to go," Lamoriello said. Lamoriello said he will not necessarily wait until the official completion of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before making a decision. "We might still do something this week," Lamoriello said. If not Robinson or Lewis, then who? Maybe Bobby Carpenter, a former Devils forward who was Burns' top assistant in New Jersey. Carpenter has no NHL head coaching experience, but was the head coach of New Jersey's AHL affiliate, the Albany River Rats, during the 2001-02 season. Lamoriello has been known to pull off surprises. He stunned just about everyone when he hired Kevin Constantine in January of 2002. At the time, Constantine was the general manager of the Pittsburgh Forge. Robinson led New Jersey to the Stanley Cup in 2000, then took the Devils back to the Finals in 2001. He was fired in January of the following season. Now a special assignment coach with the Devils, Robinson said he last talked to Lamoriello a few weeks ago, but not about returning as coach. "I think if the opportunity came about and I was asked to do it, I probably would certainly think about it," Robinson said. Lewis, a player for those terrible Devils teams from the early 80s, went 96-41-21-6 in two seasons as Detroit's head coach. Early playoff exits hastened his departure. "I'll put it this way," Lewis said, "I still have coaching in my blood." Lewis leaves for Stockholm, Sweden, Sunday for a fantasy hockey program. He said he has nothing but fond recollections of his tenure in Jersey. "We loved New Jersey," Lewis said. "We lived in Morris Plains. My wife and I just absolutely loved the town. Our kids went to school there. We had nothing but great memories of New Jersey." Three former NHL coaches unlikely to get the job are Mike Babcock, Paul Maurice and Robbie Ftorek. Babcock is expected to be the guy to replace Lewis in Detroit. Maurice, former coach of the Carolina Hurricanes team that knocked the Devils out of the playoffs in 2002, recently signed on to coach Toronto's top minor league affiliate. Ftorek, one Devils insider said, may not even be back coaching Albany next season. Hartford Wolfpack general manager Jim Schoenfeld, another potential candidate, is more likely to be named the next head coach in Hartford sometime this summer. Schoenfeld was head coach of the first Devils team to make the playoffs back in 1988.

Don could it be the Good guy vs Bad guy strategy and in fact Goodenow and Linden plus players committee are working a strategy that they think they need at this time? Time will tell who will lose his job, Bettman or Goodenow or both. I vote both for what they have done negatively to the NHL.

Initially it would appear that Goodenow should get the blame for what we hear is the new CBA. But we will have to wait a couple of years once the season starts again to see if the NHL and the players are a positive track or downward slide. Just maybe it will be Bettman that will be the blame for failure of the NHL negotiations. It is still the players that put forth the effort on the ice.

It's been a long time in coming and I sincerely hope it get finalized very soon, but inside I have this feeling that it won't get ratified by the players because it get hung up on one point or for some strange reason the owners won't go along with it. It would be nice to have facts to talk about and to see the effect the agreement will have on each team and especially the Devils.

We will have to wait and see until all the fall out of the CBA hits the ice. But it would apear Derek that they will be a powerhouse at the start of the season whenever that begins.