20 replies to this topic

[Rock]

Devils' Lou Lamoriello blames himself for missing playoffs last year

http://www.nj.com/de...o_blames_h.html

"In my opinion, we should not have been out of the playoffs and I take responsibility for it," Lamoriello told The Star-Ledger today. "There were a lot of extenuating things. We were good enough to be in it but I had too many players here at the beginning of last year.

"It's better sometimes to have less than more. It affected the mood, the morale and other intangibles like who's playing, who's not playing and who is going to be traded?"

Edited by Rock, 12 April 2012 - 06:27 AM.

[sundstrom]

to be fair, lou tried to address this. langenbrunner would not waive his NTC and nobody wanted Rolston at the time.

[Pepperkorn]

Lou is more than fair to himself. He made moves BEFORE addressing the Langenbrunner situation and that was one flaw.

[Legion15]

I don't think one man is responsible, it was more everyone's let-down. The team just ran out of gas after that big rally in the second half of the season and stumbled at the end. It was just a matter of too many bad scenarios happening at once. It's in the past now, just getting in, and in 6th this year wiped that away. Now let's build on that and get into at least the 2nd round.

[Daniel]

It's really a simple answer, John MacLean. It's as close as it gets to a scientific conclusion in the sports world.

Lou hired him, so the buck stops there. However, I don't think anyone foresaw how much of a disaster he would be.

[sundstrom]

It's really a simple answer, John MacLean. It's as close as it gets to a scientific conclusion in the sports world.

Lou hired him, so the buck stops there. However, I don't think anyone foresaw how much of a disaster he would be.

mac was not a good coach but the lack of effort had just as much to do with the players as him.

we discussed this in chat though re: butterfly effect - even starting w/ trade of halischuk for arnott which, right now you might want a do-over on.

the first 1/2 of last year was brutal but there were three amazing silver linings with last year:

1) lou finally ditched the idea of "the old guard"
2) we had 3 months of playoffs in the second half when any loss essentially killed the devils playoffs - it was more exciting than the previous 3 years of being in the playoffs.
3) Adam Larsson

[Pepperkorn]

Man you guys hold NO ONE accountable after the fact do you?

LOU was responsible. He made an unfortunate series of errors and miscalculations which he then had to fix on the fly.

Yes -- he is responsible for fixing them all as well.

the rest is all just blather...

[Triumph]

to be fair, lou tried to address this. langenbrunner would not waive his NTC and nobody wanted Rolston at the time.

he could've waived langenbrunner. although this probably wouldn't've been a particularly popular move.

[sundstrom]

he could've waived langenbrunner. although this probably wouldn't've been a particularly popular move.

yeah - that would've gone over very poorly - especially with his best friend parise. and i'm sure lou had high hopes that even with the logjam of guys that were top 6 players and ones that THOUGHT they were, there was enough talent to keep the devils competitive. i mean, obviously there was as the 2nd half showed. i don't want to put percentages on the amount of ingredients in the soup but the biggest ones were:

jmac's inability to manage the room
jmac's inability to create a competent strategy
player attitudes alluded to previously
historically low shooting percentage

[Daniel]

yeah - that would've gone over very poorly - especially with his best friend parise. and i'm sure lou had high hopes that even with the logjam of guys that were top 6 players and ones that THOUGHT they were, there was enough talent to keep the devils competitive. i mean, obviously there was as the 2nd half showed. i don't want to put percentages on the amount of ingredients in the soup but the biggest ones were:

jmac's inability to manage the room
jmac's inability to create a competent strategy
player attitudes alluded to previously
historically low shooting percentage

Parise missing virtually the entire season didn't help matters either.

[Devil Dan 56]

The thing that bothered me the most about Johnny Mac was then Lemaire came in and said the players weren't even physically in game shape. It seemed like Mac did nothing to prepare them, and they did nothing to help themselves.

[DevsMan84]

The thing that bothered me the most about Johnny Mac was then Lemaire came in and said the players weren't even physically in game shape. It seemed like Mac did nothing to prepare them, and they did nothing to help themselves.

Not defending JMac here, but when did Lemaire ever step into a situation and did not say that the players were not in game shape?

[sundstrom]

Not defending JMac here, but when did Lemaire ever step into a situation and did not say that the players were not in game shape?

right - this is a lemaire shtick if you didn't know. when steckel showed up in the arnott trade, lemaire said he wasn't in shape.

[DevsMan84]

right - this is a lemaire shtick if you didn't know. when steckel showed up in the arnott trade, lemaire said he wasn't in shape.

Exactly and he has been doing for so many years you can pretty much expected when he starts a new coaching job.

Edited by DevsMan84, 12 April 2012 - 10:43 AM.

[devilsrule33]

There are so many factors to blame last season on, and I think Lou has to take the biggest hit. He created a situation where if it wasn't for injuries, anyone could have been traded. That isn't a good feeling around the locker room when you know someone HAS to be dealt. It's also not great when you ask your captain to waive his no-trade clause to be dealt before the season starts or in the off-season (Jame got that no-trade clause. He deserves to say no thank you without being crucified). Maybe, you have a situation where people are pissed about Kovalchuk, the contract saga, the contract, and the cap implications it has.

Then you start the season playing 9 forwards (hey, Rod Pelley...care to play 18+ minutes a night?). You have Urbom, Taormina, and Fraser in your top 6 D (Mark Fraser...care to play 16 min a night?). That's absolutely insane when you think about it. Soon after you can add Magnan-Grenier and Corrente to that list. When you do have the right amount of guys, you throw in the likes of PLL, Tim Ses-TI-to, Gionta and Adam Mair. You got more rookies in Josefson and Tedenby playing bigger roles. You have veterans like Arnott, Langenbrunner and Rolston playing roles that are way too big for where they are at in their career (See how much time Arnott and Langs are playing this year in St Louis compared to last year).

What else? Parise injury. Kovalchuk sucking. Clarkson sucking more. More veterans complaining. Brodeur being awful. Brodeur getting hurt. Add that all up and you got a rookie coach dealing with all this where you can't even flex your muscles since you were buddy buddy with half the team before and the team is full of disgruntled veterans as it is who feel entitled to way too many things they probably don't deserve. I doubt many rookie coaches who were long-time assistants with the same team is going to do much in that situation. Maybe not that bad...but I just don't see any success coming from the disaster that was the 2010 part of the season. It truly was the perfect storm.

You then bring in the perfect coach for the situation even if the coach is the same one the team wanted gone the year before. They were so lost and there was so much time left in the year that anyone was ready to put to rest any beef they had in order to fix the issues at hand.

[Devils Pride 26]

There are so many factors to blame last season on, and I think Lou has to take the biggest hit. He created a situation where if it wasn't for injuries, anyone could have been traded. That isn't a good feeling around the locker room when you know someone HAS to be dealt. It's also not great when you ask your captain to waive his no-trade clause to be dealt before the season starts or in the off-season (Jame got that no-trade clause. He deserves to say no thank you without being crucified). Maybe, you have a situation where people are pissed about Kovalchuk, the contract saga, the contract, and the cap implications it has.

Then you start the season playing 9 forwards (hey, Rod Pelley...care to play 18+ minutes a night?). You have Urbom, Taormina, and Fraser in your top 6 D (Mark Fraser...care to play 16 min a night?). That's absolutely insane when you think about it. Soon after you can add Magnan-Grenier and Corrente to that list. When you do have the right amount of guys, you throw in the likes of PLL, Tim Ses-TI-to, Gionta and Adam Mair. You got more rookies in Josefson and Tedenby playing bigger roles. You have veterans like Arnott, Langenbrunner and Rolston playing roles that are way too big for where they are at in their career (See how much time Arnott and Langs are playing this year in St Louis compared to last year).

What else? Parise injury. Kovalchuk sucking. Clarkson sucking more. More veterans complaining. Brodeur being awful. Brodeur getting hurt. Add that all up and you got a rookie coach dealing with all this where you can't even flex your muscles since you were buddy buddy with half the team before and the team is full of disgruntled veterans as it is who feel entitled to way too many things they probably don't deserve. I doubt many rookie coaches who were long-time assistants with the same team is going to do much in that situation. Maybe not that bad...but I just don't see any success coming from the disaster that was the 2010 part of the season. It truly was the perfect storm.

You then bring in the perfect coach for the situation even if the coach is the same one the team wanted gone the year before. They were so lost and there was so much time left in the year that anyone was ready to put to rest any beef they had in order to fix the issues at hand.

Came here to post that one line. Excellent summary.

[Biggie B]

We did draft Larsson...

[NJDevs4978]

I still sometimes wonder what happens if we win that first game against Dallas. It felt like blowing that game on Opening Night after looking like the best team ever for ten minutes had a huge effect, far more than it should have for many of the reasons in dr's post...almost like it was a breaking point after an offseason of turmoil.

Edited by NJDevs4978, 12 April 2012 - 11:16 AM.

[ThreeCups]

I still sometimes wonder what happens if we win that first game against Dallas. It felt like blowing that game on Opening Night after looking like the best team ever for ten minutes had a huge effect, far more than it should have for many of the reasons in dr's post...almost like it was a breaking point after an offseason of turmoil.

It is tough to say that, but I had the same feeling after about 10 or so games. We came out flying on opening night, looked amazing and then blew the game. It was the beginning of the end, a downhill slide from there....

[mmajeski06]

I prefer to leave last season in the past. It happened, its over, and we got a kick ass draft pick out of it.