67 replies to this topic

[Quinn01]

""When it worked we had the same guys together all the time," said winger Patrik Elias. "We had a five-man unit (usually five forwards). We did the same thing every time. In every situation, we knew what we were suppose to do.
"But now Jacques likes to implement more guys and you have to adjust. Sometimes, it's a little out of place. I think that's the biggest difference.
"Before, we had our position, we had our plays. We worked on them and that's what we did every time. Now, we're kind of a little out of place.""

""We had one unit that took all the key players," Lemaire said. "I left it there for I think three games and then I asked (assistant coach) Adam (Oates) if we can go by lines so the guys are all fresh when we sent them out.
"The first three games we didn't score (on the power play). I saw certain guys were staying on after their shift because that was the unit. But when you go with the lines everybody is fresh.'""

-Star Ledger


The key in this article is Elias saying "We knew what we were suppose to do." You can see that some of the players, Elias included, feel out of place in some of the lines. What worked worked and it should have been left alone.

[CarpathianForest]

I thought Lemaire was the coach not Elias.

[ZeroGravityFat]

i've been unhappy with the line shuffling for the past year or so. if a line doesn't seem to be producing for a few games, they shuffle, you can't just switch stuff and hope for a spark, especially if the previous line was producing but has a slump.

[MantaRay]

I agree 100% with Elias. This was on of the many mistakes JL made last year before the team just tuned him out.

[BCdevil]

i've been unhappy with the line shuffling for the past year or so. if a line doesn't seem to be producing for a few games, they shuffle, you can't just switch stuff and hope for a spark, especially if the previous line was producing but has a slump.

The line shuffling has been going on for four years and it drives me crazy. Sutter did it all the time, Lemaire has taken it to a new level (MacLean was guilty of it too).

Edited by BCdevil, 06 January 2011 - 11:57 AM.

[CarpathianForest]

I like Elias, but Elias should STFU. What lines? You mean those lines and plays that have made it possible for us to be the lowest scoring team in the league?
Perhaps we should have no caoch at all and just let the players coach themselves like a bunch of guys playing football in the park.

[Devils731]

Isn't Elias talking about thePP lines in that quote and not even strength lines?

[MantaRay]

Isn't Elias talking about thePP lines in that quote and not even strength lines?

When Devils used to play at their best they rolled units of five.

[mddevsfan]

I'm going to have to side with Elias. The Devils had a PP late in the Minnesota game, and JL sends out Sestito? I like the guy, and he was having a good game, but on a key PP, why on earth would you send out a 4th liner who I'm sure doesn't even practice the PP? All the effort in the world doesn't help if you don't know where to be and where to go with the puck. As a result, I don't think the PP even registered a shot on goal.

If you're going to improvise with the lines to avoid having tired guys on after the PP, switch up the even strength lines for a few shifts.

[Devils731]

When Devils used to play at their best they rolled units of five.

No they didn't, it just appeared that way at times because the line matching at forward and defense would line up. The forwards and defenseman were still separate line changes.

Funny, people hated the PP early in the season and thought Oates needed to be fired, now it's a travesty that anything was changed to try and improve the teams 5 on 5 play.

[MantaRay]

No they didn't, it just appeared that way at times because the line matching at forward and defense would line up. The forwards and defenseman were still separate line changes.

Oh it just "appeared" that way. The forwards and defense always have to be separate since they are situational.

[Devils731]

Oh it just "appeared" that way. The forwards and defense always have to be separate since they are situational.

So now the 5 man units the Devils use played at different times in a split up of 3 forwards and 2 defenseman?

Come on, the Devils never played 5 man units at even strength, nobody does that. They played lines of 3 forwards and pairings of 2 defenseman.

Elias seems to be talking about the PP to me, but people are taking his quote as if he is commenting on even strength, and those are separate issues.

[CarpathianForest]

I'm going to have to side with Elias. The Devils had a PP late in the Minnesota game, and JL sends out Sestito? I like the guy, and he was having a good game, but on a key PP, why on earth would you send out a 4th liner who I'm sure doesn't even practice the PP? All the effort in the world doesn't help if you don't know where to be and where to go with the puck. As a result, I don't think the PP even registered a shot on goal.

If you're going to improvise with the lines to avoid having tired guys on after the PP, switch up the even strength lines for a few shifts.

There's merit to what you're saying but I think Lemaire was rewarding Sestito's play that night. The 4th line was the only line that wasn't putting up a s%it show that night and Kovy wasn't exactly keeping it in at the point. In addition, 4th liner Rod Pelley has seen some action on the PP lately and has been producing. If you got a chance to listen to JL's bench interview during the game he said we spent most of our time in the defensive end even on PP. The 4th liners were seemingly the only crew to be able to forecheck until the Kovy line finally got it going.

[Joe B]

Isn't Elias talking about thePP lines in that quote and not even strength lines?

I read it as talking about the PP as well. link anyone?

Joe

[NJDevs4978]

Gee, Patty's getting grumpy this year...first his Kovy comments now this.

He does happen to be right about the PP though, Lemaire 'fixed' the only thing that was working (specifically by changing the PP QB from Zajac to Kovy) and now it no longer works.

[BlueSkirt]

I'm going to have to side with Elias. The Devils had a PP late in the Minnesota game, and JL sends out Sestito? I like the guy, and he was having a good game, but on a key PP, why on earth would you send out a 4th liner who I'm sure doesn't even practice the PP? All the effort in the world doesn't help if you don't know where to be and where to go with the puck. As a result, I don't think the PP even registered a shot on goal.

If you're going to improvise with the lines to avoid having tired guys on after the PP, switch up the even strength lines for a few shifts.

I'll go with meritocracy: the guy who has won 8 SC's, twice coach of the year, another cup as coach with us, 2010 Gold Medal coach....

"Lemaire is known for his unorthodox coaching style for several reasons: first, he prefers a defensive-minded system, often using a strategy called the neutral zone trap, Second, Lemaire rarely uses permanent lines preferring to use mixed line combinations during games. Lemaire is also regarded as one of the best teaching coaches - developing young players while working well with veterans"

[moustic]

Did i just read a comment from a player of the worst team of the NHL to his coach ? Where he asks him to let the player do as they were doing previously ?

Really ?
Elias. Shut up !
As if you were free to bully in the press anyone ! This team hit a new... low point !

[maxpower]

he's talking about the PP and he's right, the only thing they had going for them before Mac left was the 9 forward PP, but from a coaching perspective, having 9 forwards on the PP probably makes you want to die.

Zajac did a solid job playing the umbrella point.

[CarpathianForest]

It's weird with JL coaching now, every time I read about a Devils player complaining about JL, I think of JL as the Godfather in this scene:

[maxpower]

and just to add, this goes back to my theory that Lemaire did not watch the team before taking the job last year and has not watched them much this year, because it was clear as day this worked. just as last year, it was clear as day what Parise could and could not do offensively but Jacques did everything on the PP with him, except what he *could* do.