Don't fire the coach

[dantesinferno]

I hope the movement to fire John MacLean ends after last night’s loss. I actually feel sadness and pity for him now. Does he have any pride and self respect left? I don’t want to see him fired. I want to see him announce his resignation immediately. I want him to have a press conference and publicly reveal exactly what is going on inside the locker room. Reveal all the dirty laundry and call out every player and quitter that has had an active role in this travesty. Let them all finish the season with shame, disgrace, personal humiliation and an empty arena. This team will have the distinction of going down in Devil’s history as being the worst in 20years….congratulations on that proud legacy.

MacLean may or may not be an incompetent coach…but this team quit on him for whatever reason and he owes them nothing.

I hope he walks away from this crap heap with some shred of dignity and doesn’t look back.

Oh yeah, good luck finding a replacement.

[Colin226]

He's spent the entirety of his post-playing career trying to become an NHL head coach.. Yeah, he's just going to walk away from it when his GM is still backing him..

[dantesinferno]

He's spent the entirety of his post-playing career trying to become an NHL head coach.. Yeah, he's just going to walk away from it when his GM is still backing him..

Maybe this is what he has always wanted....which is exactly why it is so sad. Now he has to face the fact that he got his shot and it was a failure. As far as the GM still backing him? I think MacLean would have been fired (or asked to resign) already but Lou can't find any takers with more than Mite coaching experience.

[hystyk28]

I was at a bar and no longer close to the TV, but wasn't Mike Keenan on the post game on MSG? He doesn't live in the area, right?

[DaneykoIsGod]

Here's why you don't fire Mac right now: Because the new coach would get the same sh!t players.

Cut the dead weight first, then bring in a new coach. Otherwise we're just dooming the next guy to the same failure and quick exit.

[devils744]

Here's why you don't fire Mac right now: Because the new coach would get the same sh!t players.

Cut the dead weight first, then bring in a new coach. Otherwise we're just dooming the next guy to the same failure and quick exit.

it really is amazing how some people don't get this. they just want something done for the sake of it.

[coldply123]

Maybe Lou is punishing him for donning a Rangers uniform towards the end of his playing career? LOL, I kid.

But in all honesty, unless Lou takes a sledgehammer to the roster the next month or two and then in the offseason, the only move is to remove MacLean.

He has not done a good job as bad as the hand he may have been dealt with has been.

[jagknife]

I was at a bar and no longer close to the TV, but wasn't Mike Keenan on the post game on MSG? He doesn't live in the area, right?

keenan is a regular on hockey night live on MSG

[ZeroGravityFat]

don't worry they won't fire him, he'll respectfully 'step down' with 'no hard feelings'

[hystyk28]

keenan is a regular on hockey night live on MSG

I live in Flyers country so MSG is not something I normally see.

Thanks for the info.

[Revan]

I know the team sucks, but MacLean, despite all his assistant-coaching experience, seems completely incompetent behind the bench. We had a decent team last year. When you think about it, the entire core stayed the same. It's not like Lou tore the team apart in the summer (man, they even got their sh!t together after the departures of Stevens, Nieds and then Gomez, Rafalski and Gionta... how the hell can losing Martin and ADDING three quality players [Arnott, Volchenkov, Kovalchuk] destroy the team?). MacLean has no clue on how to get those guys going, it's that simple. He's one of the biggest reasons we're playing this poorly IMO. Firing him surely won't make things worse, because it simply cannot.

The only reason I'd consider sticking to MacLean for is getting the 1st/2nd overall pick (i.e. tanking).

[jagknife]

I live in Flyers country so MSG is not something I normally see.

Thanks for the info.

no problem, i had a gut feeling you didnt watch msg thats why i didnt add a smartass comment in to top it off

[jagknife]

I know the team sucks, but MacLean, despite all his assistant-coaching experience, seems completely incompetent behind the bench. We had a decent team last year. When you think about it, the entire core stayed the same. It's not like Lou tore the team apart in the summer (man, they even got their sh!t together after the departures of Stevens, Nieds and then Gomez, Rafalski and Gionta... how the hell can losing Martin and ADDING three quality players [Arnott, Volchenkov, Kovalchuk] destroy the team?). MacLean has no clue on how to get those guys going, it's that simple. He's one of the biggest reasons we're playing this poorly IMO. Firing him surely won't make things worse, because it simply cannot.

The only reason I'd consider sticking to MacLean for is getting the 1st/2nd overall pick (i.e. tanking).

teams, especially this one, have fired coaches for less. people are adamant about not firing mac cause there isnt anything out there worth getting, well not for nothing, and i may be an ignorant fan, but i didnt hear bruce boudreau's name before washington, sure as hell didnt hear of bylsma from pitt.

maclueless needs to be taken away from the team, he has no heart, he stands there looking dumbfounded showing now energy/intensity behind the bench. closest thing is the picture someone has of him holding 5 fingers up. i'm done with mime, hell give us mr. bean back, at least he could formulate a sentence without using "ya know" 5 times.

[CarpathianForest]

don't worry they won't fire him, he'll respectfully 'step down' with 'no hard feelings'

Yeah, he'll all of a sudden decide he wants to spend more time with his family

[MantaRay]

I feel bad for Mac. He waited and waited and finally when it happens he is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Had it been a year earlier we would be singing his praises as coach of the year.

[Biggie B]

This team is too old, too small and too slow to compete in today's NHL. This has been evident in the last few playoff runs and especially so this year. Firing the coach is futile; it's too late in the season and he is not the albatross around the team's neck that other perceive him to be. I'd like to see him coach next year before I think about jumping on tue fire McLean bandwagon.

Edited December 20, 2010 by Biggie B

[justdo3043]

I hope the movement to fire John MacLean ends after last night’s loss. I actually feel sadness and pity for him now. Does he have any pride and self respect left? I don’t want to see him fired. I want to see him announce his resignation immediately. I want him to have a press conference and publicly reveal exactly what is going on inside the locker room. Reveal all the dirty laundry and call out every player and quitter that has had an active role in this travesty. Let them all finish the season with shame, disgrace, personal humiliation and an empty arena. This team will have the distinction of going down in Devil’s history as being the worst in 20years….congratulations on that proud legacy.

MacLean may or may not be an incompetent coach…but this team quit on him for whatever reason and he owes them nothing.

I hope he walks away from this crap heap with some shred of dignity and doesn’t look back.

Oh yeah, good luck finding a replacement.

[BlueSkirt]

For me the jury is still out on Mac. I see him as arrested, charged, indicted & on trial.

I'll make my final decision based on the rest of this year & at most, 6 weeks into next year.

I believe he is about 40% of our troubles. I'll agree he's had a tough hand yet after a full camp & now half a season, very few of his players are even close to performing where they did as recent as last March. Volchenkov, Pelley, Mair, Zubrus and maybe Arnott are the only players performing anywhere near their past statistical records. Parise was doing well in the first dozen games of the year too.

That's a huge signal to me that this coach does not have a handle on how to use his players (and maybe even his assistants!) in given situations.

Apparently he's got another 50 games this year...and perhaps up to 15-18 next season to turn my opinion around.

Hopefully I'm wrong.Yet I see him out of a job by next Veteran's Day, maybe Thanksgiving.

[peteyvegas]

This team died the beginning of last year (January). It hasn't been good since. Johnny Mac is dumbfounded because he cant believe that this is happening. But it's been gradual. He may end up losing out because the system is antiquated. Defensemen now have to skate out of their zones, not just pass out. They also must help out in the attacking zone. Our guys are still playing out by the red line. We're not like Detroit. They can win and still get the right draft picks. After all these years, we may have to tank and start with draft picks. I was always afraid of that. I didn't think we had the fan base to support it.

[MantaRay]

This team died the beginning of last year (January). It hasn't been good since. Johnny Mac is dumbfounded because he cant believe that this is happening. But it's been gradual. He may end up losing out because the system is antiquated. Defensemen now have to skate out of their zones, not just pass out. They also must help out in the attacking zone. Our guys are still playing out by the red line. We're not like Detroit. They can win and still get the right draft picks. After all these years, we may have to tank and start with draft picks. I was always afraid of that. I didn't think we had the fan base to support it.

I actually blame a lot of this on JL. We seemed unbeatable Oct & Nov and JL just seemed to play mind games once we started losing and he never got the team back.

[MantaRay]

This team died the beginning of last year (January). It hasn't been good since. Johnny Mac is dumbfounded because he cant believe that this is happening. But it's been gradual. He may end up losing out because the system is antiquated. Defensemen now have to skate out of their zones, not just pass out. They also must help out in the attacking zone. Our guys are still playing out by the red line. We're not like Detroit. They can win and still get the right draft picks. After all these years, we may have to tank and start with draft picks. I was always afraid of that. I didn't think we had the fan base to support it.

I actually blame a lot of this on JL. We seemed unbeatable Oct & Nov and JL just seemed to play mind games once we started losing and he never got the team back.

[DaneykoIsGod]

I actually blame a lot of this on JL. We seemed unbeatable Oct & Nov and JL just seemed to play mind games once we started losing and he never got the team back.

If Lemaire was the problem, removing him would have solved it.

[peteyvegas]

This team has always killed coaches. I think the real problem is the system. It cant sustain itself throughout the course of a season. The team usually starts out fine until the rest of the league catches up come mid season. And we cant adapt at that point. We keep playing the same old song.

[CarpathianForest]

This team has always killed coaches. I think the real problem is the system. It cant sustain itself throughout the course of a season. The team usually starts out fine until the rest of the league catches up come mid season. And we cant adapt at that point. We keep playing the same old song.

We're in transition from playing Devils hockey to a new offensive oriented system. It's maddening, but that's partly the reason we're having problems.

[MantaRay]

If Lemaire was the problem, removing him would have solved it.

We will never know. But the chemistry and standards were soon altered beyond recognition.