Second Guesssing This New Jersey Devils Coaching Hire

The Flames fired Mike Keenan last year after his team's terrible first-round playoff performance against the Blackhawks.

Then-Devils coach Brent Sutter noticed a job opening in Calgary. He wanted to be close to home, and he wanted to work for his brother, Darryl Sutter, who is the general manager of the Flames.

Sutter decided to quit his job as the Devils head coach. He insulted everyone's intelligence by saying he needed to take care of his farm in Alberta. No one bought that hogwash.

Lou Lamoriello moved quickly in replacing Sutter. He hired a blast from the past in Jacques Lemaire.

For Lamoriello, it made sense. Lemaire knew how to win not to mention getting the most out of his players.

Lemaire was coming off several rough seasons in Minnesota, but Lamoriello felt Lemaire could win with better talent in New Jersey.

Lemaire wanted to get one more chance of the Cup before he retires for good. He took advantage of the opportunity that was presented to him.

Unfortunately, this move has not worked out. It was not a right choice to begin with from this perspective.

The game has past Lemaire by. His approach of using the neutral zone trap does not work in hockey anymore. There are too many great players in this league that can beat the trap.

In the last few years, the teams that won the Cup used a forechecking style. They  attacked often instead of sitting back. That's what the Red Wings do.

Many teams are trying to copy what the Wings do.

This is what the Devils should have done. They should have hired a coach that practice those ideologies.

The right choice would have been the guy coaching in the Flyers bench. That would be Peter Laviolette.

It's surprising Lamoriello never interviewed him or hired him. Laviolette proved he is an elite coach.

Not only did he win a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes, but the Islanders qualifed for the playoffs under his stewardship. Think about hard it is to get the Islanders in the playoffs.

That should have given Laviolette credibility right there.

He has done a great job as the Flyers coach. His team experienced a funk down the stretch, but they managed to tally up some wins in the final week. That helped the Flyers qualify for the playoffs.

Right now, he has outcoached Lemaire. A few years ago, it would have been considered blasphemy to make that statement.

Now, it's a different story. The game has changed and Lemaire can't seem to adapt to it.

At his age, it's hard for him to learn new tricks. He is a great hockey mind, but when a coach is stubborn in using the same lines not to mention having his team remain passive rather than attack, it's hard to win in this league.

Laviolette knows offense, and he has his team playing smart. He lets his team take penalties by hitting guys. He knows that can wear down the Devils.

Lemaire does not believe in that type of stuff. He feels a good defense is a good offense.

After Game 2, Lemaire felt Ilya Kovalchuk shouldn't be agitating others or taking penalties. This comes on the heel of Kovalchuk's solid performance in that game.

Kovalchuk seems to be successful with that style. Why would Lemaire do anything to stifle his best player who needs all the confidence he can get?

Anytime a coach tells his player to do something different rather than playing to his strength, it's not going to work. Just ask Rangers coach John Tortorella.

Tortorella told Sean Avery to not to act like a fool or turn other teams off. What the Rangers coach saw was a player that was lost on the ice. It did not serve the blowhard Rangers coach well.

If Laviolette was coaching, he would never tell his player to adapt to his system. A great coach adapts to the player's talent not the other way around.

That's called being smart and not being an egomaniac.

Also, what does Lemaire know about offense? This head coach would prefer to win games 1-0. Too many players see their numbers stifle that way.

It's not an accident many players on offense have struggled in the last month.

Based on this terrible performance and what happened in March, Lamoriello has no choice but to make a coaching change. This encore is not working out, and it probably won't in the future.

What Lamoriello needs is a coach that knows the new style of hockey.