Stanley Cup Finals 2012: Why the New Jersey Devils Have Better Coaching Corps

New Jersey Devils assistant coach Larry Robinson is way ahead of Los Angeles Kings head skipper Darryl Sutter when it comes to hitting the ice sprinting and turning a team around at midseason.

Granted, Sutter deserves ample credit for coming on board to supplant Terry Murray in December and ultimately salvaging L.A.’s bid for the final playoff spot. That is the say nothing of the Kings’ subsequent 12-2 run through the first three rounds en route to the franchise’s first Western Conference title since 1993.

But just as the Devils have a clear-cut upper hand in goaltending with Martin Brodeur, Robinson has already played an integral role in each of New Jersey’s last two titles. The first of those came in 2000, when he was elevated from his assistant position to fill an abrupt vacancy after Robbie Ftorek was canned with eight games left in the regular season.

Under Robinson’s supervision, New Jersey barely attained home ice for the first round and soon found itself in the conference finals after going 8-2 against Florida and Toronto.

Their run soon appeared to be in its last throes by Game 4, when a third-period letdown allowed the Philadelphia Flyers to claim a 3-1 victory and an identical 3-1 upper hand in the series. This meant going back to the hostile First Union Center for the first of up to three elimination games.

In response to the jeopardizing falter, the usually placid Robinson promptly unleashed a fury in the dressing room at Continental Airlines Arena and didn’t mince words in his postgame address to the press, according to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News.

The harangue became historic once the Devils responded with a 4-1 win two nights later, then squeaked out back-to-back 2-1 triumphs over the Flyers before claiming the Cup in six games against the defending champion Dallas Stars.

The players on that 2000 team, Brodeur included, have never ceased to consider Robinson’s rant a turning point in their title run, according to Rich Chere of The Star-Ledger.

Robinson was fired in the middle of the 2001-02 season despite having taken the Devils back to the finals in his first and only full season as head coach. But he was invited back to assist the late Pat Burns in 2002-03, which would be New Jersey’s next and, to date, most recent banner year.

And here he is again, along with offensive connoisseur Adam Oates, flanking first-year foreman Peter DeBoer.

Although Sutter has an experience edge on DeBoer, having coached Calgary to a Cup final in 2004, the Devils’ skipper has succeeded in one of the best lower-level simulations. He directed the Kitchener Rangers to a Memorial Cup in 2003.

Now in his fourth year as an NHL coach and his first Stanley Cup playoff run, DeBoer has thoroughly utilized his staff to help New Jersey to its first series victory since 2007 and first finals appearance since 2003.

Sutter has a lower-level championship-laden assistant in John Stevens, who won a Calder Cup with the Philadelphia Phantoms as a player in 1998 and head coach in 2005. But all told, the L.A. troika of Sutter, Stevens and Jamie Kompon doesn’t pack nearly as much as DeBoer, Oates and Robinson.

Both playing and coaching resumes count behind the bench and the Devils’ staff outshines the Kings’ in that regard. Perhaps more importantly, the constant and unmistakable in-game communication amongst DeBoer and his assistants can only stop influencing New Jersey’s playoff run if they stop working together.

Who better to ask than Brodeur himself, the lone holdover from each of New Jersey’s championship teams?

Indeed, earlier this month, the 40-year-old goalie told Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News, “Our big weapon is the coaching staff…I think they prepare us, they make changes to our system better than a lot of the coaches that I had in the past. And I think we were well-prepared to do the things we need to do to be successful.”

And that is coming from a three-time Stanley Cup champion and four-time finalist who has won each title under a different head coach―Jacques Lemaire, Robinson and Burns.

Kind of hard for Los Angeles, or virtually any of the other 28 NHL staffs, to top that.