When Jacques Lemaire resigned as head coach of the Devils following the 1997-98 season, he never thought he would coach the team again.
Eleven years have passed and Lemaire is back for a second stint after Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello named him as head coach today, filling the vacancy created when Brent Sutter stepped down nearly five weeks ago.
"I never thought I would be back," Lemaire said today. "I said at that time that I was leaving that I just had the five years and it was five years that I loved and I wanted to cherish for the rest of my career and my life. I never thought that one day I would come back. But I guess the situation right now is perfect for me and we want to go on with it."
Lemaire will turn 64 on Sept. 7, so it is a natural question to ask how long he plans to continue coaching. I asked specifically if he intends to coach more than one season and he said, "Yes it is."
Beyond that will probably depend on how things go.
"People that know me, I go on and when I see that it fits and when I see that it's time to go, I can't stay," he said. "So, I don't know how long."
Lemaire stepped down as the head coach of the Minnesota Wild in April, but said he never ruled out returning to coaching for another team.
"After the season, I never did close the door on coaching," Lemaire said. "I just said that my time in Minnesota is over and it's time to go on and do something else. Then, I watched, like many other coaches, all of the playoffs and I guess I heard a lot of ex-coaches say often it's really hard to get out of this because we love the game and it's exciting and it's fun and that's what I got watching the playoffs. I said, 'Well, I might go back' and when Lou called me I was excited, especially that it's a great organization. There's great people working for the organization and the organization is going in the right direction and being part of this is real exciting for me."
You can kiss Parise good bye after his contract is up... This is a bad move.
Posted by: Canadian Devils Fan | July 13, 2009 at 02:24 PM
Great move by Lou. I can't wait.
Posted by: Elias26 | July 13, 2009 at 02:24 PM
Best of luck Jacques. You were great with us in the 90's.
Hope you get another Stanley Cup!
Posted by: Bob Glavine | July 13, 2009 at 02:25 PM
second "sting" huh, replacing a T with a G. :)
Posted by: JJ | July 13, 2009 at 02:25 PM
Win a Cup and every single doubter suddenly becomes a real fan of Jacques.
Posted by: Truth and Virtue | July 13, 2009 at 02:26 PM
I told alot of you Koolaid drinkers about this months ago.
Posted by: Golf Course | July 13, 2009 at 02:27 PM
Back for a second Sting? What are you trying to say, TG?
Posted by: njhillbilly | July 13, 2009 at 02:27 PM
That's about the STUPIDEST thing I've heard yet today Canadian Devils Fan.
Posted by: JJ | July 13, 2009 at 02:28 PM
Great move, everybody on this team will like this...
Posted by: Sauce from the Swamp | July 13, 2009 at 02:28 PM
Man, People hating on Lou? thats just rubbish, and you all shouldnt consider yourselves devils fans, I bet most of you haters didnt even go to a playoff game, let alone the regular season...
How many franchises have as many championships as we do in the past 20 years? DETROIT and ??????
Yeah, how many teams have had consecutive winning seasons, ????????
How many teams have made the playoffs so many years? ???????? You lou haters make me sick, and the disrespect is disgusting....YOU GUYS ARE SO SPOILED ITS EMBARRASSING >
THE DEVILS UNDER LOU L HAVE ACHIEVED SUCH UNMATCHABLE SUCCESS...
AND PEOPLE THINK YOU CAN JUST BUST A #$#@ AND WIN A CUP EVERY YEAR. AND IF WE DONT THEN WE SHOULD FIRE EVERYONE?
PLEASE...WE ARE IN GREAT SHAPE, AND WE WILL GET THAT ONE LAST FINAL UFA / CENTER FOR THE TEAM AND JL WILL TAKE US TO THE NEXT ROUND, LIKE ALL THE OTHERS COULDNT DO SINCE 2003
Posted by: DTK | July 13, 2009 at 02:31 PM
Well JJ im sorry i dont have the hockey knowledge that you have considering you probably have never played the game. Did you enjoy watching the wild play the last few years? lol in vancouver you could get canucks tickets given to you to go cause nobody wanted to watch BORING hockey. If im wrong that great but if he goes back to playing the trap or a version of it why would anybody with offensive prowess want to play for him.
Posted by: Canadian Devils Fan | July 13, 2009 at 02:31 PM
chanses of keeping Parise in NJ after his contract is up are as good with Lemaire as with any other coach...to me that comment is just stupid
Posted by: Lykus | July 13, 2009 at 02:31 PM
TG, ask Brian Rolston what he thinks, this kind of sounds like a rhetorical question but ask him anyway.
Posted by: Steven | July 13, 2009 at 02:32 PM
@ Canadian Devils Fan
Parise is a great TWO WAY player. Lemaire will play him a lot along with that whole ZZ Pop line. Those guys are all good two way players.
If Parise was a one dimensional guy, then maybe you would have a point.
Posted by: Topshlf | July 13, 2009 at 02:33 PM
@the word sting.
Hey grammar police! We know he meant stint, calm down.
Posted by: Tom | July 13, 2009 at 02:35 PM
Interesting coincidence ... Brent Sutter was also hired on July 13 -- exactly two years ago. (if Wikipedia is correct)
Posted by: Scott E | July 13, 2009 at 02:35 PM
I didn't want Lemaire as a coach but now he is and I'll accept it. Some of you do truly sound like spoiled babies.
The team has a lot of young players on the roster and Lemaire is not afraid to play, give the kids time and let them develop. I think that's a huge plus.
Will he bring NJ back into the trap which clearly doesn't win cups any more? I hope not. I fully do expect the team to play in some way or form of a modified trap, similar to Detroit.
As for offensive production.. again I have my concerns but I also know that this team has more offensive talent than any team Lemaire has coached in the past and on those teams, the players with offensive ability put up points.
Lemaire at the very least very clearly wants to be in NJ. Don't count a guy with a cup who came up with a playing strategy that like it or not changed how championships were won in the 90s, early 2000s. He every well could have seen this roster and rather then have been "I have an idea!" rather than "lets just go back to the trap" like you all think.
lets see what happens on the ice, none of you have any control over it and as fans you should be behind the team especially when right now there are no games for them to be losing.
Posted by: Zelepukin | July 13, 2009 at 02:41 PM
welcome back Jacques!
you've done a lot for this franchise in the past and will hopefully do a lot more in the future!
best of luck to our new coach :-)
Posted by: Tull | July 13, 2009 at 02:49 PM
So the game is played the same now as it was in the 90s and early 2000s?
Posted by: lowelldevilsfan | July 13, 2009 at 02:51 PM
Zelepukin-
well put. I share many of the worries as you, especially about them returning to a passive, only defensive minded team. If they did that would be awful and stupid. But at least he wants to be here.
Posted by: Ben | July 13, 2009 at 02:55 PM
Dont get me wrong i will support Lemaire now that he is the coach. However i still think its a bad choice.
Go devils....
Posted by: Canadian Devils Fan | July 13, 2009 at 02:56 PM
Really dumb comment hey... lemaire was asked about Parise in the news conference...
" Lemaire was asked specifically about Zach Parise, who emerged as an offensive star in his two years under Brent Sutter. Will Parise be allowed to continue to play the same way under Lemaire"
Yep dumb comment...
Posted by: Canadian Devils Fan | July 13, 2009 at 03:29 PM
I would rather have a young upstart as a coach, especially considering the amount of older players that have been brought back these past few years and the failure rate of that tactic. I would love to see a new direction for the devils and thought Sutter was the answer. This is the decision that was made and as a fan I will support the team and as long as there are free hot dog days I will continue to go to the rock.
Hopefully, the Devils don't return to the trap but return only to being Stanley Cup Champions.
Posted by: ron | July 13, 2009 at 04:21 PM