Mon 2 Apr 2007
Straight out of the WTF Department comes word that head coach Claude Julien has been fired by the New Jersey Devils, as first reported by my boy Joe.
Louie Lams will once again stand behind the bench for the remainder of the season…and, hopefully, a long postseason.
Uh, Lou, I get the whole “hey let’s try to look like the 2000 Devils and fire the head coach with like no time left in the regular season” idea here, but, well, the Devils were playing well the past few games after nearly throwing the season down the crapper. Key word, NEARLY!
I blame Scott Gomez.
PATRICIA SAYS: I never really liked Claude, to be honest. He was a Good Guy coach, but he was also a I Really Don’t Want To Speak Up So I Won’t coach, which generally doesn’t bode well with this team. Lou did a fairly good job with the boys when he coached last season, and I think he’ll likely do a good job again. My only concern is how this shocker of a move will affect the team. As we are all very well aware, some of the boys have a great talent for sticking their heads up their butts when things get a little rocky. Alas, this team isn’t nearly what it was in 2000, as I mentioned earlier how this team really has been looking a lot better now that key players have been getting healthy again, so this doesn’t really seem too much like a Ftorek move, but, stranger things have happened. Who knows, maybe Julien will be hired back as an assistant, a la Robinson. Again, stranger things have happened!
JOE SAYS: Shocker. Seriously, no sarcasm. But that’s the way Lou works - the more dumbfounded and baffled you are, the better it makes his move look. (See: Sykora < Friesen). Maybe it's the Black & Red in my blood, but I have just as much faith in the rest of the season as I did before I heard of the news. I fully expect slumping players like Langenbrunner, Elias, and ahem, Gomez to get a serious reality check - something I don’t think Claude was capable of doing. During an interview on WFAN today, Lou mentioned that the move was made in part because of things that he “could not openly discuss.” (Typical Lou interview.) In a nutshell, I believe it was a move that had to be made, and I’m happy it was. In my eyes, Claude’s game was a little too conservative - even for the Devils. Apparantly Lou feels a lot more comfortable with the team in his hands for the playoffs, and ya know what? So do I.
Hi, my name is Joe and I’m a kool-aid-aholic.
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
patricia i think you’re right… lou said on the radio today that the parting was amiable and that Julien would stay on to help out with the organization until he got offers from other teams. Maybe I’m wrong, but right now it’s hard to imagine other organizations falling over themselves to offer him a job.
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I was not really surprised, and thought it would happen sooner. For every 3 games they won playing like the Dev’s, they played 3 games with the whole team pinching, and out of position ( think Saint Patty’s day massacre)Claude was trying to open the Team up, and they don’t play well with that style, it goes against “The System” and You know that Lou is not having that. plus Gomez still stinks this year.
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Blame Gomez? Fuck that Madden Sucks. Blame Madden.Almost 4 million to just hang on someone. Well Gomez get $5 million and Madden gets $3,892,566. Also Madden is known for d(=/- -7) Gomez (+/- +6) and Gomez is paid to play offense. SO when it comes down to next season to keep Gomez or to trade him, BOOM though act Tinactin Madden should be traded.
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Kyle, not too sure if you’re actually serious or not, but, uh, Madden is pretty much one of our elite players on this team. Without him in the lineup, we struggle mightily defensively. And sorry to say, but we don’t get the option of trading or keeping Gomez — he’s UFA — if he’s going, he’s going.
And Gomez is paid to be an offensive player? Might wanna tell him that. He’s a playmaker and purely just that. It would be quite nice if someday he learned how to backcheck, but that’s just asking too much now, isn’t it? Sure, Madden can’t score to save his life (although it is quite amusing to see his 900-foot wide shots), but without his shutdown capabilities, this team is sunk. There’s a reason why he has a Selke under his belt my friend!
I’m going to think though that you are purely being sarcastic, though.
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
i have to agree with Patricia. we were 3-5 without him, and we got creamed in (most of) the ones we lost. he may not be a big scorer, but he’s an awesome penalty killer and if it wasn’t for his defensive offense skills, we wouldnt’ have gotten as far as we have.
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I’m not surprised Julien got fired, but I’m shocked it happened this year. Even Ftorek got one go-around in the playoffs. We’ll never get the real story but it wouldn’t involve just one player, Lou’s got more backbone than that - there were most likely multiple issues behind the scenes.
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:47 pm
The Devils are the most unpredictable organization in all of sports. When a buddy messaged me earlier today, I was able to guess correctly.
Will it work? Remains to be seen.
All I know is Lou Lamoriello runs one peculiar operation. I still would like to play you guys in the playoffs!
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Not Surprised at all. How many times have we heard Claude Julien say after a loss “Even though we didn’t win I thought we played our game.” The Devils culture is built on NEVER being happy with a loss. Losing is unacceptable to Lou. You should never hear “well we played our game, even though we didn’t win…” You should hear “we STUNK!”
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:19 pm
The Devils always seem to take these types of moves personally. I remember when Ftorek went down and Larry came in, the players took it really hard and took it upon themselves to preform better. I’m hoping that’s the case this time around.
And people call this a boring team?!
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 pm
CUP OR GTFO!!
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:17 pm
All I mean was that its probably 100 times easier for the Devils to make a John Madden the a Scott Gomez. Just Look at Rod Pelly. He’s not that great but still not that bad at the defense. Also I remember that Madden was cruddy when he started off with the devils then he bloomed into a power house off/def player. But on the hand of Gomez they have no replacement, yes Zack Parise does just as good of a job as Gomez but then who will replace that spot?
April 3rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Kyle,
I disagree — there aren’t many Gomez’ in the league, but he is potentially an easy replication. He’s a playmaker, which is great and all, but his game can be entirely one dimensional. Like I said, he doesn’t understand the concept of backchecking, and will not ever play a defensive game to save his life. Also, he unfortunately will play well when he WANTS to play well, something we see a lot in the NHL — players who play on their watch, not for the better of the team.
The John Maddens are truly a dime a dozen. There are a few players like John out there in the NHL, but do you notice how most of the time, those players never leave their teams? There’s a reason for that — these guys are so hard to come by in the league that GMs will do whatever it takes to keep them around. Guys like Madden, Jere Lehtinen, and even Jay Pandolfo to an extent are the players you want out on the ice to face the Crosbys, the Lecavaliers, and the Thorntons of the league. Remember in 2001 when the Devils absolutely embarrassed the Pittsburgh Penguins? That team had Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, along with Martin Straka and Robert Lang — these guys were huge scoring threats. John Madden was a huge reason why they really were absent during the series. There’s even the great “Ace” story when Johnny called Mario by his nickname during a Pens rush, resulting in Lemieux turning over the puck to Madden…crazy stuff.
The guy deserves the money he makes. He’s not going to be some great scorer, but he’s doing a damn good job at shutting down top offensive lines and creating opportunities for his teammates in the process.
In terms of your arguement that Madden had a slow start, well, who cares? There are tons of players who have slow starts to their careers and turn out to be damn fine players. Look no further than Zach Parise. And, by the way, it’s hard to say Madden has a “cruddy” start to his career when he tied the NHL record for shorthanded goals in a season…I believe six was the number? Terrible…
Rod Pelley? The guy is pure garbage. He didn’t impress during his stints with the Devils, and there’s a reason why Clarkson easily leapfrogged over him in the depth chart. Pelley won’t be a Devil, maybe not even an NHLer.
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Granted nobody goes coast to coast like Gomez, He can be very creative, but He has only scored like 11 goals this season and He is supposed to be an offensive player, most of this season He has not played like a 5 mill dollar player,and for some games He is a non factor. Rafalski is a defensemen and has 8 goals, Gomez has 11? as far as Madden, He cannot be replaced, I can see Maddolfo (the 2 headed monster)going down in history as the best defensive duo to ever lace them up. Pelley is being groomed to be the next Madden but I’m not feeling it. I’m not saying Gomez should definately go but, He will want top dollar and the way He’s played this season I don’t think that He should get it at the expense of Rafalski, or Martin, or some of the other Guys that are up for UFA this summer.
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:05 pm
RD! I had to check njdevs for the Julien reaction and saw a link to this posted in a signature. Read a few posts, quickly bookmarked, and will be checking frequently I guarantee you! Awesome stuff, and cool to see you writing and doing your thang…
Anyways, to have this comment slightly on-topic, yes I heartily approve of the Julien firing, but boy was it a shocker. A friend text-messaged me “julien fired?” when I was in Boston and all I could say was “no way” back. With three games left? That’s the shocker, right there, but really to me the only shocking part of it.
My only beef is he should have done it earlier. For one thing, the players could re-adapt to Lou without going into the, uh, you know… PLAYOFFS three games later. And if Lou can get more out of the players, why didn’t he fire Julien when we didn’t have all our players? They’ve been singing the injury blues instead of being pushed; it was their time to shine yet Julien kept saying, “We gotta keep playing our game.” No, we have to adapt - not majorly, but to the circumstances definitely. Lou knows his players’ strengths, where to push, and when to push. Julien came off as lackluster, especially when he needed to shine. Should have happened around the 60 game mark is all I’m saying.
Anyways, I’m still off njdevs, I don’t know if you are, but am definitely still catching every game (even left Boston early cause I forgot to record tonight’s game). Anyways, nice to know where to find you, and I’ll definitely find you again.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:00 pm
SHEEPS! (=
You don’t even know how much I miss talking to ya! Remember hanging out in Albany last year after the Rats game? Would be nice to do something like that again someday!
I’m not posting on NJDevs anymore, there was some internal beef going on and I don’t really like the direction the board has gone, I know a lot of other regulars don’t seem to post too much anymore — seems to be filled witha lot of silly stuff there now and not so much meaningful converastion. I think I’ve found my home here (=
You ever on AIM anymore? If you ever are, I’m still with the same screenname, you should IM me sometime! (=
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Talk about a slap in my face OUCH! And when did Alfredsson become a scumbag?
April 4th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Believe me I remember the internal beef with njdevs… remember how outspoken I was about it?
I’m still on AIM, but rarely… if you see me, IM me before I’m gone! I just got a new computer and plan to be spending more time online due to some lifestyle changes (more details in IM). So… we shall be talking!