Wed 25 Jul 2007
Robinson, Albelin Added as Assistants; Laperriere Out
Posted by Joe Bechtel under Notes Notes Notes! , Summertime!
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Nothing like good ol’ hockey news in July.
2MA has learned that the New Jersey Devils have added Larry Robinson and former defensemen Tommy Albelin as Assistant Coaches to Brent Sutter for the upcoming 2007-2008 season. It has also been announced that Jacques Laperriere will not be rejoining the big club, but instead will be working with defensemen in the minor leagues. John MacLean will also continue his role as an Assistant Coach.
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~ JOE’S 2 CENTS: I’m very excited to hear about Albelin coming behind the bench to work alongside Sutter & MacLean, but I can’t say I’m exactly thrilled about Robinson returning. The guy is about to start his 576th stint behind the bench with New Jersey, and if I recall correctly, he stepped down 32 games into the 05-06 season because of health-related issues. I think we’ve seen all the faces of Robinson, and I personally feel that he would be able to contribute to the organization more in a different role.
As for Laperriere heading to the minors, I’m really indifferent. ‘Lappy’ did a great job of motivating players when they needed it, but with Sutter behind the bench motivation won’t be a problem. If it is, that player will be reunited with Laperriere sooner than he thinks!
Overall, a good move by Lou. The coaching staff is looking strong!
July 26th, 2007 at 2:02 am
This is encouraging news. I am happy to see MacLean back. I think Robinson should provide an interesting dynamic now that he isn’t necessarily “the man” but just an assistant, so he can be himself with the way he treats players as Sutter will be the opposite. I have always been a fan of Albelin and think he is a great choice to be a coach, the guy has a ton of experience, even with some of the guys on the current roster.
Laperriere is a great choice to coach the Devils minor league guys, hopefully that helps their development, especially to the Devils system.
I guess the assistant coaching duties breakdown with MacLean coaching the forwards, and Robinson and Albelin handling the defenseman, right?
July 26th, 2007 at 7:32 am
According to the Ledger, Albelin will be coaching the rookies and will spend games above the ice instead of behind the bench. He’s done a great job of working with the young defensemen in the past and I don’t see how this will change now that he’s a coach.
Robinson as an assistant makes him the “Good Cop” to Sutter’s “Bad Cop”. Sutter will bring accountability back to the team and the hope is that Robinson will soften the blow a little. Hopefully this doesn’t turn out like 99-00 where Ftorek was the bastard and Larry was the cool dude.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Lou finally did some good.
tdr
July 26th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Love this move. Larry Robinson is probably one of the best defensemen of all time, easily in the top 6. He redifined the position, with size.
Reason why Larry didn’t want to coach is because of the pressure. But that was a head coaching job. As an assistant, he’ll have less pressure and be under the radar more. Besides with the cluster f**k of defensemen coming into camp, he can make heads or tails of who needs to stay and go. Improve a Johnny Oduya and have Andy Green really become an elite defenseman. Tommy will simply add some recent knowledge of play.
Johnny Mac shows a lot of balls in this move. I like it. Getting passed over, again, for the position is tough mentally on anyone in any industry. Johnny is a true Devil. I don’t think I personally would have been able to stay. But who knows maybe Sutter’s style can help Johnny become an even better coach.
TDR-
Sather has got a high powered offense. What about the D? You know as well as I do, if the Rangers don’t do anything on D, Gomer, Drury, Jagr and company are going to have to do a ton of chasing and defensive work to have a solid year.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I agree completely with the hiring of Albelin. He’s a great character guy who was a very smart defenseman during his career. The Devils D will benefit greatly from him.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Tommy was the color commentator on the radio broadcasts this past year, right?
I wonder which ex-Dev is gonna get that role next year.
July 26th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
No that was Tom Chorske (sp).
July 26th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
NJDevil,
I second that. They are relying too much on Lundquist and the front lines to cover the ‘d’ weakness. Too much reliance on Henrik and we are suddenly relying on Valiquette — and if/when that happens, I won’t even cover the Rangers-Devils games, I’ll just write the check. Ouch.
I guess we’ll just have to score a lot of goals!
tdr
July 26th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I’m still down on Larry for what happened in 05. I hope he can put it together this time around….
July 26th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Ah, had my Toms confused. Tommy Albelin was commonly the delivery guy for first period Special Delivery. At least when Ken Danyeko was unavailable. Thanks.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:51 am
This is good news. Unlike Joe, I especially like the addition of Larry Robinson to the staff. Larry is first and foremost a teacher of the game. Is is especially good at teaching defensive fundamentals to young players. And we have a lot of young players.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Hopefully it all works out…I can see the Devils winning the division again amazingly. They will be under the radar as always but lurking..then bam! Nice thing is Lou may just have some actual room come deadline time…and we do have a rather nice coaching staff.