New Jersey Devils Coach John Hynes Needs To Be Put In A Time Out

The New Jersey Devils were pinned in their zone for about a minute prior to Adam Clendening’s equalizing goal. The moment begged for a timeout by John Hynes.  It never came. Then disaster struck.

It was a good minute of solid zone time by the Rangers. The New Jersey Devils were chasing and struggling to get the puck out.  Andy Greene, Ben Lovejoy and Travis Zajac all looked totally gassed before the Devils were finally able to gain brief control of the puck and shoot it down the ice with 4:39 left. They’d obviously take a timeout since the guys were so winded, but who cared.  The imminent threat was over.

Well, not so fast.

There was no timeout.

It seemed so obvious if you were in the building. Guys were bent over gasping for air after a more than full shift scrambling to keep the Rangers to the outside and away from the net.

Honestly, when it became obvious the timeout was not coming, I sat in my seat and glumly told the person next to me “The Rangers are going to score”. It was just so obvious that the Rangers were on a huge push and the momentum needed to be broken, not to mention the players on the ice needed a break.

Lo and behold, it happened a mere 14 seconds later. There was the tying goal, and it was pretty much game over.

In my mind, this is all on John Hynes.

I say this as someone who thinks it is virtually always a bad idea to take a timeout in hockey. You lose your challenge. That’s a very bad thing. I get it.

From inside Prudential Center, it was hard to believe a time out was not called prior to the tying goal.

But there are times you need to just listen to your gut and do what needs to be done. The Devils were on the ropes. They desperately needed a moment to both literally and figuratively regain their composure. The threat of an immediate goal outweighed the cost of losing a challenge.

Coach Hynes just didn’t see things the way many others did.

In the end, that cost them the game. The goal sucked the wind out of the building. And it’s too bad. The Devils showed so much, fighting back from 2-0 down. It was really an excellent back-and-forth hockey game. One of the best games of the year.

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It’s a shame it had to end like that.

Next time, Mr. Hynes, please take that time out. Make that mistake again, and someone might be putting you in a timeout for a while.