The New Jersey Devils have made the decision to fire their head coach. It is something that may be a little overdue but they can now move forward.
The New Jersey Devils may be a bit too far out of it anyway but they have finally fired their head coach. John Hynes was fired on Tuesday afternoon after some speculation about it the night before. The team currently sits at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division and only the Detroit Red Wings have been worse than them in the entire National Hockey League.
The move comes following two games that most people would consider rock bottom for the Devils. They were beaten by the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres in back to back games and were outscored by a margin of 11-1. That is not going to get it done in this league. You can say that after winning the offseason the Devils have massively underperformed. They look lost out there and don’t generate enough chances based on how much talent they have upfront.
The team has named Alain Nasreddine to be the interim head coach in the meantime. This might mean that the Devils already see this as a lost season already on December 3rd but this is a good move for the Devils. Going into the season, nobody wanted to see the coaching staff be in turmoil because that means that the team isn’t performing. It would be much more fun for John Hynes to have been good at his job and lead the Devils back to the playoffs but it just wasn’t meant to be.
So what is it that can happen in replacing Hynes that could allow the Devils to thrive? The answer is the style of play. They are a fast skilled team yet they have played like a team that has none. They are so lethargic in all three zones in most games so you can say that watching paint dry is more entertaining at times. The even let the elderly Minnesota Wild outplay them and be more competitive in the offensive zone. Minnesota is a decent team right now but in no way should they look faster than the Devils, especially when they were on the second half of a back to back with a rookie netminder making his NHL debut.
The Devils need some stability in lines and defense pairs. They never got that with Hynes in 2019-20 so hopefully, Nasreddine brings some of that. This is an important stretch of games for the organization now. The “fire the coach” excuse is gone and now it is time to hold the players accountable. They are building a nice young core but they need to maximize it to get the best results. They need to play a game that fits their roster and go on a run if they have any chance of saving this season that began with so much promise.