New Jersey Devils: Nasreddine Appointment Signals Bail on Season
By Mike Luci
Well, it finally happened—the New Jersey Devils have fired John Hynes….and appointed Alain Nasreddine (Hynes’ assistant) interim head coach.
Right now, the Devil’s faithful are rejoicing after seeing one of the most ferociously demanded moves by the fanbase (since last summer’s sweeping Nikita Gusev hype) come to fruition, especially after Monday night’s utterly humiliating 7-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres and last Saturday’s 4-0 shutout to the New York Rangers.
When the initial wave of rejoicing subsides however, the grim reality that prompted Hynes’ dismissal remains unchanged. Going into Tuesday night’s matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights, the New Jersey Devils are 9-13-4 (30th in the NHL) and 10 points out of a playoff spot. As mentioned in one of our recent pieces, no team that’s gone into December 10 or more points out of eighth place in their conference since the division realignment has ever climbed out of such a deep hole.
Simply put, the Devil’s 2019-2020 season appears all but lost and Alain Nasreddine’s succession of John Hynes signals that the organization’s management group echoes this sentiment. As of writing this, the rest of the team’s coaching staff appears to be remaining in place, with Pro Scout Peter Horachek joining as an assistant.
As New Jersey Devils announcer Steve Cangialosi noted, Nasreddine and Hynes have coached together for 10 seasons dating back to Hynes’ time in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre Scranton. Nasreddine is also the only remaining member from Hynes’ original coaching staff when he was first hired back in 2015.
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Due to their tenured relationship, don’t bank on Nasreddine going off the board and introducing a brand new philosophy and playing system than what Hynes implemented. Given how the team has fared under Hynes, New Jersey Devils fans probably shouldn’t get their hopes up on witnessing a St. Louis Blues-esque turnaround between now and April either.
This is purely speculation, but Nasreddine appears to have been put in charge to more or less go through the motions for the team’s remaining 56 games, with a full coaching regime change likely to occur next summer.
As far as the 2019-2020 season is concerned in regards to Hynes’ termination, nothing has really changed from a coaching perspective.
If General Manager Ray Shero truly thought this team’s performance was redeemable, he more than likely would have brought in a head coach outside of the organization with a fresher perspective and cleared out the rest of the coaching staff.
One of the potential ramifications from such a move this far into the season however, would be the learning curve endured by the team while they acclimate themselves to their new bench boss’s system. The growing pains they’d experience would likely manifest in the form of more losses that further widen New Jersey’s gap from the standings’ playoff threshold.
Next. Time Not Right To Hire Mike Babcock. dark
The news of John Hynes’ firing is surely gratifying for the fans and was an absolute necessity. Having said that, the Devil’s faithful shouldn’t believe today’s groundbreaking news is the change this team needs to salvage any attempt at reaching the mountainous expectations set out for them going into their 2019-2020 campaign.
Given his longstanding professional history with John Hynes, the appointment of Alain Nasreddine is an allusion to Devil’s management recognizing this team is going nowhere as they look to (yet again) regroup this summer.