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Early Season Top Coach
by PuckStopsHere on 11/15/09 at 12:23 PM ET
Comments (5)
As usual, Jacques Lemaire is doing a great job coaching. This happens every season and is usually overlooked. It required some first class coaching to keep the Minnesota Wild in the playoff race as long as they were last year. Last year, the Minnesota Wild finished ninth in the West Conference. They were two points back of a playoff berth despite having played without star forward Marian Gaborik most of the season. This year roughly the same Wild team exists (Gaborik is now a New York Ranger) and they are sitting last in the West Conference. That is one way to measure the Jacques Lemaire effect on the Wild. Notice how far they have dropped without him.
Lemaire has come to New Jersey where he is doing his usual great job. The New Jersey Devils are first in the East Conference with a 14-4 record. Lemaire teams are always defensively responsible. This year the Devils have the top defence in the NHL - with a 2.06 GAA.
Most people were predicting the Devils to be a mid-level playoff team in the East Conference. They probably would not do well enough to have home ice advantage in the first round. So far, that prediction has been wrong. This has happened despite injuries to the Devils team. Patrik Elias missed the first month of the season with a groin injury. He is yet to score since returning to the team four games ago. Last year, he was the team’s second highest scorer. There are several key defensive injuries as well. Paul Martin and Johnny Oduya are hurt. Martin is especially important as he leads the team in ice time per game played. Key defensive forwards Jay Pandolfo and Rob Niedermayer are also hurt. None of this has stopped the New Jersey Devils from exceeding expectations.
Jacques Lemaire should be an annual coach of the year contender. His value to his team is more than almost any other coach in any given year. This was overlooked in Minnesota because the Wild lacked the talent to be at the top of the league standings even with his coaching and because after he had been there several years it became expected that the Lemaire teams would have more wins than their talent level would predict. The Jacques Lemaire effect was (partially) built into expectations.
Now that Lemaire is a newcomer to his team and his team has the talent to be near the top of the league standings, it is quite likely he will get some coach of the year consideration. This is well deserved. Lemaire has won the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year twice. He won in 1994 at the start of his first New Jersey run and again in 2003 near the beginning of his Minnesota Wild run (when the team first had enough talent to win some games). It would not be a surprise if he wins again at the beginning of his second New Jersey run. He should have won further coach of the year awards during his previous coaching runs, but the big improvement from the addition of Lemaire to his new team is gone and he tended to get overlooked. The NHL writers have a long history of giving the coach of the year award to the coach of the most improved team. This is a poor method. A top coach who is well established with a team is unlikely to bring about sudden improvement (rather the team will maintain its previous success). It rarely produces winners who truly deserve the award. With Jacques Lemaire on a new team and that new team showing a significant improvement, that method may work out this year. Of course the possibility exists that at seasons end the most improved team might be Colorado or Buffalo or Los Angeles (or someone else) and their coach will be given the coach of the year award despite the fact their improvement is not nearly as due to coaching as it looks like New Jersey’s will be.
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Tags: Jacques+Lemaire, New+Jersey+Devils,
Comments
Terry Murray is a great example of a mid-level coach who may be considered a coach of the year candidate despite the fact he is not the best coach in the NHL. His team has improved so far. That is to be expected with a young core including such players as Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown. Did anyone expect as big a jump? Probably not. But the reason for the jump is not coaching. It is a young core that appears ready to make a gig jump together. Whichever coach happens to be in charge appears to be a genius. It is agreat sitaution to make an average coach look great.
Lemaire is different from this in that everywhere he goes, his team exceeds expectation. He is the constant reason for it. Whereas with Terry Murray, sometimes his team is up and sometimes it is down. It isn’t the coaching that is the explanation. It is usually other factors.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 11/15/09 at 02:48 PM ET
How bout Babcock. Especially given the job he’s done with all the injuries the team is going through.
Posted by Itrusteddrrahmani from Ann Arbor on 11/15/09 at 04:09 PM ET
I cannot say that 9th in the conference, no matter who is injured, is a good year. Exceeding expectations usually includes the making playoffs.
And the Devils are doing well, I agree. But they were a serious contender last year and almost every year. The fact that they doing well this year might be partly because of him, but it also could be the fact that they simply are a good team.
Finally, no way is the best coach in the NHL a coach that, since 2000, has missed the playoffs five out of eight seasons. I don’t call that doing better than expectations...even with a young team. I call that a reason to get a pink slip.
Did anyone expect as big a jump? Probably not. But the reason for the jump is not coaching. It is a young core that appears ready to make a gig jump together.
How do you know this is a fact and not just an opinion you agree with?
PSH Blog Grade
Finally, as I wrote in his last column (but PSH so hastily deleted...), I’ve decided to try and help PSH and give him a grade for each blog, as well as friendly suggestions for improvement. I grade on three areas: flow of writing/grammar, quality/intrigue of subject manner, and strength of argument/use of sources. This is done in a totally objective manner without regard to what side of his argument I stand.
His last blog was a C-, but let’s see where he finds himself today.
Flow of Writing/Grammar: B-
No obvious spelling mistakes and looks like you used all complete sentences. However, nothing really grabbed my attention or kept me interested throughout the article.
Quality/Intrigue of Subject: B
Coach of the year discussion is a common subject discussed and we are finally at a relevant point of the season where this could reasonably be argued. But in that same vein, this topic is nothing groundbreaking. Safe pick.
Strength of Argument/Use of Sources: C-
You make some good arguments for Lemaire (such as comparing the Wild this season and last), but at the same time, you contradict your own argument that Lemaire is overlooked when you claim later that “The Jacques Lemaire effect was (partially) built into expectations.” You fail to make the same comparison for the Devils last year as you do for the Wild. Maybe the Devils are just a good team? This needed to be examined, as just looking at injuries is not enough. Also, you did not look at arguments for other coaches, which would help you support your position and is needed in this sort of comparison.
There are citations needed for some claims you made, such as “Most people were predicting the Devils to be a mid-level playoff team in the East Conference.” Finally, you used a prior article you wrote to support the statement that the “NHL writers have a long history of giving the coach of the year award to the coach of the most improved team.” As this is not a proven fact, but rather an opinion that you believe, it should be stated as such.
Overall grade: B-
Not bad!
Posted by moore00 from the Ohio State University on 11/15/09 at 07:05 PM ET
6th actually
Posted by itrusteddrrahmani on 11/16/09 at 04:09 AM ET
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With all due respect, and I realize that most hockey fans don’t realize there are teams that play west of the Mississippi, but the Coach of the Year so far has to be Terry Murray from the Kings. Did ANYONE have the Kings any higher then 8th going into this season? How about Anze Kopitar leading the NHL in goals and points? To eastern hockey fans: Try staying up past your bed time and watch a game that starts later then 8pm Eastern and you might learn something about the NHL. :D
Posted by Paul From Cali on 11/15/09 at 01:42 PM ET