Coach John Hynes Discussion

[guitarguyvic]

Good on Hynes. Been very critical of him but he seems to have learned from past mistakes and made much better decisions over the last couple of months. Let’s hope it lasts.

 

[DeVols]

I think, just like it is for our young players, us making the playoffs - and the playoffs themselves - will be great for Hynes' development as a coach. Sure, I disagree with some of his decisions, but him getting this young roster in the playoffs is no small feat, even with Taylor Hall carrying this team on his back. Job well done, coach.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I don't think Hynes is amazing, but he deserves a lot of credit. You can tell the players like him and respond to him. He's not my favorite, but you look around the league and we could certainly do much worse.

 

[Better Call Sal]

This is why people need to give a greater chance for coaches than their standard 3 year shelf life. They need time to get the players to buy in to what they're doing and rid the team of the guys who coast. Obviously there are extenuating cases (looking at you Dallas Eakins and Disco Dan in Buffalo) but for a young coach like Hynes, it's difficult to assess what you have in a short time span for a first time NHL head coach rather than a retread.

I'm thrilled with what he's done here because he clearly has the players' respect, he clearly treats them all fairly and equally and that is half the battle. Players can easily turn on a coach and tune him out, I don't think that you'll see that problem with Hynes at the very least.

Really happy for the guy, he's proven plenty of doubters wrong.

 

[MartyOwns]

i still really oppose some of his lineup choices...but f*** me, he just got us from last in the conference to the playoffs. wtf do i know

 

[JimEIV]

Still not a good coach...but hey, neither was Jim Shoenfeld

 

[Zezel22]

Rupp was talking on NHL Network last night about how Elias was telling him that he wished he had more time with Hynes earlier in his career. The players love him, the communication is great, everyone knows where they stand and they play hard for him. Also said, as per Elias, the players feel same way about Shero. And keep in mind Elias was in the room all of last year while rehabbing. Thats a pretty strong statement and now couple that with having an exciting young team and results to go with it? They are on the right track and kudos to Hynes.

 

[OmNomNom]

Rupp was talking on NHL Network last night about how Elias was telling him that he wished he had more time with Hynes earlier in his career. The players love him, the communication is great, everyone knows where they stand and they play hard for him. Also said, as per Elias, the players feel same way about Shero. And keep in mind Elias was in the room all of last year while rehabbing. Thats a pretty strong statement and now couple that with having an exciting young team and results to go with it? They are on the right track and kudos to Hynes.

i would kill for a vid clip

 

[lucifer91]

i would kill for a vid clip

 

[Bleedred]

I think he's gotten better as the season has went along. It wasn't translating into wins for a lot of January and February (due to our then-outrageous shooting percentage leveling off and just really poor goaltending) for us, but I think he got the team playing better. Whether he played the last couple seasons conservative on purpose to suit the roster we had, which we have better of this year, I'm not sure, but I think he's improved.

I'm still not a fan of the deployment of Greene and shutdown guys when we have a 1-2 goal lead in the 3rd period, but I do think he's a little better than I believed a year ago. I don't think he's quite AV or Carlyle level, where we try and be opportunistic and then sit back and get outshot to hell. I think if he still continues to improve, we can play this rush-type high octane game, while not allowing a zillion shots. We've gotten better at it as we've went along.

 

[Darkauron]

I guess kinda like Pete, not the greatest of coach but it works. Still cant stand Nass but I guess maybe he is good for some of our D. Pat Maroon has made Ward's PP on FIRE. Thank god for Pat Maroon lol

 

[Bleedred]

I don't think Hynes is amazing, but he deserves a lot of credit. You can tell the players like him and respond to him. He's not my favorite, but you look around the league and we could certainly do much worse.

That's pretty much how I feel. I don't think he's great coach (yet, but he could be with some more experience), but I don't think he's as bad as AV or Tocchet or Dead Weight or Patrick Roy or Johnny Mac.

And it makes sense that Patty Elias would like him, as he seems to be an offense first coach, which is really something that Patty didn't have a lot of in his NHL career. Maybe Ftorek and Larry Robinson? Let's be serious, Patty was not a Lemaire favorite when he was here the first time. He was a young player and was only 20, 21 at the time? But he wasn't a Lemaire favorite, that's for sure. At least not the first, the last couple times we had him he probably was. Pat Burns wasn't really an offense coach, Claude Julien wasn't much of an offense coach when he was here. Sutter and Pete were basically like the same kind of coaches as far as systems go. We all know there was some bad blood deep down with Sutter and Patty, but I think what we play right now or what we're trying to ideally play is probably something that Elias would have loved and flourished in. He had great seasons under Burns in 03-04, but he also had an underwhelming one in Burns first season here/the cup year.

The Blackhawks played a similar system when they were still faster and younger. They played a rush-type game, that valued high-danger chances, but they also usually had a positive shot differential by quite a bit in the first 5-7 years that Quenneville was there. At least most of that time they did. Laviolette has employed similar systems. And Taylor Hall is the perfect player for this system, as he's an excellent puck possession guy, but he's not a grinder, forechecking, cycling beast (he can do that too though). He also is among the best on the rush.

 

[BulletTheBlueSky]

I think Hynes' is fine. Allow some time for the big league transition....I think he's like DeBoer in that he's had to orchestrate some alchemy here and as other poster have stated, we find more reasons to hate the.guy than appreciate what hes actually done. Watch him go off to some other team and go to the cup lol

 

[HughJazz3dg]

I always felt like Pete Deboer and John Hynes were total opposites. Deboer seemed far more tactical in his approach to coaching, building a system that didn’t require much skill, but always got great possession. He sacrificed any skill or potential a guy could have for a guy who would be willing to follow Deboers orders exactly.

Where as Hynes seems like more of a less restricting coach, and one that works with the players creativity, while helping their development. A little more balance between specific planning and natural flow of a game.

But, I’m not in the room at all, this could all be total BS. I’m very happy with the way the team has developed this season.

 

[DerekDevils30]

Rupp was talking on NHL Network last night about how Elias was telling him that he wished he had more time with Hynes earlier in his career. The players love him, the communication is great, everyone knows where they stand and they play hard for him. Also said, as per Elias, the players feel same way about Shero. And keep in mind Elias was in the room all of last year while rehabbing. Thats a pretty strong statement and now couple that with having an exciting young team and results to go with it? They are on the right track and kudos to Hynes.

That speaks volumes. Thanks for this.

Very interested to see how Hynes adjusts come playoff time

 

[Bleedred]

I'd like to see what he does in year two before giving a more definitive opinion on him, but he's gotten better from December onward.

 

[NjDevsRR]

John Hynes kept this young team together through many hard times when they seemed destined to fail. Good on him to keep his team motivated. Also both PP and PK are basically top 10. This staff has done well this season considering where this team was picked to finish.

 

[Triumph]

The biggest thing I've seen out of Hynes is that he is adaptable. He came here with a reputation for defense and that first season he lived up to that, the Devils played a pretty boring defensive style and managed to finish 20th in the league despite having a rather abysmal talent level. Last season the Devils tried to play a faster game and it worked for the first 20 games of the season until things fell apart, so Hynes went back to the more plodding style with worse results but the personnel was also less suited for it. This season with more of the right personnel the Devils have stuck to the more uptempo style and it's paid off, they're in the playoffs.

Most Devils coaches I've seen think there's one way to play and that's how they're going to get everyone on the team to play. I don't know if this is the future of hockey - I suspect it's not, because now everyone who has been playing serious hockey since they were 12 knows systems inside and out. There's like 10 guys in the league who don't backcheck - when Lemaire took over in 93, there were 100. I'm a big fan of Deboer and I like his system, but I'm just not seeing the big boards-controlling sorts of players you need for that. What I am seeing are a lot more creative players and shooters who fill the net. So the future, as I see it, is letting offensive players make plays and having the speed to compensate for the issues that creativity will create. That's what John Hynes (and Shero) has done here in New Jersey, and it's why I fully expect him to land another NHL job once he's done here.

 

[haak84]

hynes is a rookie NHL coach and he is having great success. hes made some huge decisions these past couple months that have led to their situation. taylor hall has utmost respect for him and that counts for a lot. the decision to stick with nico on the first line throughout the season would have been much more difficult for established coaches.

 

[BenedictGomez]

 

[hidek91]

Top 10 coach IMO. There are many coaches who would miss the playoffs with this roster (meh goaltending, below average D especially before Vats trade, brutal center depth, very good wingers). Hynes is one of the stars of this season, I hope he gets 5+ years extension.

 

[HenriquesJawLine]

This season summed up on this board:

"I guess that was a good 6-3 win but I can't enjoy it because Lovejoy played over Santini"

 

[Bleedred]

Not sure If more appropriate for this thread or the goalie thread, but a very under the radar move that he made was starting Kinkaid against Montreal the night after playing the Islanders. If we lost that game 3-2 in OT or a shootout or something, we could be sitting here writing the eulogy on our season and hoping Florida loses tonight.

 

[devilsblood]

Exceeded expectations, made the playoffs, all while leaning heavily on, and getting big production from young players.

There may be details that are open for critique, but the big picture says he did a fantastic job.

 

[JimEIV]

Exceeded expectations, made the playoffs, all while leaning heavily on, and getting big production from young players.

There may be details that are open for critique, but the big picture says he did a fantastic job.

Detail are what makes a good coach. X and O's are what make a good coach. Adapting in game is what makes a good coach. Philosophy is what makes a good good coach.


For a good while people actually believed Dan Bylsma was a good coach because, well, they won. The guy was cluesss his teams lacked structure and discipline and won by pure talent. Tortorella is another one...all bark...no substance. Both cup winners. Both more cheerleader than coach.

If your coaching philosophy is skate harder than the other team you really don't have a philosophy. It's an amateur thought process "be better", "skate faster", "go through that brick wall"... it's unsustainable and takes no intellect or in-depth strategic planning. It's Sutter...all of them. Its a very meathead approach. It's dodgeball not chess. And it's what we've been seeing for the last 3 years.