I’m new here, so please don’t jump down my throat, even though coaching discussions can always get a bit heated.
I don’t pretend to know what to do about the coaching situation, because everything seems a bit convoluted, but here are some of my disjointed musings on the subject:
One: Last I checked, the Devils were the second most penalized team in the league.
This is a disturbing trend because the Devils, historically, have been one of the least penalized teams in the NHL. Part of the team’s taking a ton of penalties is probably rooted in the fact that many of our roster members are slow so they take a lot of stupid penalties trying to clutch, grab, and trip the opponent down to their snail pace, as can be seen in the fact that a lot of the most penalized Devils are also the ones who lack any semblance of foot speed.
The roster’s slowness can’t be laid at Pete’s feet, but I do feel like the lack of discipline excessive penalties typically indicate is at least partially his fault. Players who take dumb penalties need to start getting benched for hurting the team, and the good thing is most of the players who take boneheaded penalties aren’t that great additions to the team, so not that much is lost when benching them.
Two: The Devils often enter games with a disconcerting absence of energy. Pete isn’t fully to be blamed for this because NHL players should be able to motivate themselves and Lou could have assembled a roster that didn’t have an average age more suited to playing bingo in a retirement home, but a coach still is responsible for getting his players prepared for the games, especially ones against divisional rivals (a la the Flyers) or against teams in similar slots in the standings where the team could really seize an opportunity to gain points. The coach has to be at least somewhat accountable for the fact that the team starts many games where they should be competitive from first puck drop flatter than Death Valley, and he also has demonstrated with some of his post game comments about thinking that efforts that were almost objectively abysmal were somehow good a troubling inability to identify what his actually a solid effort and what is a truly nauseating performance.
Three: This team seems to have all the mental resiliency of a Dixie Cup being run over by a Ram truck, and honestly, we’ve reached the point where I’m surprised when this group has a good response to something (like Merrill’s response goal in the Dallas game).
Players are obviously to blame for that lack of mental toughness, but some of that vibe definitely stems from the coach. Whenever something bad happens (like the other team scores or gets a power play), Pete gets a mopey expression on his face as if his cat died instead of saying something to rally his troops. After every game, he’s also more filled with excuses about “tough†buildings than he is answers As a fan I don’t have a lot of confidence and respect in him because of these factors, so I just find it hard to imagine the locker room can hold him in high esteem even if they do like him as a person and not want to see him fired.
Four: The pattern of blown leads really bugs me. Part of the blame for blown leads obviously rests with players making poor decisions, but when there is a pattern of blown leads, it’s hard to just blame individual players and not hold the coach at least partially responsible. Also, while the team’s offense outside of a handful of forwards (Henrique, Cammy, and maybe Jagr are probably the only guys who would be in another team’s top six forwards to be brutally honest) is hopeless at scoring goals, I still believe that if a team has enough offensive firepower to gain a lead, they should be able to win the game. Maybe it’s just optics, but as a fan I hate blown leads more than failed comebacks, because with a blown lead the game was there to be won, and it just slipped away.The bottom line is just that a team with this little firepower needs to be better at maintaining the leads it gets. It’s sad to say, but now the Devils can have a three goal lead (a la the game against the Red Wings), and I’ll still be wondering how they’ll manage to cough up the lead and the win. Again, if I don’t have confidence in this team’s ability to win even with a sizable lead, how should the players feel?
Five: I think that this organization needs to focus a lot on developing the young guys that we have because they can hopefully bring about a brighter future (one that might even include the lofty air of the playoffs) so it’s important to have a coach who is good developmentally with players. In my opinion, I don’t regard Pete as being categorically bad with young players, since I think he’s done well with Henrique and Severson (thus far, anyway), and he seems to have a pretty solid trust in Merrill. Pete’s relationship with Gelinas seems middle ground, because Gelinas seems to get in trouble for things that Zid can get away with, but Gelinas does seem to understand why Pete handles him the way he does. Mainly it’s Larsson and Josefson who seem mystified about how they can end up in the press box so much, and they seem to have struggled the most under Pete. I remember Larsson doing well under Robinson, who was always very respectful and gentle with the players, so perhaps Larsson and Josefson need someone to come in to the organization and communicate with them in a less harsh way than Pete seems to prefer to use with young players. It seems that some players develop fine under Pete’s harder approach, but I think some players benefit from a bit softer a touch. Learning how to handle players of different temperaments is one of the biggest challenges of being a coach, and I don’t know how much time Pete has left to learn with the Devils.
Six: I don’t think that Pete is the best coach for this roster (because I’d like to think that it could have a bit more wins in a weak Metro division), but then I’m not a big fan of the NHL coaching options out there right now, so I’m not sure how much of an upgrade is realistically available. Maybe we’re better just waiting for the off-season and hoping somebody more suitable comes on the market then and is willing to come to this quagmire.
Seven: I do understand that the locker room might like the coach (although they clearly can’t play well enough to give him anything that resembles a winning record whether due to lack of motivation or sheer shortage of ability), but they have to face the reality that sports is a results-driven industry. When a team underperforms as much as the Devils had, players risk getting traded and coaches risk getting fired. Even if the players are sad to see Pete go, the expectation should be that they’ll be professional enough to handle any coaching change without much complaining. Given the pathetic state of the team this year, getting this derailed organization back on track is more important than sparing players’ feelings.
TL;DR: The bottom line is that when an organization has reached the epic levels of terrible that this franchise has, everyone from Lou and Pete down to the fourth liners and seventh defensemen bear some responsibility for this disaster on skates. What Pete’s level of accountability for this mess is and what the consequences for his part in the Devils failure to ice a competitive team this season (and seasons past) should be is up for debate. I’m not going to send management angry emails screaming that Pete should have been fired yesterday, but I also won’t cry like a baby if he’s kicked to the curb.
It ended up being a bit longer than I intended, but I just couldn't find a more concise way to express myself. I'm glad I could express what we were both thinking and feeling. It's good to know that I'm not alone with my befuddled thoughts and feelings.
