Coach John Hynes Discussion

[Better Call Sal]

I really don’t believe many people truly thought Disco Dan was a good coach given the talent he had on the team. He walked into an ideal situation in that he wasn’t Michel Therrien I also fail to see how he and Torts even compare outside of winning a Cup, that’s about where the similarities end.

It’s not all about Xs and Os, for sure. That sort of mindset can certainly bring success, but it’s clear that where Hynes excels is that he pushes all the right buttons and has his fingers on the pulse of the team. Being able to communicate effectively above all else probably goes the longest way to success as a coach, and that more than anything is the reason Bylsma, Torts and most recently AV have short shelf lives.

 

[devilsblood]

Getting your team to play hard is an absolute necessity. It is a big part of coaching hockey. It's why hockey coaches are so often on a carousel. An unmotivated team, no matter how detailed, is going to struggle.

Is it the only factor? No. Is it the entirety of Hynes's good attributes? No.

 

[My3Sons]

This still isn’t a finished roster. As heartbroken as we will be to see him go, Lovejoy will get replaced with a better player as will Greene at some point and hopefully Moore. The young forwards will continue to develop and the team probably has another drafted player or two break through. Once that is finished it will be time to see if Hynes can lead a good team versus getting a plucky team to play hard. Two very different skill sets. Right now it is still a work in progress.

 

[NJDevs26]

This still isn’t a finished roster. As heartbroken as we will be to see him go, Lovejoy will get replaced with a better player as will Greene at some point and hopefully Moore. The young forwards will continue to develop and the team probably has another drafted player or two break through. Once that is finished it will be time to see if Hynes can lead a good team versus getting a plucky team to play hard. Two very different skill sets. Right now it is still a work in progress.

True enough although I consider it a good sign he gets along with guys like Elias and Hall as well as he has the young kids to this point.

 

[Patrik26]

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.

If Schneider had been in goal, there's a very good chance it never would've gotten even close to OT. I'm thinking more like 4-2 Montreal. I honestly don't believe Hynes even considered Schneider down the stretch for both how well Kinkaid was playing AND how putrid Schneider's been.

 

[JimEIV]

This idea that a coach needs to get along with players is crazy.

No great coach in history was a "players coach" . Great coaches rise above the fray of relationships and personalities. Those things are just obstacles to doing business.

 

[devilsblood]

This idea that a coach needs to get along with players is crazy.

No great coach in history was a "players coach" . Great coaches rise above the fray of relationships and personalities. Those things are just obstacles to doing business.

The rest of what you say has merit. But there is no rising above the fray of relationships. Whether good or bad, a player and a coach has a relationship of some sort.

 

[Oneiro]

Hynes has recognized where the NHL is headed, more speed and more stacked skill plays, but in trying to harness the intuitiveness and skill of players, he's sacrificed a lot of efficiency in thought and execution. It took half a season to "teach" the defense that sometimes it just makes sense to chip it off the glass.

The team, on its worst day, looks like a puppy chasing a tennis ball on a string.

I'm thrilled we're back and credit to Hynes for that (more to Shero, I think...) But it will take a long time for me to call him even a very good coach.

 

[Bleedred]

If Schneider had been in goal, there's a very good chance it never would've gotten even close to OT. I'm thinking more like 4-2 Montreal. I honestly don't believe Hynes even considered Schneider down the stretch for both how well Kinkaid was playing AND how putrid Schneider's been.

I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that even he would have maybe not been blown apart by a very poor offensive team like Montreal in that game.

Some coaches will stick by the starter just because he’s the starter.

 

[Better Call Sal]

This idea that a coach needs to get along with players is crazy.

No great coach in history was a "players coach" . Great coaches rise above the fray of relationships and personalities. Those things are just obstacles to doing business.

But again, I think there’s a difference between a “players coach” and being an effective communicator+holding players accountable. Similarly, you can be a master tactician within a system but if you refuse to adapt the way some coaches do, it can be meaningless and you’ll wind up just falling on the sword.

Ideally, you find a mix in between somewhere. Not an easy thing of course and that’s why you find coaches getting a 3-4 year window to succeed.

 

[Triumph]

This idea that a coach needs to get along with players is crazy.

No great coach in history was a "players coach" . Great coaches rise above the fray of relationships and personalities. Those things are just obstacles to doing business.

That's because with NHL coaching over the last 25 years, the prevailing thought has been how to get players to play systems. How do I get all 18 skaters playing generally the same way? How do I bend this player to my will? And I just don't think that's the future of the NHL. Guys arrive in the league having been taught better, they have more skill, and they're in better shape.

I don't see many master tacticians around the league. Boucher's out of the playoffs and probably out of a job soon - the only thing that would keep him in his job is the penny-pinching of Melnyk. Hitchcock is watching the playoffs and his coaching career is almost over. I guess Babcock is pretty good, he usually gets the most out of his teams, but the idea that you go hard at players and scratch them and bench them and yell at them over and over, that young players have to 'earn it' and that they don't play right, that's dying out, I think. Coaches should be looking to take the players they're given by the GM and try to mold that into the best team possible. I think Hynes has done a really good job of doing that.

 

[Triumph]

Hynes has recognized where the NHL is headed, more speed and more stacked skill plays, but in trying to harness the intuitiveness and skill of players, he's sacrificed a lot of efficiency in thought and execution. It took half a season to "teach" the defense that sometimes it just makes sense to chip it off the glass.

The team, on its worst day, looks like a puppy chasing a tennis ball on a string.

I'm thrilled we're back and credit to Hynes for that (more to Shero, I think...) But it will take a long time for me to call him even a very good coach.

It rarely makes sense to chip it off the glass. Exiting the zone with the puck leads to much better outcomes. I recognize that you can't always do that, but I'll take D who don't chip it out versus D who do it often every time.

 

[BahlDeep]

I don't agree with all his decisions, but most of them made a lot of sense.

He took risky decisions that ultimately paid off. He took some time to adapt, and that's understandable. Look at how much the roster has changed in less then a year.

You can say whatever you want, but when it was crunch time, the Devils played their best hockey. He took the risk to play Kinkaid on back to back games, and to be honest it only backfired once and it was against Anaheim, and even then, we didn't lose because of Kinkaid.

I don't agree with the LJ over Santini schtick, but you have to understand that LJ is getting paid 3 million a year. He made Severson sit, and that's one of his most underrated move this year, hands down.

He made Zacha ride the pine at the beginning of the year, and personally, I hated the decision, but to be honest, Zacha has been very good since.

Now the rookies, he put them in a position to succeed. 52 points for Nico, 45 for Butcher, 35 points for Bratt. And then you have Hall who just had his best season in his career.

And let's not forget, we had injuries throughout the year, Cory has sucked since the end of december. We all know this team had to battle a lot of adversity, from getting screwed by the referees to injuries, Hynes has shown he is a very capable NHL coach.

 

[devilsblood]

I'm thrilled we're back and credit to Hynes for that (more to Shero, I think...) But it will take a long time for me to call him even a very good coach.

Is anyone calling him a very good coach? I think he's done a real good job this season. But I'm not sure how good a coach he is.

I want to see how this team, with this style handles the playoffs. That's first and something we will see in short order.

But I also would like to see if his high energy style works in the long haul. It has worked very well with young guys who are excited to be here, and guys who are fighting for spots in the league, but what happens when guys are established and that exuberance is not the same? Then again, that's also on mgmt to bring in self motivated players. And we do seem to have our share of that. From Hall, to Nico, to Coleman, to Wood, we have guys who by nature play high tempo.

So yeah, I give Hynes high marks for this season, but I'm not going to say he is a very good coach yet either.

 

[glenwo2]

Is anyone calling him a very good coach? I think he's done a real good job this season. But I'm not sure how good a coach he is.

I want to see how this team, with this style handles the playoffs. That's first and something we will see in short order.

But I also would like to see if his high energy style works in the long haul. It has worked very well with young guys who are excited to be here, and guys who are fighting for spots in the league, but what happens when guys are established and that exuberance is not the same? Then again, that's also on mgmt to bring in self motivated players. And we do seem to have our share of that. From Hall, to Nico, to Coleman, to Wood, we have guys who by nature play high tempo.

So yeah, I give Hynes high marks for this season, but I'm not going to say he is a very good coach yet either.

Uhh....Shouldn't the motivation to WIN THE CUP take the place of this then?

I mean...first it's "We're happy to be here" but afterward going forward, it should be "Let's get back to the playoffs and try to win the Stanley Cup".

 

[DerekDevils30]

This is a results driven business. Hynes got a team that virtually no one expected to sniff the playoffs into the big dance. He deserves credit

 

[devilsblood]

Uhh....Shouldn't the motivation to WIN THE CUP take the place of this then?

I mean...first it's "We're happy to be here" but afterward going forward, it should be "Let's get back to the playoffs and try to win the Stanley Cup".

Ya, sure, but that can be a hard sell during the course of an 82 game season. Motivation is a def in the job description for an NHL coach. It's very much why we see so much coaching turnover in the league.

 

[Cage Helmet]

I, too, like that Hynes doesn’t have a system that he swears by to the point of insanity. I felt like this was a fault of DeBoer and Darryl Sutter, as well as many others. Lemaire had the same faults, but changed a bit in his last NJD go-around. And I really think DeBoer is a good head coach for the most part, but I like when a coach adjusts to the roster that he’s given and I think Hynes has really done that.

 

[haak84]

Hynes has been instrumental in the development of our core players. That can't be overlooked. Leaning on the rookies would NEVER have happened under Deboer.

 

[billingtons ghost]

He has been great. A+ in my book.

 

[My3Sons]

I, too, like that Hynes doesn’t have a system that he swears by to the point of insanity. I felt like this was a fault of DeBoer and Darryl Sutter, as well as many others. Lemaire had the same faults, but changed a bit in his last NJD go-around. And I really think DeBoer is a good head coach for the most part, but I like when a coach adjusts to the roster that he’s given and I think Hynes has really done that.

But you are wrong. He does have a system he swears by to the point of insanity. It’s called the “play Lovejoy under any pretext system”. Its hallmarks are playing Lovejoy under any pretext and restraining yourself from playing him on PP1.

 

[HoliksGhost]

Game-4 loss and getting pushed around:

Hynes could have done something to address this by moving Nico down to the 2nd line and replacing him with Zajac.

Nico was in over his head and it was obvious, yet Hynes did nothing to address this even in the 3rd period with the series going down the drain.

Hynes NHL playoff inexperience showing more than a 19-year old rookie.

Absolutely horrible game-4 coaching (and I like Hynes regular season).

 

[jaguar84]

Hynes got here based on the talent Shero brought in. He's not good enough to take the team farther and is riding Nico and Hall's talent to get wins.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Hynes can't adjust AT ALL. He has what was written down and that's it.

Zero scheme tweaks in game to adapt to the pressure the other team is throwing. Outclassed and I'm sick of it.

 

[Bologna 1]

Hynes can't adjust AT ALL. He has what was written down and that's it.

Zero scheme tweaks in game to adapt to the pressure the other team is throwing. Outclassed and I'm sick of it.

What the f*** do you want him to do? He can't just magically make them as good as tampa for christ sake