Confirmed with Link: John Hynes to be named head coach

[JK3]

His big catch phrase was fast, attacking, supportive which actually served us well when we made the playoffs a few years back. It was all go go go, speed, attack, hard forecheck and defense be damned. It actually worked well that year and fit in with our personnel and Shero's vision at the time.

We abandoned that this year after that awful start where we scored a bunch but hemorrhaged goals like crazy, never seen a team blow so many leads before. He turned to extreme low event hockey and the scoring completely dried up. He's never really had much of defense to work with though and our goaltending situation completely sunk us early on and last year as well. Speaking of goalies he'll run with the hot hand no matter who's the starter.

We're still trying to figure out the defensive scheme, kind of man on man with d men chasing guys up to the blue line, prone to massive failure (wide open guys back door) if the proper forwards don't recognize and fill in, seemed overly complicated. Breakouts were a challenge, way to much east west screwing around looking for stretch passes instead. Our forwards tended to fly the zone really early and if the breakout was botched it ended in a lot of odd man rushes.

Power play was terrible but the PK was good.

Seems to be really well respected around the league for some reason, very big on "culture" and "brotherhood", I'm sure you'll hear all the buzzwords. Kind of a dick during post game pressers, he'll get short with reporters if they touch a nerve. Most of these coaches have an expiration date, it was time for us to move on, probably same with Lavi.

We have a super young, super green team so I'm interested how he does with you guys.

 

[LCPreds]

I'm more interested at this point in how this is supposed to play out. Hynes will join the team on a game day and then we go on the road for 3 straight. Would really like a breakdown of how coaches who find them in this situation deal with it. How do they implement their philosophy? How long does it usually take them? Etc.

Definitely not a situation this franchise is accustomed to seeing.

 

[Predsanddead24]

I'm more interested at this point in how this is supposed to play out. Hynes will join the team on a game day and then we go on the road for 3 straight. Would really like a breakdown of how coaches who find them in this situation deal with it. How do they implement their philosophy? How long does it usually take them? Etc.

Definitely not a situation this franchise is accustomed to seeing.

No idea on the numbers thing, but I'd think a road trip may be the ideal team to break a new coach in. A lot of players talk about how road trips are a time for team building because you're all stuck together as a team and have less of your normal life distractions than when you're at home.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

His big catch phrase was fast, attacking, supportive which actually served us well when we made the playoffs a few years back. It was all go go go, speed, attack, hard forecheck and defense be damned. It actually worked well that year and fit in with our personnel and Shero's vision at the time.

We abandoned that this year after that awful start where we scored a bunch but hemorrhaged goals like crazy, never seen a team blow so many leads before. He turned to extreme low event hockey and the scoring completely dried up. He's never really had much of defense to work with though and our goaltending situation completely sunk us early on and last year as well. Speaking of goalies he'll run with the hot hand no matter who's the starter.

We're still trying to figure out the defensive scheme, kind of man on man with d men chasing guys up to the blue line, prone to massive failure (wide open guys back door) if the proper forwards don't recognize and fill in, seemed overly complicated. Breakouts were a challenge, way to much east west screwing around looking for stretch passes instead. Our forwards tended to fly the zone really early and if the breakout was botched it ended in a lot of odd man rushes.

Power play was terrible but the PK was good.

Seems to be really well respected around the league for some reason, very big on "culture" and "brotherhood", I'm sure you'll hear all the buzzwords. Kind of a dick during post game pressers, he'll get short with reporters if they touch a nerve. Most of these coaches have an expiration date, it was time for us to move on, probably same with Lavi.

We have a super young, super green team so I'm interested how he does with you guys.

Almost exactly the way I would describe Lavi....blah

 

[predfan24]

I'm more interested at this point in how this is supposed to play out. Hynes will join the team on a game day and then we go on the road for 3 straight. Would really like a breakdown of how coaches who find them in this situation deal with it. How do they implement their philosophy? How long does it usually take them? Etc.

Definitely not a situation this franchise is accustomed to seeing.

Of course there is no time to dive deep into specifics. In reality, he won't be able to really implement his philosophy to the fullest until next year's training camp. However, the basics of systems such as forecheck, how you want to create offense, defensive system, special teams strategy are not complicated.

The real challenge for Hynes will be motivation. Many guys seem to have lost motivation. We aren't a hard team to play against. The teams that win are both talented and hard to play against.

I hate to give Milbury any credit, but I agree with what he said last night on NBCSN. Down the middle our top 3 centers (money-wise) are lazy, lazy, lazy. I think Poile is at fault for that.

 

[Legionnaire11]

Reading a little bit from around the horn this morning. Hynes supposedly comes advertised as a good PK coach, and likes to run the offense as a counter-strike attack. Those sound like good things for the Preds.

On the other hand, his PP has struggled, though he doesn't coach that (Lambert can stay on it hopefully) and he's know to sit on leads in the 3rd, which could be an issue with our defense and goaltending this season.

What really stinks, is that there's not much practice time on the schedule, outside of a morning skate, for the rest of the season. I wish this move had been made at the Christmas break when the team had a lot of extra days off. So change might be slow, we certainly won't be able to make a judgement off of tonight's game other than maybe some players will loosen up a bit with Laviolette gone and before Hynes has a chance to start tightening the screws.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Pros:
- We needed a change. Laviolette is a good coach, he will have no trouble finding a new job, but we needed a new voice (and needed to change McCarthy). ANY change would have been worth a try at this point.
- Hynes seems to be very well spoken of by others around the league. I get the sense Shero was very disappointed to fire him and really believed in him.
- He does seem to be a good communicator and student of the profession. I've googled a few articles. Examples below makes me feel like he really takes a broad and dedicated view to his job, and I like to hear somebody who is ready to put on his thinking cap and look outside the box for fresh ideas. I don't think he's some old school dinosaur type of coach, that's for sure.
10 Questions with John Hynes
The Devil's In The Details | USA Hockey Magazine

Cons:
- Track record with NJ is poor. I know they have had weak rosters. But there's a lot of parity in the NHL and even weaker teams on paper can be competitive. Yet the Devils are at the very bottom of the cumulative standings over his tenure.
- "Players' coach", mentor, teacher... is that what our team needs or does our complacent-seeming veteran core need a more hard-line approach?
- Devils fans have really roasted him - and it's not all just one-liner flaming. I've read a fair number of more detailed and articulate criticisms of how the team performed under him. Some of them are worrisome.


I don't know if it's a pro or a con --- the connections to Poile, Kealty, Shero through USA Hockey and the question of networking/nepotistic approach vs. hiring on performance/merit... I'm leaning to thinking it might actually be a "pro"... they already know him well and have seen him perform outside the Devils job. They know what he's about and what his potential is. He's not some complete unknown - to them.

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I get more optimistic the more I read about his backstory.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Firing the coach should I would hope provide some motivation to these guys as its sort of a warning shot that if they don't get it together soon the players are up next. Credit to Poile that no one on this team currently has a NMC/NTC outside of Rinne so technically everyone could be moved if Poile felt so inclined.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Have we heard anything about an additional assistant to replace McCarthy, or are we just assuming we'll go with the coach and 2 assistants until the off-season?

 

[DixieFlyer]

Maybe Hynes can perform some magic and get our 3 centers to play like they're expected to, instead of the overpaid, underachievers they currently are. No one is scared of this team down the middle.

But I doubt it.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Link to intro press conference for anyone interested in it

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Pros:
- We needed a change. Laviolette is a good coach, he will have no trouble finding a new job, but we needed a new voice (and needed to change McCarthy). ANY change would have been worth a try at this point.
- Hynes seems to be very well spoken of by others around the league. I get the sense Shero was very disappointed to fire him and really believed in him.
- He does seem to be a good communicator and student of the profession. I've googled a few articles. Examples below makes me feel like he really takes a broad and dedicated view to his job, and I like to hear somebody who is ready to put on his thinking cap and look outside the box for fresh ideas. I don't think he's some old school dinosaur type of coach, that's for sure.
10 Questions with John Hynes
The Devil's In The Details | USA Hockey Magazine

Cons:
- Track record with NJ is poor. I know they have had weak rosters. But there's a lot of parity in the NHL and even weaker teams on paper can be competitive. Yet the Devils are at the very bottom of the cumulative standings over his tenure.
- "Players' coach", mentor, teacher... is that what our team needs or does our complacent-seeming veteran core need a more hard-line approach?
- Devils fans have really roasted him - and it's not all just one-liner flaming. I've read a fair number of more detailed and articulate criticisms of how the team performed under him. Some of them are worrisome.


I don't know if it's a pro or a con --- the connections to Poile, Kealty, Shero through USA Hockey and the question of networking/nepotistic approach vs. hiring on performance/merit... I'm leaning to thinking it might actually be a "pro"... they already know him well and have seen him perform outside the Devils job. They know what he's about and what his potential is. He's not some complete unknown - to them.

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I get more optimistic the more I read about his backstory.

This is pretty par for the course. There's useful bits here and there, but most of it can be ignored. Any of us could write a lengthy, accurate diatribe about Laviolette's deficiencies as well, it wouldn't change the fact that he is still a good coach overall.

 

[OldFan]

Well, if you hire a head coach with NHL experience then it goes without saying that he has been fired elsewhere.
If you hire a coach that has never been a head NHL coach then it’s presumed you’re taking a big risk.
So, Poile is going to be criticized for whatever he does depending on our personal views.
Truthfully, I’ve never heard of Hynes. I knew New Jersey fired their head coach but I wasn’t the least bit interested.
Babcock was fired, Sutter was fired, Trotz was fired(ok, I know), Berbue(sp?) was fired; they’ve all been fired and always for bad team performance. Regardless of what some think Poile is not stupid. He believes that Hynes has what this team needs right now and that Lavy does not.
I’m willing to accept that and hope it’s true.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Poile sounds ROUGH

 

[ScottyK]

I think the most damning thing about John is Ray's comment that he feels all 23 guys were underachieving by the end of his tenure. Seems something similar was going on with Lavs ? Maybe it's something as simple as a new voice ? Seems to have begun to work in NJ under Nas.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

We hired Lavy after he was fired so I'm not judging yet. Is he part of the reason they haven't been very good? I don't know. Their team makeup isn't great though so I'm interested in seeing how he manages our squad, a much more talented one.

The issue was he was constantly trying to play this odd combination of hyper low event turtle hockey along with the most aggressive defense activation I've ever seen. Our roster was built for speed and offense, and has a terrible defense. It's like the style he tried to force was the opposite of everything that would actually allow them to succeed. No more proof is needed than game 1 where we went up 4-0, gave up one goal late in the second, and Hynes blows up every line and completely changes the style of play. We ended up losing 5-4, and in his post game he said he didn't like the way the team was playing. A team that built a 4-0 lead.

The other concerning thing is that his teams always seemed lost. Like guys literally didn't know what to do. You could see them trying to figure out what they were supposed to do every time they got the puck. There was no flow, no instinct. Since he and Hall have been gone, the team looks faster, more talented and more structured. Their recent record reflects that.

Nashville is my favorite Western Conference team. I sincerely hope this works out, as your roster seems to fit more what Hynes wanted to do. But it scares me a bit. We shall see I suppose.

 

[Soundgarden]

I think now was a great time to fire Lavy in terms of the standings; either we improve under Hynes and grab a wildcard spot or better, or we flounder and bring up Taylor from Milwaukee next year.

 

[Predsanddead24]

I think now was a great time to fire Lavy in terms of the standings; either we improve under Hynes and grab a wildcard spot or better, or we flounder and bring up Taylor from Milwaukee next year.

There aren't any contract details but I think good or bad we're stuck with Hynes for at least next year if not the next three or so. If not I think he'd probably have the interim tag.

 

[Viqsi]

You are really overrating the roster. Unproven and relatively undertalented forward group and not a lot of actual defense for the defensive group. At very best they compete for a WC2. More likely a 12-14 in conference team.

They've got multiple young forwards with lots of hype and high draft pedigree, with little or no thought given to anything else at all. Of course maplepred loves that roster.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Scuderi new assistant coach according to Poile

 

[OldFan]

Lavy will be a head coach in the NHL next year.

 

[Soundgarden]

Scuderi new assistant coach according to Poile

Thought I heard that right.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Oh god Hynes is a Luke Bryan fan. Forget everything I've said I'm out on him.

 

[Legionnaire11]

Scuderi new assistant coach according to Poile

I had to look it up, forgot that we actually hired him last summer as "defensive development coach". So I guess this is a little promotion for him.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Lavy will be a head coach in the NHL next year.

Possibly later this year as well. His firing should have a few other coaches around the league looking over their shoulder.