The Sports Life

Hockey - Devils, Perched in First, Dismiss Another Coach

EAST RUTHERFORD ? With the Devils in first place in their division and only three games to go in the regular season, General Manager Lou Lamoriello fired Coach Claude Julien on Monday and took the job. The move would be more bizarre if it were unprecedented

Standings and calendars have never meant much to Lamoriello, who fired Robbie Ftorek with eight games to play in 2000. The interim coach, Larry Robinson, led the Devils to the second of their three Stanley Cup championships.

?You don?t always judge by wins and losses as far as where you?re going and what you?re doing,? Lamoriello said.

The 64-year-old Lamoriello will become the interim coach for the second time in as many seasons. When Robinson, citing exhaustion, resigned as coach on Dec. 19, 2005, Lamoriello took over and led the Devils to an Atlantic Division title.

Lamoriello unequivocally said then that he would not return to coach the team. He hired Julien, previously the coach of the Montreal Canadiens, last June. Julien, 46, coached the Devils to a 47-24-8 record.

?I don?t think that we?re at the point of being ready mentally to play the way that is necessary going into the playoffs,? Lamoriello said at Continental Arena. ?I?m not saying that?s going to change, but there needs to be better focus going forward.?

Lamoriello did not divulge exactly why Julien was fired Monday morning, but he said it was not a snap decision. Lamoriello said that the firing was not personal and that Julien told him he understood. Julien could not be reached for comment.

Lamoriello said he told the players of the coaching change at a noon meeting Monday. They were not involved in the decision, he said. John MacLean, an assistant coach who also played for the team, was not considered as an interim replacement. ?This situation, with a week left, is not the right time,? Lamoriello said.

The move had the blessing of Jeffrey Vanderbeek, the former Wall Street executive who became the principal owner of the Devils nearly three years ago and is striving to open a 17,625-seat arena in downtown Newark by next season.

?Lou and I don?t go a day without talking,? Vanderbeek said in a telephone interview. ?Sometimes, we talk 5, 10 times a day. We?re completely together on this. So not only was I a part of it, I?m 100 percent behind it.?

Lamoriello has changed coaches seven times in the last seven years. Two coaches resigned ? Robinson and Pat Burns, who left after the 2003-4 season because he had cancer. Robinson coached the Devils twice in that span. He was fired the first time.

?There are a lot of things that went into this,? Vanderbeek said, ?and those things will stay between Lou and myself. But we?re always going to do what?s in the best interests of the team to win the Stanley Cup. There are a lot of teams with more than 100 points this year who are capable of winning it. This team demands excellence; this organization demands excellence.?

Lamoriello?s announcement apparently caught the team by surprise. The Devils had beaten Boston on Sunday for their fourth victory in five games, and the consensus among the players was that they were rounding into playoff form.

?It took us a while, but we got it going,? Patrik Elias, the Devils? captain, said Monday.

Although the N.H.L. put in several rule changes to stimulate more scoring, the Devils cling to an effective, defense-first style of play. Lamoriello hinted that he was not pleased that the Devils had scored only 209 goals, by far the fewest of the top eight Eastern Conference teams.

Elias said of Lamoriello?s regime: ?There?s not going to be that much difference from the style we?ve used. But I noticed when he came in last year, there was a lot better unity with the guys. We were backing each other up.?

The Devils play host to Ottawa on Tuesday in an important game for playoff seeding before ending the season with games Friday at Philadelphia and Sunday at home against the Islanders. Lamoriello will coach a team he swore he would never coach again.

?Never say never,? he said Monday. ?The circumstances dictate certain situations.?

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