AOL says the choice of John MacLean as New Jersey Devils’ head coach was an obvious move, but MacLean has work to do to keep the good feelings alive.
MacLean’s choice is an extremely popular one inside the Devils family, with the media and with the fan base. The return of Larry Robinson as assistant coach makes it a Devil worshippers’ dream. These kind of honeymoons tend to be brief. With a shortage of high-end prospects, the Devils are still in win-now mode. Jacques Lemaire’s one-season encore, so spirited in the first half, was deemed a failure with the five-game loss to Philadelphia ending so dismally on the ice of the new barn in Newark. The path from “Johnny Mac” to “John Must Go” can be a brief one in pro hockey.