Finally

Look, I'm very grateful to have a job.  It's a rough economy and they aren't as easy to come across, especially in something that you love.  With all of that said, I don't want to see anyone lose their job.

However, thank you to the New Jersey Devils organization for waking up and releasing John MacLean of his coaching duties.

I've written on here numerous times that MacLean had to go.  It was not an easy decision for Lamoriello to make.  MacLean's been with the Devils since the 1980s (minus a few years at the end of his career when he bounced around to a few other teams) but this isn't a sentimental business.  It's a business.  And the proof is in the pudding.  The team is 9-22-2.  20 points.  Last in the league.  Only 59 goals scored, last in the league.

The main question is what took so long.  Really, what took so long?  Lamoriello has fired two previous coaches within the last two-three weeks of the regular season when the team was about to WIN the division because he didn't like a change.  Those teams were set for home ice advantage in the playoffs and the coach was outed.  This coach has the team almost eliminated in December and held onto his job for that long.  Shocking.

So now what?  Jacques Lamaire comes back as the interim head coach and the Devils move on.  We play the Islanders tonight, the typical laughing stock of the NHL and now a team with the same number of points as us, and we trudge forward.  For 90 points, it would require a 35-14 record the rest of the way.  Impossible?  No, not really.  Likely, no, not really.