still have confidence in lou?

[nj_cup]

it was pretty clear that he didnt want kovy here during the summer everyone was in agreement that beek was the one that wanted him

he hired mac and he was asleep for the first few months of teh season while he was the coach

think he is still capable

 

[TiLoBrown]

Yea, and considering Kovy himself knew he needed to be a better player I think Lou was still in the right. It wasnt til Kovy asked for help becoming a better player that his game started coming around. I dont think he was have done the same if he wasnt a Devil TBH

 

[devs30rko]

Yes, but its fading, the off-season and start of next season will be my judge of how much faith I have in Lou, taking either a center or a d in the draft is key as well labdeskog is a good player but we don't need him

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Yes. While the Mac hiring was debatable, a lot of it made sense so it's not like he came out of left field with some random rookie coach. He went with a guy that was familiar with the team and had success as a head coach at the minor league level. I won't crucify Lou for that move.

Aside from that we had a phenomenal offseason last year. The team we had on paper was absolutely capable of winning the cup. He filled every major hole and made all the moves needed to get Kovy signed (Volchenkov and Hedberg filled needs and shared an agent with Kovy, brilliant GM move). It's also a reason I don't believe Beek was standing their with a gun to Lou's head forcing him to sign the guy against his will.

You need to lighten up on Lou just like Tilo needs to lighten up on Kovy.

 

[TiLoBrown]

You need to lighten up on Lou just like Tilo needs to lighten up on Kovy.

You need to die . But like I said, I'm not hard on him. When he does well I say it, but he didnt do well enough for what we gave him and the pressure he put on himself. I'd be alot worse if it was someone I actually liked such as Elias or Parise.

 

[nj_cup]

i'm not being hard against him. im just saying sure it seems like a logical sense for us hockey FANS that mac should be the next coach but lets face it we arent getting paid we havent had the job for 20+ years and we arent considered the best gm in all of sports....i understand what your saying but you also have to find it somewhat resonable that lou should've sensed that mac wasnt the right guy for the job? i also think he waited too long to fire him.

as for the moves your right i think they were all great moves in the off season but i clearly remember EVERY devil fan disecting his interviews afterwards and everyone was in the thinking that it was beek that wanted kovalchuk and not lou. if you believe that then you have to wonder what was he thinking? not wanting a player like him on your team?

 

[nj_cup]

another thing you have to figure if parise walks...thats going to be nieds/gomez/rafalski/gionta/parise all left under the watch of lou...thats a pretty big black eye if you ask me. thats gotta tell you something that these people dont want to play here? why? whats been the 1 thing that has been here the longest? just tired of waiting til june 30th for contracts to begin

 

[TiLoBrown]

as for the moves your right i think they were all great moves in the off season but i clearly remember EVERY devil fan disecting his interviews afterwards and everyone was in the thinking that it was beek that wanted kovalchuk and not lou. if you believe that then you have to wonder what was he thinking? not wanting a player like him on your team?

I still think he was right, I'm sorry....he still hasnt shown that hes worth it. He didnt bring more fans in, mainly because we were losing, but if he was as great as the money he got he would have been winning despite the coach. Look at the Caps, I honestly think if they had a better coach they would have won a cup by now because OV is that good.

Bold: Thats all a GM can do is make move that everybody things will help the team win. He did that, almost everyone picked the Devils in finals and ever analyst even said it was GREAT the team was gonna be more offensive. You cant blame Lou for it not working out...well, YOU can but I dont most will. And if they do, I feel sad for the state of sports fans in general.

Underline: Not every fan, I wasnt one of them

another thing you have to figure if parise walks...thats going to be nieds/gomez/rafalski/gionta/parise all left under the watch of lou...thats a pretty big black eye if you ask me. thats gotta tell you something that these people dont want to play here? why? whats been the 1 thing that has been here the longest? just tired of waiting til june 30th for contracts to begin

Please dont lump Gomez in with that list of names good, if not great, players...and its still too soon to lump in Gionta as well. As for Nieds, he left to play with his brother. As for them walking under him...yea, thats what happenes when someone has been a GM for a long time, and hes been a GM for a long time because hes been a winner. This is the first year in how many that we werent a winning team?

Its not always about someone not wanting to play here. Hell, Gomez took the money and ran. It also about wanting a change a scenery. If anyone else thinks of it as a "black eye" then they also have a weird way of looking at things.

 

[nj_cup]

your kidding yourself if you dont think kovachulk brought fans in this year....imagine how many wouldve been there if he wasnt on the team this year! wow! just wow! i guess he wasnt responsible for the turnaround the team had? but he was to blame for the team sucking at the start of the year?

as for gomez...is he overpaid? YES no doubting that.....was he great on this team? decent argument but you cant hide the fact that this team is still hurting at center ever since he left. put gomez on this team right now minus the salary and this team is a stud! then i say go after larrson in the draft or hamilton.

thing is he played hardball with nieds in i think 97 when he sat out the start of the regular season played hardball with gomez didnt offer rafalski a contract and let gionta walk. yeah nieds left to play with his brother but your not telling me you get burned by your boss once and when you can finally stick it to him you dont? stop son if you dont believe that i have a bridge i'd love to sell ya!

 

[TiLoBrown]

your kidding yourself if you dont think kovachulk brought fans in this year....imagine how many wouldve been there if he wasnt on the team this year! wow! just wow! i guess he wasnt responsible for the turnaround the team had? but he was to blame for the team sucking at the start of the year?

Dont come back and try to start putting words in to my mouth. I dont you came back a little more mature but I guess not.

 

[nj_cup]

ummmm what words did i put in your mouth? did you not say he didnt bring fans into the arena? didnt you say he wasnt worth it in your IMO because if he was that great we wouldve been winning from the start regardless of the coach?

 

[TiLoBrown]

ummmm what words did i put in your mouth?

your kidding yourself if you dont think kovachulk brought fans in this year....imagine how many wouldve been there if he wasnt on the team this year! wow! just wow! i guess he wasnt responsible for the turnaround the team had? but he was to blame for the team sucking at the start of the year?

Now STFU and go back "home" to the swamp kid. And even if you dont, i'm fucking tired of you already which is bad considering I only get time to visit this board about once a week now so I'm done with you and you mentally-stunted way of thinking. Maybe when you grow up and are able to have an adult conversation I'll consider replying to you again, but I doubt that would ever happen.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

I've said it once I'll say it again I still have faith in Lou and can't fault him for everything that happens.I for one don't think any of us can say how many of these decisions were made by Lou or how many of them were influenced by JVB.Personally I have put last season behind me and am very excited about the positives going forward.Yes we had an awful start yes jmac should have been fired earlier.But in the end I feel we came out of the season a stronger team and managed to get a top 5 pick in the process.Bear in mind this season had the potential to be a major setback for this organization and there are A lot of GM's that would have had their teams in a full rebuild mode by the trade deadline .We may very well be entering next season a better team.

 

[MadCaptain]

Cup, The only one that lou definitely lost out on of that group was Niedermayer and possibly Raffi.

Gionta was let go because the Devs had a young player ready to take his spot in Bergfors. It was the best choice in a cap world to let him leave. I'm pretty sure he would have come back if Lou actually tried to keep him.

Everyone knew Gomez was gone after he hit UFA. It's exactly the same as Jason Werth in baseball. The guy was talented and played an important role on the team but he was looking for the team that could give him the most money. It had nothing to do with him liking the Rags or him not liking the Devils.

Neither of those guys signify a big black eye from losing them. The team was probably better off not having them and their salary cap

You can probably add Paul Martin and his lack of offensive production and disappearance shows in the Playoffs. Nothing's changed with him on the high powered Penguins team.

 

[nj_cup]

o tilo now i remember why i left this board....you must be one of those new hockey fans i see now and then

 

[nj_cup]

i'm not blaming lou 100% but i just remember people saying how the kovalchuk move was so against everything lou stood for in the past yadayadayada.....as for gomez i agree he was gone no matter what...so why not move him? get something instead of nothing?

no right or wrong answer just asking a question on here

 

[TiLoBrown]

o tilo now i remember why i left this board....you must be one of those new hockey fans i see now and then

Ok....THIS is my last reply to you... you left the board because RKO had a talk with you, or atleast tried to any way...you probably ran away before that. And after you left, you made a post over at the swamp about being "home" it wasnt until the Devils started tailing off again that you decided to start posting again. Dont make it seems like you're so much better than the rest of the people here. We all left the swamp to get away from posters like yourself. Now put your dunce cap on, and get on the short bus back "home". Atleast they like your bigoted comments over there.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

So if JVB was the reason we got kovy what's to say he wasn't the reason for letting Gio go.Or what's to say Parise isn't his call as well.Gomez wasn't worth 7 mil hell we pay kovy less.I can't personally place all blame on Lou.And in case you guys didn't know there is a ignore function in your user cp that blocks posts from people you do not want to interact with.Is a very effective solution for making your message board as well as others more enjoyable while also allowing us all to voice our opinions an maintaining a productive forum.

 

[nj_cup]

i didnt know that clarkson thanks....going to do it now...i dont get this boy i'm on here posting normal and he comes in like a crazy gorilla

 

[devs30rko]

alright you two, cut it out, agree to disagree and nothing more.



that said, i of that group wasn't gionta not offered a contract?

regardless of what happened last season i think we all know lou made on big gaff this year, and that was not firing mac sooner. it was obvious 3 weeks into the season that he just wasn't the man for the job.
i can't blame him for offering him the job, as it was time to shit or got off the pot on that one, but he took far too long.


while he had an offseason to remember last year too, this one coming up is the decider for me. its go big or go home for lou. this is going to be our most important offseason in probably the next 5 or even 10 years. if you can get parise resigned from there on out you see marty, rollie, elias, zubrus, white, salvador all come of the cap. and of all of those names the only one likely to stay is elias, for at least 2 mil cheaper than he is now, and maybe zubrus, we'll be freeing up over 20mil before our next big resigns come around realistically.

THIS is the offseason where he has to be flawless. i don't care if he doesn't add a big name, all i care, is that parise gets signed. if you do that you're golden heading into the season, and the next several offseasons to come