This is the GM’s best chance to do some managing, and he’ll do it best if he keeps coaching a while longer.
Sure, the Devils are on their best behavior with Lou Lamoriello behind the bench, but after a few weeks, he’ll see some things he hadn’t before, some good, some bad, from a perspective he’s never had with his team.
He could name a coach now, say Ted Nolan, Paul Maurice, Robbie Ftorek, Brian Sutter, Brent Sutter, Rick Dudley. But what Lamoriello really needs to do is make one great deal now that he has a little cap room, thanks to Vladimir Malakhov’s absence.
Their needs are many: a power-play quarterback, a goal-scoring center with size, someone who can score on the rush, keep going.
Lamoriello is surely using his time behind the bench to evaluate what he has, and what he hasn’t. He had best face some hard realities about some of his name-brand players, because the Devils are facing a real risk of missing the playoffs. Some of those realities will require careful consideration, and first-hand evidence.
The coaching decision is important. Maurice is the most obvious candidate, but Lamoriello should also be trying to talk Dudley into moving behind the bench, because he’s a sharp cookie who suffered because he wasn’t politician enough previously.
Lamoriello is seeing that the Devils’ offensive follies, so predictable and predicted before the season began, are not simply bad luck. This is a weird mix of players, in need of the leader Larry Robinson suggested.
There shortly will be a few more top players available, perhaps not as big as Joe Thornton, but big stuff. Lamoriello will have to be ready, and that will best be accomplished with a little more time coaching the team.
He didn’t have a very good summer of managing. He’ll need to salvage the season by making one very good deal, and he’ll have no second chance.
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Devils visit Toronto tomorrow. . .Tommy Albelin made his season debut in Friday’s 1-0 loss to Atlanta, the first shutout suffered by the Devils this season.