Devils Finally Fire John Hynes as Coach

Finally!

Finally, a team in this area had the gumption to do what needed to be done, as the New Jersey Devils fired head coach John Hynes after a horrible 9-13-4 start to the 2019-20 season.

Let's be honest this needed to happen. The Devils had high expectations coming into the season. They drafted Jack Hughes with the number one overall pick in last Spring's draft, and acquired an All Star defenseman in P.K. Subban, and even had Taylor Hall healthy for the first time in two years.

And what has it wrought? Absolutely nothing but more misery.

Hall, for example, has scored only four goals this year, and is 1-for-9 on power plays, a stark contrast from where he was two years ago when Hall netted career highs in goals (39) and power play goals (13). Devils fans have to wonder if they will ever get the best of Hall ever again.

Subban, whom the Devils acquired last summer in a deal with Nashville, has been nothing but disappointing. Subban's shooting percentage is down to 3.2 percent - continuing a disturbing trend in the 30-year old's career. This season, Subban has scored only twice, even though he is averaging 23 minutes on the ice per game.

Bottom line, something had to change. The Devils are ranked 30th in defense and 29th in offense in the league, and look awful. Clearly Hynes message grew stale with the players, and his inability to address the mired of issues with this team was too much to handle. New Jersey's last two games, a 4-0 loss to the Rangers on home ice, and a 7-1 loss to Buffalo was the final straw for the Devils. They couldn't allow Hynes to continue any longer.

Assistant coach Alan Nasreddine takes over on an interim basis.  Even with tonight's 4-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Devils already looked better. New Jersey held a 2-1 lead after two periods before Vegas rallied on a third period hat trick by Jonathan Marchessault. Nasreddine deserves to finish the season as coach, for no other reason than providing some stability. Maybe he can get something out of this underachieving team that Hynes couldn't.

While Devils fans wanted this day to come sooner, give the front office credit for taking action -- something the other teams in this town refuse to do when things are not going well.