Jacques Lemaire

Jacques Gerard Lemaire (born September 7, 1945, in LaSalle, Quebec) is a former ice hockey forward and is the current head coach of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League.^[1]

Career

Playing career

Lemaire played his entire NHL career with the Montreal Canadiens, and was part of eight Stanley Cup winning teams. 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979. He is one of only six NHL players to have scored two Stanley Cup winning goals, achieving the feat in both 1977 and 1979. (The five other players are Mike Bossy in 1982 and 1983, Bobby Orr in 1970 and 1972, Henri Richard in 1966 and 1971, Jean Béliveau in 1960 and 1965 and Toe Blake in 1944 and 1946). One of the two Cup-winners scored by Lemaire came at the 4:32 mark of the first overtime of Game Four in the 1977 Stanley Cup Finals. A model of consistency, Lemaire scored at least 20 goals in each of his 12 seasons. He retired from the NHL after the 1978–79 season. In 853 career NHL games, he recorded 366 goals and 469 assists for a total of 835 points.

He also won two more Stanley Cups as assistant general manager with Montreal in 1986 and 1993.

Jacques Lemaire was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player in 1979, Lemaire traveled to Switzerland to begin a career in coaching with HC Sierre. Lemaire was head coach of the Canadiens from 1983–1985 and the New Jersey Devils from 1993 to 1998, winning the Stanley Cup in 1995 for the 11th time, and the Jack Adams Award in 1994 and 2003. Lemaire was head coach of the Minnesota Wild from June 19, 2000 until April 11, 2009, the first head coach of the organization.^[2]

Lemaire is known for his unorthodox coaching style for several reasons: first, he prefers a defensive-minded system, often using a strategy called the neutral zone trap,^[3]. Second, Lemaire rarely uses permanent lines preferring to use mixed line combinations during games. Lemaire is also regarded as one of the best teaching coaches - developing young players while working well with veterans. However his emphasis on "defence first" has often been controversial, both within and outside the dressing room. This perhaps, has led to some conflict with star players like Marian Gaborik (formerly with the Wild) and media criticism. An example was provided by Terry Frei of ESPN.com in an article posted on August 4, 2008:

He [Lemaire] helped drag down the entertainment quotient in this league, and despite all the talk about the Wild being a skating team that uses speed and pounces on turnovers, not all the elements of the trap have disappeared from Minnesota's game. You'd think the State of Hockey is going to tire of that at some point, especially if the Wild slide this season and it drives Marian Gaborik away next summer.^[4]

Nevertheless, some of Lemaire's teams have been amongst the highest scoring teams in the NHL. For example, the 1993-1994 New Jersey Devils team scored the 2nd most goals in the league that season^[5].

In June 2009, Lemaire was named assistant coach of Team Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics to take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He will join Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock as assistants to head coach Mike Babcock.

On July 13, 2009, exactly two years after Brent Sutter had been introduced as coach of the Devils, Lemaire returned to the head coaching position for the Devils.

On October 8, 2009, Lemaire got his 200th win with the New Jersey Devils and first of the 2009–10 NHL season.

Trivia

Lemaire is the uncle of former Boston Bruins goaltender and former Wild player, Manny Fernandez.

There is a hockey arena in LaSalle named after Lemaire. ^[6]

Career statistics

Coaching record

See also

• List of NHL head coaches
• Notable families in the NHL

References

• Jacques Lemaire-Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum [1] Retrieved Oct. 10, 2006.

External links

• Jacques Lemaire's biography at Legends of Hockey
• Jacques Lemaire's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database
• Lemaire regarded as top coach