NEWARK, N.J. — The New Jersey Devils honoured former coach Jacques Lemaire, inducting the 11-time Stanley Cup champion into the team’s Ring of Honour.
The 79-year-old Lemaire, who coached the Devils to their first championship in 1995, was celebrated during a pregame ceremony before New Jersey’s game against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.
He was joined at centre ice by former players including goaltender Martin Brodeur, defencemen Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Larry Robinson.
“I wouldn’t have missed this for anything,” said Robinson, who was Lemaire’s teammate on the Montreal Canadiens for five Cup wins, served as an assistant on Devils in their 1995 title run and was head coach for their second championship team in 2000. ”We both came up in a pretty successful organization in Montreal.”
Lemaire won the Stanley Cup eight times with the Canadiens as a player and twice more as Montreal’s assistant general manager. He was hired by the Devils before the 1993-94 season, almost a decade after he coached Montreal for a one-season plus in the mid 1980s.
New Jersey lost a seven-game conference final series to the Rangers in the 1994 playoffs before winning the Cup a year later with a four-game sweep of the Detroit Red Wings in the Final.
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Lemaire said he was thrilled to see former players as well as Lamoriello, with whom he still works. Lamoriello is president of hockey operations for the New York Islanders, where Lemaire is a special assignment coach.
Lemaire nodded towards Lamoriello during his short and emotional acceptance speech surrounded by his family.
“All the meetings we had, the hours we spent together, talking about players, the game and everything was for one goal only — to get the team better so we could win a Stanley Cup,” Lemaire said after he donned a bright red Devils jacket at centre ice to mark the occasion.
Lemaire also coached the Minnesota Wild for the franchise’s first eight seasons, then returned to the Devils for 2009-10 and the second half of the 2010-11 campaign. He finished his coaching career with 617 wins.
Lemaire emphasized he certainly doesn’t miss the daily grind and stress of coaching.
“I haven’t lost a game since 2011,’’ he said. “So I don’t worry as much.”
