Understanding Lou Lamoriello & Why Critics Are Wrong
Lou Lamoriello will go down in National Hockey League annals as one of the most successful executives to grace the ice game.
Not to mention, also being one of the most misunderstood.
Because he keeps his cards so close to his vest -- maybe even closer -- trying to discern his next moves often proves to be an exercise in the impossible.
But the journalism business, what it is today -- far from yesterday or the decades before that -- writers and those on the electronic side often could use an electronic microscope to figure out Lamoriello's next move.
I speak firsthand, having covered Lou for SportsChannel as far back as his arrival in New Jersey in 1987 to energize the then-ever-losing Devils.
Lou and I had lunch late in the summer of 1987, and one of his first questions was: "What do you think of our coach?"
I liked red-headed Doug Carpenter a lot as a guy and wasn't about to toss him under the NJ Transit bus, so I hedged my answer. "See me in mid-season, and you'll have my answer."
The 1987-88 campaign was the franchise's first season of hope; optimism that extended through Thanksgiving 1987. Then things began slipping right up to a big game with the Rangers.
We all knew it was a make-or-break game, and New York trashed Carpenter's skaters.
Nothing was said by Lou, but he had quietly made up his mind and began searching for an answer. Nor did he need my answer -- Carpy had to go.
He eventually found the man he wanted, fiery and wise Jim Schoenfeld. Exit Carpenter and enter Schoenfeld. What followed was one of the most arresting homestretch runs the NHL has known, culminating with John MacLean beating Chicago's Darren Pang in OT to put NJ in the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
No question, Schony did a swell job, and Lou stayed with him into 1989 until he felt that it was time for a change. Exit: Schoenfeld; enter his assistant John Cunniff, who was behind the NJ bench for a couple of seasons.
By 1991, club owner Dr. John McMullen -- he also owned baseball's Houston Astros -- had become enamored of Larrupin' Lou.
Over lunch, Doc Mac told me: "I got the best bargain in major league sports. I've never had anybody who worked harder at his job than Lou. He works 24 hours a day."
And Mac meant it. Meanwhile, Lou imported a few terrific characters. One of the best was Tom McVie, who managed to combine hard-nosed coaching with rare humor. Tom's formula worked. He actually pushed the heavily favored Rangers to a seventh game before his gallant Devils were ousted.
"We have one aim and always will have the aim," Lou asserted, "to win the Stanley Cup."
McVie was not the guy to achieve that goal, so Lou resumed the search through the spring of 1993 with the utmost secrecy. And nobody even had the remotest idea who it was until
Jacques Lemaire entered the room from a back door.
© Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
"Lou brought in the best coach there ever was," said cerebral center Bobby Holik. "And there never was a runner-up."
A year later -- in June 1995 -- the Devils beat Scotty Bowman's Red Wings in four straight games of the Cup Final. To this day, it goes down as one of the most outstanding upsets of all time.
Lou and Jacques still are the best of friends, but Lou never allowed sentimentality to enter the business. Lemaire knew that his time had come. There were no hard feelings, and Jacques, to this day, advises Lou.
What followed was a fascinating coaching carousel that included Robbie Ftorek -- he made the mistake of tossing a bench on the ice, disputing a non-call after Jay Pandolfo was badly cut in a collision with a Red Wing in Detroit. Robbie didn't last long after that. (I was there at the glass when it happened. Robbie was an awfully good coach, but bench-tossing was not part of his job description.)
Perhaps Lou's most dramatic coaching move -- apart from the Lemaine hire -- was the importation of Larry Robinson to the head coaching gig in the 2000 homestretch and the un-real decision to put Robbie in charge.
Result: The ousting of Dallas in six games -- courtesy of Patrik Elias to Jason Arnott -- was another Lou melodramatic masterpiece.
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The 2000-01 season saw the Devils reach the Final again; this time against the Colorado Avalanche. No need for alibis and whatnot, the Garden Staters took the Denver six to seven games and lost.
By this time, just about everybody had seen enough of Signor Lamoriello to conclude what a longtime scout did: "With Lou, you had to expect the unexpected. No one should ever bother guessing."
You could have knocked me over with a feather during the off-season of 2002 when the Devils announced a phone conference call. When I heard the announcement, I darn near plotzed. It was Pat Burns.
And you know the rest, a seven-game third Cup won right there as the Meadowlands. Speaking of miracles, Lou was able to do what few hockey bosses could do -- win Cups with different bench bosses.
Lemaire in 1995, Robinson in 2000, and Burns in 2003. The common denominator; Lou!
Lou's expertise has been replicated both up to Toronto, helping rebuild the Maple Leafs, and ditto in Elmont, where playoffs have been enjoyed,
And so if you are a reporter, guessing or second-guessing what Lou will do -- don’t bother. He’s already outsmarted you!
While some, like Shayna Goldman, who today penned a hit piece in The Athletic, are quick to write off Lamoriello, recent ISLANDERS history tells us a very different story about the Isles and the merits of their future hall-of-fame GM.
Why the pundits are wrong:
Failing in Round One last year vs. the Hurricanes means an overhaul was needed.
Truth: While the Isles didn't win the Cup in 2023, they did perform admirably down the stretch, with key acquisitions helping out. More to the point, They made the playoffs after missing the postseason the previous spring. Additionally, the salary cap is a major factor, and like the Islanders, no NHL team truly has space to bring in talent. That is until next year when significant cap increases take effect.
Because of the cap, no NHL team is complete from top to bottom. The Cup winner earned the chalice with an unheralded goalie, who not many heard of earlier than March of last year. The Rangers looked fantastic last regular season, then fizzled.
If moves are to be made for the Islanders, they will be made smartly, at the appropriate time (closer to the trade deadline), when dollars against the cap are less of a factor.
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This season is a mess.
Truth: The season is far from over. In fact, with a win over the Flyers on Wednesday at UBS -- the Islanders will be right back in the thick of it.
The Islanders have not been blown out of any games, and with bounces and some fine-tuning on the special teams, the Isles and their oodles of goaltending could be very well-headed somewhere fantastic this season.
I mean, when was the last time they awarded the Stanley Cup in November?
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The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, even chimed in this week, saying on the TNT air, “Mr. Lamoriello is one of the great hockey minds ever in our game. He’s not going to panic. He believes in what he’s got going on there. They’ll stay structured. They got a lot of pride in that room. I think they’ll figure it out.”
Lou chose wisely when he was hired and charged to turn around the Islanders. He nabbed Barry Trotz as coach unexpectedly, and the move stunned everyone to the core. Like Lou, Barry showed class and experience that helped the Isles close out the Coliseum and open UBS Arena in style.
Yes, Trotz was then let go by Lou, but we are a season-plus since, and Barry now is GM of the Nashville Predators and not coaching. So perhaps he was burnt out of coaching, and Lou picked up some of that. We are not ones to question because lots happen behind walls we aren't privy to.
Lamoriello did not get the moniker "In Lou We Trust" for nothing. The man has earned his stripes, won 3 Cups, won The Lester Patrick Award, turned around the Leafs (which is some fete), and has brought the Isles back to relevance and nearly two Cup Finals.
In fact, he's won the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year as the Islanders boss twice in a row in 2019-20 and 2020-2021 while guiding the Orange and Blue.
But we get it. The fans want results now. Well, while we aren’t in the business of fortune-telling, Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat are both finding their rhythm right now. With bottled locked up to eight-year deals, this duo can be deadly for a long time.
If it wasn’t for Lamoriello’s interest in Semyon Varlamov, who’s to say that Ilya Sorokin would have come to the island from Russia, let alone sign an eight-year extension?
The 2023 Vezina finalist may be off to a slow start here, but we all know how good of a netminder he is when he’s on his game. While Sorokin has gone through his ruts, Varlamov, who decided to re-sign as a backup, has been stellar. The best 1-2 punch in this biz.
I'll take the Sorokin-Varlamov combo, and the old pro, Lou to steer the ship.
