jacques lemaire larry robinson

The Devils are honoring former head coach Jacques Lemaire as the third inductee into the Devils Ring of Honor presented by Citizens. Lemaire led the Devils to their first Stanley Cup championship in 1995 and is still the winningest coach in franchise history. To document his tenure with the Devils, we asked some of his former players to share stories of their time under his tutelage.

Lou Lamoriello

The Canadiens wanted him to coach, but he didn't want to coach. And we had a couple players we traded for that spoke so highly of him. We were looking for a coach at that time and who better at that time? Someone who's won, knows what it is to win. He checked all the boxes, but he didn't want to talk to me. We finally got together and I think what did it was bringing him into the Meadowlands and having him stand behind the bench. I said to him, 'Wouldn't it be nice to coach a Stanley Cup team standing here.' We enjoyed talking the game day in and day out. We met every morning before practice, after every practice, traveled together. We both loved the game.

Lamoriello talks about Jacques Lemaire on the day the coach is inducted into the Ring of Honor

Martin Brodeur

Valeri Zelepukin just had an eye injury. We had morning skate. He shot really high on me. Hit me in the shoulder once, hit me in head another time. He hit me again on the shoulder. I went after him to give him a whack with my stick. Guys separated us. In the game, I think we’re playing Tampa. We’re up 1-0 or 2-0 after the first. Jacques comes into the locker room and he said, ‘Marty, you’re out. Chris (Terreri), you’re playing.’ I was like, I’m up 1-0, what’s going on? He doesn’t say a word to me. He doesn’t say anything to the media about why he pulled me. Everybody thought I was injured. We get to Ottawa the following day, it was back-to-back games. He goes, ‘Do you know why I pulled you?’ I go, ‘I have no clue.’ He goes, ‘You need all your teammates. You can’t act the way you acted in morning skate.’ It showed his coaching style. The way he said it to me, it really translated.

Devils goaltending legend Martin Brodeur speaks to the media about Jacques Lemaire

Ken Daneyko

But we won the first three rounds relatively handily, and we're going to play the mighty Detroit Red Wings, and they were heavily, heavily favored by all the hockey world, the media, the newspapers. We were very quietly confident in our group, the players. We had such great leadership to go along with that great coaching as well, and been through it the year before and came close. They were big favorites. And a couple days before Game 1, he'd lined up both teams (rosters) on each side of the board. And he went around the room, if I recall, and said, ‘Dano, can you outplay that guy?’ He’d pick a comparable guy on the other team. ‘Stephane Richer, can you outplay that guy?’ And then he went on down the list. ‘Randy McKay, can you outplay that guy? Niedermeyer. You think you can outplay that guy?’ What he was doing from my perspective, was he was making sure we weren't overwhelmed, we weren't reading the press clippings and thinking that we got no shot to beat Detroit because they were such heavy favorites, and they were a great team and they had a great regular season and dominated. I just remember a couple of us whispering and going, ‘man, we might be better. We might be better.’ And that's what Jacques wanted. He wanted to make sure, like I said from my perspective, to make sure we understood that we're not taking a back seat to nobody.

Devils legend Ken Daneyko shares a personal story of Jacques Lemaire's impact ahead of '95 Cup

Scott Stevens

We were in Colorado. We were on a road trip. I think we started there. We were in a bit of a funk. We were on a losing streak. We lost that game. We went out to Vale for a break and then carry on with our road trip. It’s a snowstorm. The guy pulls over because there are lights from the police, and he gets out. The bus driver comes back and said, ‘we had to put chains on the bus because it’s dangerous.’ And we’re like, ‘what are we doing?’ We get to Vale. The next day Jacques calls a meeting because we’re going to practice there. He said, ‘Things aren’t going well. Things happen if we don’t get this straightened around. Players get traded. Some players get called up. A lot things can happen.’ And he goes to Valerie Zelepukin, he goes, ‘Val, what else happens?’ Val goes, ‘coach get fired.’ Jacques was just laughing. You wouldn’t expect it from Val, he was serious and quite. The meeting was over. And we carried on. Jacques was laughing and laughing.

Scott Stevens talks about the impact Jacques Lemaire had on the team and his career

Sergei Brylin

I lived right next to him in West Orange. He was neighbor. I used to see him outside washing his car. We’d joke around a little bit. I remember him playing with us during optional skates, 3-on-3 or 5-on-5. He would play with us. He just loved hockey so much. He was a really, really good player when he played.

scott niedermayer

Scott Niedermayer

One of the things he wanted me to do was make sure my warmups were more intense, and I was getting ready to play. I remember in Tampa things got loud. I was tired of him harping on me about my warmups. I laughed at myself years later. I’m out in warmup and I’m the hardest working guy out there. I’m skating. I’m sweating and I was like, I guess he was right. As a young player it took me a while but he taught me a lot for sure.

Scott Niedermayer talks about the influence Jacques Lemaire had on the team and himself

Travis Zajac

I just remember Jacques wouldn’t let me forecheck as a center. I just remember him saying ‘Let your wingers forecheck, you stay high, be defensive, be reliable, save your energy for the D-Zone and supporting.' I wasn’t going to get much offense, I was going to always be on the defensive side of pucks and playing defense. But it turned out, I had some of my best seasons with Jacques and just that mindset of takign care of your own end and being reliable. And then, not only in the OZone but in the defensive zone. It just kind of helped me get the puck more and play with the puck a little more and just little things like that where you thought would hurt your game, but Jacques was playing chess when everyone else was playing checkers.

Larry Robinson talks about Jacques Lemaire being inducted into the Ring of Honor