Lemaire ROH lead photo

In mid-November last year, Jacques Lemaire received an unexpected phone call from a few old friends.

On the other line were two of his former players, Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur and Devils current assistant coach Sergei Brylin.

“Marty?” Lemaire, 79, asked while answering the call from Brodeur.

“Hey Jacques. How’s it going?” Brodeur responded with a big smile.

After pleasantries, Brodeur delivered some important news: “You’ve changed the franchise with the way that you coached us and our first Stanley Cup. Myself and (the Ring of Honor committee), we decided you were the best candidate to be the third member of the Ring of Honor.”

Lemaire responded: “Thank you so much. It was really something special that we went through. And I can’t thank the players enough for what they did.

“As they say, you got a good team, you got a good coach.”

To this day, Lemaire remains the winningest head coach in franchise history and the man who delivered the organization’s first Stanley Cup in 1995. Many believe he also laid the foundation for the franchise’s second and third Cups. Thus, he is being bestowed with a well-deserved honor.

Lemaire will be inducted as the third member of the Ring of Honor presented by Citizens during a pregame ceremony on Wednesday, Jan. 22, against Boston. Lemaire joins Dr. John J. McMullen (inducted in 2017) and Sergei Brylin (2024) in the Ring of Honor, which is chosen by the Ring of Honor committee, comprised of existing Ring of Honor members (Peter McMullen on behalf of the McMullen family), players with retired jersey numbers for the organization (Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Daneyko, Patrik Elias) and select media/team executives.

Despite all his accomplishments, Lemaire was still in shock at his selection.

“I was surprised, quite surprised,” Lemaire admitted after the call. “I was extremely pleased that they thought of me, and there’s no doubt that I’m honored.”

Lemaire served three stints behind the bench for the Devils (1993-98, 2009-10, ‘10-11). He totaled 276 career wins and 35 postseason wins, both ranking first in franchise history. Lemaire also won the Jack Adams Award for the NHL’s best coach in 1994 and twice helped the Devils earn the William Jennings Trophy (1996-97, ’97-98) for fewest goals allowed in an NHL season.

Throughout his illustrious hockey life, Lemaire won 11 Stanley Cups (eight as a player with Montreal, two as an assistant general manager with Montreal and one as head coach of New Jersey). He’s twice won the NHL Coach of the Year, also claiming the trophy while coaching Minnesota (2003). And was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984. Lemaire also won an Olympic gold medal with Canada as an assistant coach at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Being named to the Devils Ring of Honor is yet another accolade in a lifetime of achievement.

“It’s always special,” Lemaire said. “I never look for that stuff. I always stayed in the background and didn’t think about it too much. But when it happens, you do care. I’m touched.”

Brodeur and Brylin call Lemaire to inform him of his induction into the Devils Ring of Honor

"I never thought I would be a coach because I didn't like the coaches."

History has a way of happening.

Sometimes, events can be controlled by people. Most times, life has a way of working itself out.

When Jacques Lemaire hung up his skates on a storied career – one that featured eight Stanley Cup championships and soon an induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame – he pondered the many possibilities of his future. But there was only one certainty in his mind.

He would never, ever be a coach.

“I never thought I would be a coach because I didn’t like the coaches,” Lemaire laughed. “There were so many things that I felt they were doing that guys didn’t like. So, I said, I don’t want to do that job. And I was, in a way, pushed to be a coach.”

Pushed may be an understatement. Lemaire was shoved into the coaching ranks.

It started when he took a job with SUNY-Plattsburgh as an assistant coach in 1981-82 and then joined Longueuil of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League as head coach in 1982-83.

“I thought I would go (to Longueuil) and work with the kids,” Lemaire said. “I said, this is my bag. I’m going to give a little bit of what I know to the kids.”

That was the highest ambition Lemaire had for coaching. But the success of the Chevaliers, going 37-29-4 and a QMJHL Final appearance, caught the eye of Montreal Canadiens general manager Serge Savard. The Canadiens were struggling during the 1983-84 season, and Savard was looking for a change.

Savard offered Lemaire the head coaching job with the Canadiens. Lemaire’s response?

“No, I don’t want to coach.”

Savard, however, would prove persistent. And after some time, he finally convinced Lemaire to join the coaching staff as an assistant coach halfway through the 1983-84 season.

“I said, assistant coach is fine,” Lemaire recalled. “I can work with the guys and help them.”

That didn’t stop Savard’s prodding, though, as the season continued.

“He asked me maybe 10 times a month to be the head coach,” Lemaire said. “And I always told him no.”

Late in the season, Savard’s secretary called Lemaire and informed him that there would be an early morning meeting at 8 a.m. the following day in a hotel in Montreal. And Lemaire’s attendance was mandatory.

“I was driving in (for the meeting) and thought, we’ve never had a meeting that early,” Lemaire said. “Something’s got to be going on. It’s got to be special.”

When Lemaire arrived, he walked into a meeting room where Savard and assistant general manager Andre Boudrias were sitting at a table. He sat down with concern.

“I saw the look on their faces and thought, ‘holy cow. What’s going on?’” Lemaire said. “You could tell something was wrong.”

Savard looked at Lemaire and said: “You’re coaching tonight.”

“I nearly fell out of my chair,” Lemaire joked.

Savard told Lemaire: “I know you’re the right guy that can fix the team. I know you. I know how you work. How you think about the game. I know you’ll do a good job. I want you there.”

Lemaire sat in silence for a minute. He didn’t want to be a head coach, but he also considered how well Savard had treated him and figured, “What the hell? I’ll do it.”

But Lemaire had one request.

“One year, that’s it,” he said. “I’ll finish the season and after the season you find a new coach. I don’t want to coach.”

Savard agreed.

Under Lemaire, the Canadiens clinched the final playoff spot in the Adams Division. But from there, the club shocked the hockey world by sweeping top-seed Boston and upsetting favored Québec. The Canadiens fell in the conference final to the dynastic New York Islanders. It was a remarkable run and turnaround for a team that barely made the playoffs.

After the year ended, Lemaire reiterated that he wouldn’t coach next year and that the Canadiens would have to find someone else. Savard assured him that they would find a new coach.

But late in the summer of 1984, Lemaire got a call from Savard.

“Hey, I didn’t find anyone,” he said. “You’ve got to coach again.”

Lemaire sighed but acquiesced.

“I said one more year,” Lemaire recounted. “I’ll do one more year, but you’ve got to promise me that next year I’m not doing this.”

Lemaire led the Canadiens to a 41-27-12 record in 1984-85, his first full season as head coach, and the top seed in the Adams Division. It was a 19-point improvement from the previous season. After beating Boston in the opening round, the Canadiens lost in the second round to Quebec in seven games.

With the season concluded, Lemaire emphasized his desire to no longer coach. Savard tried to persuade him to change his mind. And not so subtly.

“It’s too bad you don’t want to keep going because next year, we’re going to win the Cup,” Savard told Lemaire. “And you won’t be the coach who does it.”

But this time, true to his word, Savard hired Jean Perron to take over the head coaching duties for the 1985-86 campaign. Lemaire transitioned to an assistant general manager for the Canadiens. And just as Savard predicted, the Canadiens would win the Stanley Cup in 1986. Savard made sure to remind Lemaire of his prediction.

“It should have been you that won that Cup,” Savard told Lemaire afterward.

Lemaire remained part of the Canadiens front office staff for the next several years, happily resigned to never coach again.

Or so he thought.

jacques lemaire montreal canadiens

“When I stepped behind the bench, I had chills ... I had this feeling like I was meant to be there.”

One day during the early 90s, Serge Savard received a phone call. On the other line was Lou Lamoriello, the general manager of the New Jersey Devils. Lamoriello was calling to request permission from Savard to speak with one of his employees – Jacques Lemaire – about a possible head coach job in New Jersey.

Savard contacted Lemaire and asked if he would be interested in speaking with Lamoriello about a head coaching position. And true to his form, Lemaire declined.

“No, I’m fine here in Montreal,” Lemaire told him. “I’ve got a good job. I like it here.”

Some time passed and Lamoriello reached out again. Lemaire declined again. More time passed and Lamoriello reached out again. Lemaire declined again. More time passed and Lamoriello reached out again. Lemaire declined again.

“Lou kept going to Serge saying, ‘Can you ask him again?’ ‘Can you ask him again?’ He never quit,” Lemaire said.

While Lemaire remained steadfast in his decision, Lamoriello’s persistence finally wore down Savard.

“Serge comes to me and says, ‘You have to call him. I’m getting tired of him calling me all the time,’” Lemaire said. “Just talk to him.”

The two connected. Lamoriello’s message to Lemaire was, “Come to New Jersey and let’s just talk.” No pressure. No expectations. Just a conversation. And that’s all that Lemaire agreed to.

Lemaire flew to New Jersey and met with Lamoriello at Brendan Byrne Arena. The duo didn’t discuss the job. They talked for a long time about hockey, coaching philosophies, systems, shared stories, etc. Lamoriello gave Lemaire a tour around the arena.

Lemaire was still hesitant to it all. But suddenly, everything would change.

Lemaire walked out of the tunnel and stood on the Devils bench. He gazed around the empty arena and fate struck.

“When I stepped behind the bench, I had chills,” Lemaire said. “I looked all the way around and inside my body, I can’t explain it, I had this feeling like I was meant to be there. That’s how I felt.”

It was at that moment, for the first time in his life, Lemaire wanted to be a coach. But not just be a coach, he wanted to be the coach of the New Jersey Devils.

“I was thinking, ‘I hope he accepts the deal so I can become the coach,’” Lemaire said. “I wanted to coach there. I said, this is the place that I have to be.

“It was a strange feeling inside that was telling me, you have to sign that contract here. You have to be a coach here. You have to be coaching that team.”

jacque lemaire devils bench

“There was a lot of character on the team, they just were not working together. And when they started doing it, oh my God, it was a different team.”

After accepting the job to become the Devils head coach, Jacques Lemaire got to work immediately. One of the first things he did was acquire tapes of all the team’s games from the previous season.

“When I watched the games they played in the past, what stuck to my mind is the little things missing that were so important to go to the next level,” Lemaire observed. “Little things like playing defense when it’s time to play defense, gambling offensively when it’s time to gamble. Playing defense instinctively, it’s got to be automatic. And I didn’t see that. And it struck my eyes right away.

“I wasn’t looking at a team. This was not a team yet.”

But after watching the tapes, Lemaire called Lamoriello and guaranteed that he could get the team to play better.

“There was a lot of character on the team, they just were not working together,” Lemaire said. “And when they started doing it, oh my God, it was a different team.”

Lemaire brought with him former Canadiens teammate Larry Robinson as his assistant coach. The two implemented what came to be known as the “neutral zone trap.” The new strategy saw immediate dividends.

The Devils won their first game under Lemaire, 2-1, against the Tampa Bay Lightning. New Jersey would win its next six straight games to open the season with a seven-game winning streak.

When the 1993-94 season ended, Lemaire steered the club to a 47-25-12 record for 106 points, the second-best mark in the NHL behind only the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers. For his efforts, Lemaire would claim his first-ever Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year.

New Jersey’s defense and trap got most of the attention. And while the club did finish with the second-best goals against in the NHL, they also finished with the second-best offense in the league.

“I think in the second half of that season, we started to play with that confidence, knowing that we’re going to win,” Lemaire said. “I could see they started to gel and believe, that when they played together, when they did what I was asking, that we could win, we could beat a lot of teams.”

After besting the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins, the Devils would meet their hated rival, the NY Rangers, in the Eastern Conference Final in a series that came to be known as The Battle of the Hudson. The Devils held a 3-2 series lead, but it all eventually came down to a double overtime Game 7. As is well known, the Devils lost 2-1.

But the foundation was set. And the following season in 1995 the Devils broke through by earning their first berth in the Stanley Cup Final. However, the opponent proved daunting as they faced the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings.

“Detroit was so good at that time,” Lemaire recounted. “Look at that roster. My God! My God!”

The Red Wings roster featured many future Hall of Fame players, including Steve Yzerman, Paul Coffey, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Fetisov, Nicklas Lidstrom and, of course, Lemaire’s old coach in Montreal, Scotty Bowman. The entire hockey world expected the Red Wings to capture the Cup.

But, as history is known, the Devils would shock the world and sweep the mighty Red Wings. The sweep even shocked those inside the Devils dressing room.

“You never, never, no one ever thought there would be a sweep,” Lemaire said. “Not with Detroit. No way. No way. No way.” Lemaire would say “no way” two more times for emphasis.

There was also no point, even up 3-0 in the series, where Lemaire felt confident that the series was over.

“No, I never thought we won it. Not at 2-0. Not at 3-0,” he said. “I was just thinking about winning the next game.”

However, with the advantage of hindsight, Lemaire believes his team, with the way they were playing at that time, were unstoppable.

“I said this after we won, if we would have played another 10 games, we would have won all 10,” Lemaire said. “That’s how much the guys were focused.”

Of all his memories throughout his time spent in New Jersey, Lemaire's biggest that stands out was being on the ice and watching his players enjoy the fruit of their labors, hoisting the Stanley Cup in victory.

“My favorite moment is when the players lifted the Cup,” he smiled, perhaps seeing it play out again in his mind.

1995 stanley cup

“Everyone started to believe in something bigger than themselves and bought in. When you do that, you believe you can do anything.”

It may be a sort of irony that Jacques Lemaire – the man who taught the Devils to forget the individual and play for the team – will be receiving an individual award by entering the Ring of Honor.

But true to his form, Lemaire understands that he wouldn’t be receiving the honor if not for the collective work of the team.

“I’ll be the one honored, but I want to share that with the coaches, with the players, the people, the fans, Lou (Lamoriello), the organization,” he said. “It’s all the people around you that makes your life easier and coaching easier. You have to have good people around you.”

And, of course, the most important ingredient to success is the players.

“A good coach will improve the players that he has, and he’s going to make them play as a team,” Lemaire said. “I’m looking at those players, and what players they became.

“Scott Stevens. When he first started, he was an offensive defenseman. I thought that he’s got to be the top defensive defenseman in the league. And this guy, he became the best defenseman in the league. And he was proud of it.

“(Ken) Daneyko, same thing. He was a great defenseman for the type of player that he was.

“(Scott) Niedermayer was a great example, too. I always tried to make him understand the defensive game, but I didn’t want to lose the offense that he had because he could do both.

“Look at (Bobby) Carpenter, a guy that nobody wanted. We said we’ll give him a chance. See what he does. He turned out to be a great player for us. And (Shawn) Chambers. And (Tommy) Albelin. There are so many guys like that. So many. I could go on.”

And any pilot needs a co-pilot. The importance of assistant coach Larry Robinson, who would lead the Devils to Cup title as head coach in 2000, can’t be understated either.

“It starts with Larry. He was a great help to me,” Lemaire said. “I had to get someone that people would respect, and that’s why Larry was the best guy for me. I’m so glad he won a Cup, too.”

Lemaire and Robinson carried their 16 combined Stanley Cup rings into the Devils locker room in 1993 with the task of taking a bunch of individuals and molding them into a championship team. Two years later, they would have their names once again etched into the silver chalice, along with the rest of the Devils roster.

“Everyone started to believe in something bigger than themselves and bought in. When you do that, you believe you can do anything.”

Being named to the Ring of Honor brought back many memories to Lemaire, not just the Cup run. He cherished his time in New Jersey from the moment he arrived and is forever grateful that fate led him down that path.

“As soon as my family got there, we got support from everyone, the fans, everyone that worked in the organization. I felt it. I think back to those days, and I still feel it.

“I can’t think of anything I didn’t like. You can’t ask for better.”

jacques lemaire

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