TORONTO – Changing coaches with 90 percent of the season gone is a desperate gimmick, but it is no joke to Larry Robinson.
Robinson dived directly into his new task as Devils head coach Friday night by changing nearly everything, tossing out much of what Robbie Ftorek had parlayed into 95 points and the conference lead.
He changed every line, breaking up long-standing and successful threesomes, staples of the team the past two seasons. He also gave them a full makeover strategically, although he didn’t do quite as much as he wanted before his Devil debut, a 8-2 thumping of the Islanders at the Coliseum.
Robinson delivered his new plan of attack only 90 minutes before his first outing, and he was expected to give the Devils their second course before last night’s game against the Leafs here.
“In the pregame meeting, he stopped himself. He said, ‘That’s enough for one day,'” Randy McKay recalled. “He can’t throw too much at us in one day or we’ll be walking around like zombies.”
Robinson was the Devils’ good cop while Ftorek was getting himself fired as bad cop, but Robinson must shake his role, or he becomes a jester. He has clearly decided to be a genuine coach, not just the entertainment coordinator on a feel-good cruise ship.
He admitted he wanted to give the Devils an even heavier assignment the first night.
“I was a little concerned that I may be throwing too much at them all at once,” Robinson said. “When you have changes like this, it’s a big difference.
“This was a great one to build on. I can prove to them that if they play well in the defensive zone, they’re going to score their goals.”
Responsible play is what Robinson wants, particularly from the forwards.
“Mainly, he stressed getting back to more of a defensive game,” McKay said. “Having a third guy back and no lollygagging.
“He said this is not the time of the season to be looking for [individual] points.”
Robinson’s debut was a remarkable success, but came at the expense of an Islander team that has already been eliminated from the playoffs, and gave the Devils remarkable amounts of space. The Leafs were expected to be a tougher test, and New Jersey was to be without captain Scott Stevens (flu) for the second straight night.
And the Devils did score nine goals against Atlanta for Ftorek only two weeks ago. Still, they could only beat the team they were playing.
“It was very much a conscientious effort to play disciplined hockey,” Bobby Holik said. “Everybody was focused on getting our game back.
“From where we were coming from, it was a great step in the right direction. But it only means something if we can do it again.”
Really, it only means something if they can do it starting April 12, when the playoffs open. Until then, Robinson will be giving the Devils a crash course in hockey his way. His promotion may have been a gimmick, but he isn’t acting like one.
Devils visit Pittsburgh Tuesday .. Petr Sykora centered Patrik Elias and McKay again last night. Sykora and Elias each had two goals and two assists against Isles. Jason Arnott was bumped to the pivot between Scott Gomez and Claude Lemieux, while Alexander Mogilny scored his first goal as a Devil, usually playing right wing for Holik and Sergei Nemchinov … With Deron Quint booted off the team, Scott Niedermayer suspended, Brian Rafalski out with bruised ribs and Stevens flu-ridden, Devils needed Ken Sutton from Albany just to have five on defense.