Up Close With PSR
Lou Lamoriello

PSR Editor's Note: Lou Lamoriello, general manager of the New Jersey Devils for the past 15 years, is one of the best in the business. His team won the Stanley Cup in 1995 and 2000, and reached Game 7 of the Finals last spring before falling to Colorado. New Jersey also pulled off a rare double in 1995, becoming the first organization in 18 years to win both a Stanley Cup and Calder Cup in the same season - a development which underscores why the Devils owned the NHL's second-best record in the 1990s.

Lamoriello, 59, served as general manager of Team USA at both the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and the 1998 Winter Olympic Games, and was named a recipient of the Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in the United States in 1992. He was one of the five co-founders of Hockey East, now one of the country's most prestigious college hockey leagues, and he spent 15 seasons as head coach at Providence College, where he guided the Friars to 12 post-season appearances. He also served Providence as athletic director before leaving to join the Devils.

A hockey and baseball player at Providence, Lamoriello also played and managed in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League.

He is no stranger to controversy, especially when it comes to coaching moves. He replaced Robbie Ftorek with just weeks remaining in the 1999-2000 regular season, and he replaced the popular Larry Robinson with former Penguins' coach Kevin Constantine earlier this season - only to hire Robinson back as an assistant. PSR's Senior Writer Bob Grove caught up with Lamoriello recently and talked to him about his philosophies.

PSR: What drew you to Kevin Constantine?

LL: You look at your team, think about what it needs, and you think about the situation in your mind. Kevin is a very disciplined, system-oriented, fundamentals type coach. I watched how he coached in San Jose the year they beat Detroit, and I had strong memories of him when Pittsburgh beat us. I basically matched needs with qualifications.

PSR: Have you learned anything new about him since he's been working for you?

LL: I feel pretty good, because the things I thought about him are what he is. I've been impressed with his communication. His openness and honesty have been well received.

PSR: Every GM who's been around for a while has made a number of coaching changes. Are there any guidelines for knowing when the time is right for a change?

LL: That's very difficult to answer. You just have to go on what your feelings are. You can't think about what the consensus is. You can't think about what the newspapers are saying, and I don't mean that with any disrespect. You have to do what you feel needs done. You have knowledge of the situation, and you're the only one who has that knowledge, and you have to act on it. You know you won't always be right, but the only thing that determines whether you were right or wrong is the end result. If you're worried about your own personal situation, or what people think, or doing the safe thing, then get out. That's about the simplest way I could put it.

PSR: Two years ago, you fired Robbie Ftorek as coach and replaced him with Larry Robinson with just a few games left in the season. That decision seemed loaded with risk - until you won the Cup. Was it more difficult?

LL: Well, I have the utmost respect for Robbie Ftorek. He was with me for almost 10 years, and we still have the same relationship we had back then. It was a decision made professionally that was the right one. Was it difficult? Well, we were in first place and I thought we had a team that could win, but at that point I didn't think we were going to. Fortunately, it worked out.

PSR: I guess that underscored your belief that a GM can't afford to second-guess himself or be afraid to fail.

LL: You can only do what you think will work. We've all made trades that we thought were going to work, and they didn't. You can't be afraid to make mistakes - that's the first step toward disaster. A lot of sports is like that. It's fourth and inches: do you go for it or kick the field goal? You establish the pros and cons based on the information you have, and you have to separate yourself from what everybody else thinks.

PSR: You made yet another surprising decision recently when assistant coach John Cuniff left the team to battle cancer. You replaced him with Robinson, who went behind the bench with Constantine, the man who replaced him.

LL: When John Cuniff got sick, you think about your defense and you ask the question: who knows your defense best at this time? Larry was here, had worked with us, even before going to LA to become a head coach. I talked to him, and I did not feel uncomfortable, although it was unusual. I would have understood completely if he didn't want to do it. I'd had conversations with Kevin, and he was very positive about it. I just told Larry that he had to be comfortable.

PSR: Of all the teams in the NHL, the Devils have probably done the best job of scouting over the last few years. What's your secret?

LL: If I had a secret, do you think I'd tell you? (laughing) We're not doing anything different than anybody else does. I can say that philosophically, every decision we make today is with tomorrow in mind. We all believe in patience, in development. We are all on the same page and we work together as an organization. There are no oars going in different directions. And it's not a case of one person doing things. I've been very fortunate with the Devils to have a tremendous scouting staff that's been together for a long time. We bleed together when it's time to bleed, and we laugh when it's time to laugh.

PSR: We can still remember watching John MacLean's overtime goal against Chicago on the final day of the 1987-88 season, putting the Devils into the playoffs for the first time. Do you ever think back to that, and how far your organization has come?

LL: At that time I was in my first year, and I can still remember sitting in the press box when John's shot went in. You know, we had one eye on the scoreboard, and then you're going to OT. . . it was a very important time in Devils' history. Every time I look in the mirror and see the size of my face and my forehead (laughing), I know it's been a while, but at other times it just seems like yesterday. But the passion is still here. The other day we had a game against Dallas, and I looked down on the ice and saw John and Kirk Muller, and Ken Daneyko was out there, and I really started to think about that game.

PSR: With the Devils now owned by YankeesNets, you're also CEO of the Nets. What's that been like?

LL: It's been a very positive experience. Many people don't realize I had a basketball background, from having served as athletic director at Providence.

PSR: Yeah, you hired a guy named Rick Pitino as coach.

LL: Well, I had been at Providence for a number of years, and they asked me to be the athletic director, and I was hockey coach and AD for one year at the same time. I saw some problems in the basketball program, and I knew how important the basketball program was to the school. Basketball had a different economic position (than the hockey program). And I knew that in the Big East, where you had John Thompson and Lou Carnesecca and Rollie Massamino, that you had to have somebody who wouldn't be intimidated. Rick had had some success at BU, but I wondered why he hadn't been hired. I met him and we hit it off immediately. I knew he could recruit. I didn't know how well he could coach.

PSR: What's it been like to work with George Steinbrenner?

LL: It's been great. The whole organization has been very supportive, and the relationship is as good as anybody could want it to be. For the people in the Devils' organization, it's like they haven't even noticed there's been a change in ownership. That's a sign of great cooperation.

PSR: What's the state of American college hockey?

LL: It's at a very high level. There are more and more people going to the pros from college, although I'd like to see them stay in school for a longer time. Because of the money, that's hard sometimes, but from the maturity end of it, it's a very positive thing. The coaching is excellent, too.

PSR: And the state of American hockey in general? Everyone was disappointed with the silver medal at Salt Lake City, but given the competition, that's nothing to be ashamed about.

LL: Both of the North American teams had trouble in the 1998 Games, but in the World Cup two years earlier, where the teams could prepare for a good month, the Americans won and that is a very good indicator of where U.S. hockey is. When you play the best against the best, it's going to come out even. The only negative right now is that there is too much coaching at early levels. The players don't develop the right way because coaches want to win. They put kids in roles much too soon. That should be happening later.

PSR: You played both hockey and baseball at Providence. What kind of a hockey player were you?

LL: Why?

PSR: Well, we like to bug Craig Patrick about his college days from time to time, so we thought it would be interesting to talk about.

LL: Well, we're both from the same era. Back then lots of guys played two sports in college. I enjoyed both of them, and I was fortunate in that I later had a chance to manage in both of them. I still follow baseball. (Mets' manager) Bobby Valentine played for me when he was 17 in the Cape League. But I have to be careful here, because the Yankees are what we are.