New Jersey Devils interim coach Alain Nasreddine is focusing on having his team ready to play, should the NHL resume games after a pause caused by the coronavirus pandemic, rather than whether he will have a job next season.
Speaking Wednesday on a conference call, Nasreddine said he is aware of reports that Devils interim general manager Tom Fitzgerald has interviewed candidates for the team’s head-coaching job. The Devils have not commented on the report.
“To be honest, we’re still in the ’19-20 season,” Nasreddine said. “As far as I know, I was the head coach on March 12, you know, and I’m the head coach of the New Jersey Devils. Now, I’ve heard what’s going on with interviews and stuff like that. But to be honest, I’m just focused on this season.”
The 44-year-old Nasreddine has a 19-16-8 record since he replaced John Hynes on Dec. 3. The Devils were 9-13-4 under Hynes, and they have played much of the season with one of the NHL’s youngest teams.
Although the Devils were playing well at the time of the pause, going 6-2-2 in their last 10 games, they are still in last place in the Metropolitan Division with 68 points, and unless a new playoff format is designed when the league returns, they will most likely be relegated to the role of spoiler down the stretch.
New Jersey traded away several key players during this season of transition, fired Hynes and former general manager Ray Shero, and will enter the offseason as one of the more interesting stories in the league. Do the Devils hire a new coach? Do they hire a new GM? Do they trade some of the draft picks and assets they acquired in their fire sale that included dealing former league MVP Taylor Hall to Arizona?
The only constant for New Jersey appears to be that the Devils are intent on building around former No. 1 overall picks Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier up front and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood.
Nasreddine didn’t expect to become a head coach this season, and he admitted that his anxiety increased when he was elevated to the top job. He said it’s one thing to be an assistant coach for almost a decade and offer advice, but everything changes when you have to make the final decisions and not every decision turns out right.
Nasreddine said he took pride in his work ethic and his preparedness.
“I really grew,” he said. “You know, I mean, three months felt like a year, but I felt like I got experience 10 years’ worth, and I felt really comfortable in the end. You know, I feel like — and I know it’s only 40 or 50 games — but I feel like I’ve learned a lot. I’m ready.”
Although the NHL has not announced plans, Nasreddine said he has heard the rumors about if the league does resume play. It would be a two-to-three-week training camp, and the season might extend into June and July. Whether that happens is yet to be determined.
Nasreddine said he talks with Fitzgerald a couple of times a week and has contact with his players. He talks to goaltender Cory Schneider and forward Kyle Palmieri more because they are the team’s union player representatives.
“Right now, I consider if we come back almost [to] be another new year,” Nasreddine said. “We’re gonna have a training camp. We have time to make some adjustments. Well, there are a few tweaks, a few things we’re going to look at. And I think that will give us the perfect opportunity to work on them, whether it’s seven games, 13 teams, whatever that is. So we’re definitely going to look to make some improvements.”
Nasreddine said he has not done player evaluations for the season, noting that that’s something that will happen once the season ends.
While he called the pandemic horrible, Nasreddine said the time off has given him more time with family than he has had in years. They eat together every day, and he laughed about watching his children learn online.
“You know, I declare myself the school principal here at home,” he said. “Well, they didn’t like that too much. But we had a structure. We had a schedule in place. It’s been going real well with the school, with them. And then you have to know we’ll all get a little workout. Well, we’ll be active. So we have a routine that’s worked really well.”