The Devils had 102 out of a possible 158 points when Julien was fired. That's like firing a baseball manager with four games left and his team sitting with a 102-56 record -- and with a playoff spot secured.
Unfathomable? You bet. But Lamoriello, citing vague reasons such as the team wasn't "ready" for the playoffs, lowered the hammer and canned Julien, who was in his first season with the Devils.
"He understood," Lamoriello said of Julien's reaction to the stunning move, which came after the Devils had whipped the Bruins Sunday for their fourth win in five games.
Well, if Claude Julien could understand such a ridiculous firing, then he's a lot better man than I am.
Lamoriello will take over behind the bench, and maybe he hopes to recapture the buzz of last season, when he stepped in after Larry Robinson resigned in December 2005 and led the team to a 32-14-4 finish and a first round sweep of the New York Rangers. The Devils lost in five games to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round.
But to dismiss Julien now, with a week before the playoffs begin, is either a sign of misguided desperation or supreme narcissism.
Of course, Lamoriello can do this because he has the job security that someone like Phil Esposito, 18 years ago, didn't have.
Espo, the Rangers' GM in 1989, fired his coach late in the season and took over himself, believing he was the best cure for what ailed his struggling team. The Rangers got swept in the first round, and Esposito lost both jobs.
Lamoriello has no such concern. He is entrenched as the Devils' GM, no matter what happens in the playoffs. So he can scratch his coaching itch and look for another sap this summer, and he can do it all swathed in Teflon.
The NHL has one less great coach than Lamoriello thinks it has
But if I was Devils ownership, I'd be concerned about attracting a top notch coach to an organization that seems to be managed by a loose cannon.
After all, if Julien can get the ax with a winning percentage of well over .600 this late in the season, robbed of the chance to see what he can do in the playoffs, then won't that scare off good candidates this summer when Lamoriello goes coach shopping again?
Frankly, I don't know who would want the Devils coaching job after this stunt that Lamoriello pulled on Monday.
I'm not asking anyone to weep for Julien, though I certainly think he got a raw deal. Coaches are hired to be fired. It's a tough business and I realize that.
But is it truly smart to change the voice behind the bench when there are only three games left for the players to get acclimated before the playoffs begin?
Clearly, Lamoriello fancies himself as some sort of coaching guru who can simply step in and recapture the hot touch he displayed last season. But Lamoriello had 50 games before the playoffs last season to get into a groove. Now he has three.
The true folly of Lamoriello's boorish move won't necessarily be felt now. It will surface when he gets a few "thanks, but no thanks" answers from potential coaching candidates who'd just as soon not work for such a tempestuous GM.
Coaching is an unstable enough profession, thank you very much.
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