Jacques Lemaire
{{Short description|Ice hockey player and coach}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox ice hockey player
| name = Jacques Lemaire
| halloffame = 1984
| image = Jacques Lemaire.jpg
| image_size = 230px
| caption = Lemaire in 2009
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1945|9|7}}
| birth_place = LaSalle, Quebec, Canada
| height_ft = 5
| height_in = 10
| weight_lb = 180
| position = Centre
| shoots = Left
| played_for = Montreal Canadiens
| coached_for = Montreal Canadiens
New Jersey Devils
Minnesota Wild
| draft =
| draft_year =
| draft_team =
| career_start = 1967
| career_end = 1981
| career_start_coach = 1984
| career_end_coach = 2011
}}
Jacques Gérard Lemaire (born September 7, 1945) is a Canadian former ice hockey forward and head coach who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984. He spent his entire twelve-year National Hockey League (NHL) playing career with the Montreal Canadiens (1967–1979) and was a part of eight Stanley Cup championship teams in 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979. In 2017, Lemaire was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players".{{cite web|title=100 Greatest NHL Players|url=https://www.nhl.com/fans/nhl-centennial/100-greatest-nhl-players|website=NHL.com|access-date=January 27, 2017|date=January 27, 2017}}
Lemaire was an NHL head coach for seventeen seasons with the Canadiens (1983–1985), New Jersey Devils (1993–1998, 2009–2011) and Minnesota Wild (2000–2009).[https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=5950684 Jacques Lemaire returns as coach]{{cite news|url=http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=284629|title=Lemaire returns for second stint as Devils head coach|publisher=TSN|access-date=2009-07-13|archive-date=October 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010174320/http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=284629|url-status=dead}} One of 24 coaches with 600 wins (as of 2025), Lemaire led the Devils to their first Stanley Cup in the 1994–95 season.{{cite web | url=https://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/NHL_stats.html | title=NHL Coach Register }}
After retiring at the end of the 2010–11 NHL season, Lemaire accepted a position as special assignment coach for the Devils. He currently works as a special assignment coach for the New York Islanders, a position he previously held with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Career
=Playing career=
Lemaire is one of only six NHL players to have scored two Stanley Cup-winning goals, achieving the feat in both 1977 and 1979 (The five other players are Mike Bossy in 1982 and 1983, Bobby Orr in 1970 and 1972, Henri Richard in 1966 and 1971, Jean Béliveau in 1960 and 1965 and Toe Blake in 1944 and 1946). One of the two Cup-winners scored by Lemaire came at the 4:32 mark of the first overtime of Game Four in the 1977 Stanley Cup Finals. A model of consistency, Lemaire scored at least 20 goals in each of his 12 seasons. He retired from the NHL after the 1978–79 season to become a playing coach in Switzerland.The Montreal Canadiens:100 Years of Glory, D’Arcy Jenish, p.236, Published in Canada by Doubleday, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-385-66325-0}} In 853 career NHL games, he recorded 366 goals and 469 assists for a total of 835 points. Lemaire learned to execute his slapshot when he was young using a heavy steel puck, making his shot second only to that of Bobby Hull for speed and accuracy.[http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/LegendsMember.jsp?mem=p198402&type=Player&page=bio&list=ByName#photo Jacques Lemaire] In his bestselling book The Game former Montreal goalie Ken Dryden described a magical relationship on ice that was developing between Lemaire and Guy Lafleur, who complemented each other's speed and shooting ability.
Lemaire's NHL playing career ended following the 1978–79 season when he surprisingly rejected the Canadiens' contract extension offer of $225,000 for each of five years.[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/25/sports/sports-world-specials-travels-of-lemaire.html Rogers, Thomas. "SPORTS WORLD SPECIALS; Travels of Lemaire," The New York Times, Monday, January 25, 1982.][https://www.si.com/vault/1979/10/22/824086/a-little-bit-of-heaven-in-the-alps-jacques-lemaire-is-alive-and-well-and-indeed-thriving-in-sierre-switzerland Kennedy, Ray. "A little bit of heaven in the Alps," Sports Illustrated, October 22, 1979.]
=Coaching career=
Lemaire signed a three-year contract as player, coach and general manager of HC Sierre on June 15, 1979.[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/06/16/111094058.pdf "Lemaire of Canadiens Signs Swiss Club Pact," The Associated Press, Friday, June 15, 1979.] He was paid $75,000 tax-free annually and had absolute control over his contract. "I always wanted to do something reckless, have an adventure, see how other people live, discover something new. Well, that time is now. I've always been interested in coaching, and when this opportunity presented itself, it seemed like the perfect thing," he explained.
He made his North American coaching debut in 1981, serving as an assistant coach at SUNY Plattsburgh to future NHL scout Herb Hammond at the NCAA Division III level. Lemaire was head coach of the Canadiens from 1983–1985 and the New Jersey Devils from 1993 to 1998, winning the Stanley Cup in 1995 for the 11th time, and the Jack Adams Award in 1994 and 2003. Lemaire was head coach of the Minnesota Wild from June 19, 2000 until April 11, 2009, the first head coach of the organization.{{cite news|url=https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/story/?id=274749&hubname=nhl-wild|title = Lemaire says he's done as coach of the Wild|publisher=TSN|access-date=2009-04-15}} He also won two more Stanley Cups as assistant general manager with Montreal in 1986 and 1993.
Lemaire is known for his unorthodox coaching style for several reasons: first, he prefers a defensive-minded system, often using a strategy called the neutral zone trap.{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCM/is_1_32/ai_107896436|title=Unlocking the Trap – defense – Industry Overview|date=November 2003|last=Kreiser|first=John|publisher=Hockey Digest|access-date=2006-09-03}} Second, Lemaire rarely uses permanent lines preferring to use mixed line combinations during games. Third, Lemaire never employed a permanent team captain during his tenure with the Wild, opting to rotate it on a monthly basis amongst the players. Lemaire is also regarded as one of the best teaching coaches – developing young players while working well with veterans. However his emphasis on "defense first" has often been controversial, both inside and outside the dressing room. This, perhaps, has led to some conflict with star players like Marian Gaborik (formerly with the Wild) and media criticism. An example was provided by Terry Frei of ESPN.com in an article posted on August 4, 2008:
He [Lemaire] helped drag down the entertainment quotient in this league, and despite all the talk about the Wild being a skating team that uses speed and pounces on turnovers, not all the elements of the trap have disappeared from Minnesota's game. You'd think the State of Hockey is going to tire of that at some point, especially if the Wild slide this season and it drives Marian Gaborik away next summer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=frei_terry&id=3515195|title=Frei: Ranking the NHL coaches|date=August 2008}}
On one occasion, Lemaire's team was among the top two scoring teams in the NHL. In 1993–1994, the New Jersey Devils team scored the second most goals in the league (306).{{cite web|url=http://www.databasehockey.com/leagues/leagueyear.htm?lg=&yr=1993 |title=1993–94 NHL Standings |access-date=2009-11-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220150041/http://www.databasehockey.com/leagues/leagueyear.htm?lg=&yr=1993 |archive-date=February 20, 2012 }}
In June 2009, Lemaire was named assistant coach of Team Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. He joined Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock as assistants to head coach Mike Babcock and helped Team Canada to the gold medal.
On July 13, 2009, exactly two years after Brent Sutter had been introduced as coach of the Devils, Lemaire returned to the head coaching position for the Devils.
On October 8, 2009, Lemaire got his 200th win with the New Jersey Devils and first of the 2009–10 NHL season.
Lemaire announced his retirement as a head coach in the NHL on April 26, 2010. However, on December 23, 2010, after Devils head coach John MacLean was fired after 33 games, Lemaire came out of retirement to coach once again for the Devils and led a charge that took the team from the bottom of league standings into contention for a playoff position before fading in the final few weeks.{{Cite news|first1=Dave|last1=Hutchinson|first2=Steve|last2=Politi|url=http://www.nj.com/devils/index.ssf/2010/12/devils_fire_coach_john_maclean.html|title=Devils fire coach John MacLean|newspaper=The Star-Ledger|date=December 23, 2010|access-date=July 19, 2011}}
On February 10, 2011, Lemaire achieved his 600th regular-season win after Ilya Kovalchuk scored in overtime to win the game for New Jersey against Toronto 2 – 1. Lemaire became only the eighth coach in NHL history to achieve this feat.{{cite news|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/gameflash/2011/02/10/27440_recap.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215000642/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/gameflash/2011/02/10/27440_recap.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 15, 2011|publisher=CNN|agency=Associated Press|title=Lemaire reaches 600 wins in Devils edge Leafs|location=Toronto|access-date=July 19, 2011}}
On April 10, 2011 Lemaire announced his permanent retirement from the Devils.{{cite news|url=http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=559066|title=Lemaire won't return as Devils coach|publisher=NHL.com|date=April 10, 2011}}
On August 14, 2015, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced they had hired Lemaire as a special assignment coach.{{Cite web|url = http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=776948|title = Maple Leafs hire Jacques Lemaire as Special Assignment Coach|date = August 14, 2015|access-date = August 14, 2015|website = Toronto Maple Leafs Official Website}}
On September 14, 2018, Lemaire would follow Lou Lamoriello to the New York Islanders, assuming the role of Special Assignment Coach.{{cite tweet |user= AGrossNewsday|number = 1040670151031566337 |date = September 14, 2018 |title = #Isles say Jacques Lemaire is a special assignments coach. Ken Gernander has been hired as a scout.}} Lemaire was inducted into the New Jersey Devils Ring of Honor on January 22, 2025.{{cite web|url=https://www.nhl.com/news/jacques-lemaire-inducted-to-new-jersey-devils-ring-of-honor|title=Lemaire honored by Devils , inducted into ring of Honor|website=nhl.com|date=January 22, 2025|access-date=May 7, 2025}}
=Trivia=
Lemaire is the uncle of former Stars, Wild, and Bruins goaltender Manny Fernandez.
There is a hockey arena in LaSalle, Quebec named after Lemaire.{{cite news|url=http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_dad=portal&_pageid=4338,5683802&_schema=PORTAL|title = Arenas and Skating Rinks of LaSalle|publisher=Ville de Montréal|access-date=2009-10-17}}
Career statistics
=Regular season and playoffs=
| border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="text-align:center; width:60em" | ||||||||
| bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
! colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff"| ! rowspan="100" bgcolor="#ffffff"| ! colspan="5"|Regular season ! rowspan="100" bgcolor="#ffffff"| ! colspan="5"|Playoffs | ||||||||
| bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
! Season ! Team ! League ! GP !! G !! A !! Pts !! PIM | ||||||||
| 1962–63
| Lachine Maroons | QJHL | 42 | 41 | 63 | 104 | —
| — | — | — | — | — |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1963–64 | OHA | 42 | 25 | 30 | 55 | 17
| 17 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 4 |
| 1964–65
| Montreal Junior Canadiens | OHA | 56 | 25 | 47 | 72 | 52
| 7 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1964–65 | AHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
| — | — | — | — | — |
| 1965–66
| Montreal Junior Canadiens | OHA | 48 | 41 | 52 | 93 | 69
| 10 | 11 | 2 | 13 | 14 |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1966–67 | CPHL | 69 | 19 | 30 | 49 | 19
| 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 1967–68
| NHL | 69 | 22 | 20 | 42 | 16
| 13 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 6 |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1968–69 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 75 | 29 | 34 | 63 | 29
| 14 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| 1969–70
| Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 69 | 32 | 28 | 60 | 16
| — | — | — | — | — |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1970–71 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 78 | 28 | 28 | 56 | 18
| 20 | 9 | 10 | 19 | 17 |
| 1971–72
| Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 77 | 32 | 49 | 81 | 26
| 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1972–73 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 77 | 44 | 51 | 95 | 16
| 17 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 2 |
| 1973–74
| Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 66 | 29 | 38 | 67 | 10
| 6 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1974–75 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 80 | 36 | 56 | 92 | 20
| 11 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 4 |
| 1975–76
| Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 61 | 20 | 32 | 52 | 20
| 13 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1976–77 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 75 | 34 | 41 | 75 | 22
| 14 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 6 |
| 1977–78
| Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 76 | 36 | 61 | 97 | 14
| 15 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 10 |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1978–79 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 50 | 24 | 31 | 55 | 10
| 16 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 6 |
| 1979–80
| SWI-2 | 28 | 29 | 16 | 45 | —
| — | — | — | — | — |
| bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
| 1980–81 | HC Sierre | SWI-2 | 38 | 49 | 38 | 87 | —
| — | — | — | — | — |
| bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
! colspan="3" | NHL totals ! 853 !! 366 !! 469 !! 835 !! 217 ! 145 !! 61 !! 78 !! 139 !! 63 |
Coaching record
| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;" | |||||||
| rowspan=2|Team | rowspan=2|Year | colspan=7|Regular season | colspan=1|Post season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | L | T | OTL | Pts | Finish | Result |
| MTL||1983–84
|17||7||10||0|| – ||(75)||4th in Adams||Lost in Conference finals (NYI) | |||||||
| MTL||1984–85
|80||41||27||12|| – ||94||1st in Adams||Lost in Division finals (QUE) | |||||||
| NJD||1993–94
|84||47||25||12||—||106||2nd in Atlantic||Lost in Conference finals (NYR) | |||||||
| style="background:#FDE910;"
!NJD||1994–95 |48||22||18||8||—||52||2nd in Atlantic||Won Stanley Cup (DET) | |||||||
| NJD||1995–96
|82||37||33||12||—||86||6th in Atlantic||Missed playoffs | |||||||
| NJD||1996–97
|82||45||23||14||—||104||1st in Atlantic||Lost in Conference semifinals (NYR) | |||||||
| NJD||1997–98
|82||48||23||11||—||107||1st in Atlantic||Lost in Conference quarterfinals (OTT) | |||||||
| MIN||2000–01
|82||25||39||13||5||68||5th in Northwest||Missed playoffs | |||||||
| MIN||2001–02
|82||26||35||12||9||73||5th in Northwest||Missed playoffs | |||||||
| MIN||2002–03
|82||42||29||10||1||95||3rd in Northwest||Lost in Conference finals (ANA) | |||||||
| MIN||2003–04
|82||30||29||20||3||83||5th in Northwest||Missed playoffs | |||||||
| MIN||2005–06
|82||38||36||—||8||84||5th in Northwest||Missed playoffs | |||||||
| MIN||2006–07
|82||48||26||—||8||104||2nd in Northwest||Lost in Conference quarterfinals (ANA) | |||||||
| MIN||2007–08
|82||44||28||—||10||98||1st in Northwest||Lost in Conference quarterfinals (COL) | |||||||
| MIN||2008–09
|82||40||33||—||9||89||3rd in Northwest||Missed playoffs | |||||||
| NJD||2009–10
|82||48||27||—||7||103||1st in Atlantic||Lost in Conference quarterfinals (PHI) | |||||||
| NJD||2010–11
|49||29||17||—||3||(79)||4th in Atlantic||Missed playoffs | |||||||
| Total||||1262||617||458||124||63||1421||.563|| |
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{icehockeystats|legendsm=P198402}}
{{S-start}}
{{succession box | before = Pat Burns
Bob Francis
| title=Winner of the Jack Adams Award
| after=Marc Crawford
John Tortorella}}
{{succession box | before = Bob Berry | title = Head coach of the Montreal Canadiens | years = 1984–85 | after = Jean Perron }}
{{succession box | before = Herb Brooks | title = Head coach of the New Jersey Devils (first time) | years = 1993–98 | after = Robbie Ftorek }}
{{succession box | before = Position created | title = Head coach of the Minnesota Wild | years = 2000–09 | after = Todd Richards}}
{{succession box | before = Brent Sutter | title = Head coach of the New Jersey Devils (second time) | years = 2009–10 | after = John MacLean}}
{{succession box | before = John MacLean | title = Head coach of the New Jersey Devils (third time)| years = 2010–11 | after = Peter DeBoer}}
{{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemaire, Jacques}}
Category:Canadian ice hockey coaches
Category:Canadian ice hockey centres
Category:Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Houston Apollos players
Category:Ice hockey people from Montreal
Category:Jack Adams Award winners
Category:Longueuil Chevaliers coaches
Category:Minnesota Wild coaches
Category:Montreal Canadiens coaches
Category:Montreal Canadiens executives
Category:Montreal Canadiens players
Category:Montreal Junior Canadiens players
Category:New Jersey Devils coaches
Category:People from LaSalle, Quebec
Category:Quebec Aces (AHL) players
Category:Stanley Cup champions
Category:Stanley Cup championship–winning head coaches
Category:Toronto Maple Leafs coaches