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I once asked Cup-winning Devils center Bobby Holik to name the best five coaches in National Hockey League annals.

"I'll make it easier for you," Holik shot back. "Jacques Lemaire is the first best." Then a pause: "And there are no runners-up!"

I once asked hockey magazine publisher Bob Stampleman to name the most underrated NHL player he'd ever seen.

"I have to go with the Habs' Jacques Lemaire," he replied. "I can't think of anyone else because no one ever did more good things - offensively, defensively - as well as winning eight Cups."

Now you have an idea why Lemaire, one of the Garden State's most popular sports figures, will be inducted into the Devils Ring of Honor on January 22nd.

"Jacques Lemaire played an integral role in establishing the championship culture synonymous with the New Jersey Devils that we still strive for today," said Devils Managing Partner David Blitzer. "He was the consummate winner who had the ability to teach his players what it took to get to the next level."

Lemaire did it all as a Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens center and the winningest head coach in Devils history.

As a print journalist, The Maven had the good fortune to cover Lemaire's entire playing career. And even better luck - if such a feat is possible - also to be a TV reporter covering Jacques' illustrious coaching career in New Jersey.

"Lemaire was two of one kind," says Devils' radio analyst Glenn "Chico" Resch. "As a goalie, I could testify to his greatness as a shooter and playmaker. And, as an analyst, I can cite what he did in 1995 when it came to top-notch coaching."

I covered the 1994-95 season for SportsChannel and can assure you that the Devils' run to their first Stanley Cup was all about Lemaire's magic touch.

"It was a combination of things," said current Devils executive Martin Brodeur, who shared the 1995 Cup with Lemaire. "Start with smarts and go to his enthusiasm which was palpable. He demanded respect and he got it because of who he was - and who he is!"

Nobody expected Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello to pick Lemaire for the club's head coaching job that morning in late June 1993. It came as a stunning surprise - made public at a press conference in the old Meadowlands Arena. From that point on, Jacques built a team that almost upset the heavily-favored Rangers in the1994 third playoff round.

It was impossible at the time to forecast all the good things that would come, but for sheer melodramatic tension, the seven-game 1994 "Battle Of The Hudson" between the Devils and Rangers was a tremendous series in many ways.

"One thing about it," says Bobby Holik, who centered New Jersey's Crash Line, "was that Lemaire's genius as a coach was there to see over a long series."

The fans knew it, the media knew it and, most of all, New Jersey's players were experiencing it, especially team captain Scott Stevens.

"I've never been on a team before where, when the coach is talking, everybody looks at him and listens," Stevens recalled.

Goalie Chris Terreri was blunt: "Jacques was so good that - at times - it was just scary."

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Battle On The Hudson author Tim Sullivan recalled "The Lemaire Effect" in his book based on the New York-New Jersey tourney that some savants considered the greatest ever played:

"Jacques promised strong, defense-minded hockey, in which he would maximize the talent of each and every player on the roster. Wisely, he brought with him a former teammate, Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Robinson, to take care of the blue line."

To a man, the players acted as if the entire clubhouse had gulped down a winning tonic. "Jacques came in," remembered Billy Guerin, "and something changed overnight. With Lemaire, everyone knew where he fit in. We listened and - let's face it - we all wanted

the same thing; to win!"

Lamoriello liked to hire former Canadiens because of their winning heritage. Whenever he could, Lou also would import available Habs such as forward Tom Chorske.

"We knew of Lemaire's track record and it didn't take long for us to buy in. We started to play his type of hockey right away," said Chorske. "We knew immediately that we were in the presence of a great hockey mind."

Mike Miller, who was the Devils' play-by-play announcer, remembered the one word that said it all for Lemaire hockey - responsible. In other words - smart, defensive hockey.

Miller: "Until I got to Jacques' team, I never had been associated with a club that when it had a one-goal lead, it looked like a three-goal lead."

That was partly because Lemaire depended on the superb goaltending of Martin Brodeur and provided the youngster with support and confidence. The following incident underlines the point.

It was a Saturday night game in East Rutherford, and Brodeur's backup, Mike Dunham, had pitched a shutout at home with Marty due to come back in two days against the Flyers in Philadelphia.

Since Dunham had done so well with his shutout, I suggested in the post-game media scrum that Lemaire put Mike back in again on the strength of his strong showing. Jacques looked curiously at me as if I had five noses and then shook his head, rejecting my idea. Insistent, I said: "Give me one reason why Dunham shouldn't play again on Monday?"

Lemaire answered with one word: "Brodeur!" And that was that.

As much as Jacques respected his premier goaltender, so did Lemaire's players revere their mentor. Not surprisingly, different players had differing ways of expressing their admiration.

"Jacques was very patient," said Neal Broten, who played for the 1995 Cup-winners. "He focused on fundamentals; which was very important to him. As long as you played defense and played smart, then you were going to be okay with Jacques.

"He was different from any other coach I'd ever had. He had much more of a hockey mind and intelligence."

Mister Devil, Ken Daneyko, played on all three Cup-winners and clearly favored Lemaire for any number of reasons.

"First of all, Jacques taught us what it was going to take to become champions. We were hoping that his success as a champion player would rub off on us and it did. He got us all pulling the rope in the same direction.

"He reminded us that we can say it in our heads all day, but until we feel it in our hearts it will never happen. That really hit home with us and sure enough that next season we won our first Stanley Cup."

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During the 1995 playoffs the Devils entered as a mere afterthought and would have to start all four series on the road beginning in Boston. They limped into the playoffs as the fifth seed, leaving the media to wonder whether Lemaire could get his team to jell. There was one final practice at which point it seemed that, suddenly, - Poof! Just like that - something magical had taken place.

Like everyone else, playoff hardened defenseman Bruce Driver found it hard to fathom: "I can't explain what exactly clicked, but if I had to point to one single moment that season it would be at the practice just before we opened the first round.

"It was the crispest practice that we had all year. Every pass was tape to tape and the guys just seemed really confident. One good,45-minute practice and we were at the top of our game. We went out and won that next night, and things just snowballed from there."

They beat Boston in five games, scoring 14 goals. In Round Two, they lost the opener to Pittsburgh and then swept Jaromir Jagr's team in four straight. "It was lights out," said Billy Guerin. "Everything Jacques taught us was working."

Sure enough, it worked again in Round Three in which the bullyish Flyers were kayoed in six games. Now it was on to Detroit and the Stanley Cup Final.

Still there were many veteran journalists who doubted that the Garden Staters belonged on the same ice as Scotty Bowman's mighty Red Wings. One Canadian paper sarcastically predicted: RED WINGS IN THREE!

Others mistakenly ripped Lemaire's defensive style despite New Jersey having one of the highest scoring teams in the NHL. Jacques would brush off his critics with a puff on his big cigar.

"I don't know one coach who doesn't want his players to score," he asserted. "But you have to consider what's best for your team. And what you can do to get the most success possible from your players.

"Then, I had to sell that to my players and get them to buy into it. If that doesn't work you have to find another route. And if your second route is no good, then you need to find a third. When you run out of routes, you are done as a coach. That's it!"

No less impressive was the fact that third and fourth liners admired their leader even though they saw less ice time and often simply were ignored. But Mike Peluso, Kevin Dean and Chris McAlpine, among others, never beefed about Lemaire.

"Jacques was great for a guy like me," said McAlpine, "because he simplified the game. He just told you very matter of factly, this is where you should be; this is who you should pass to in this situation and this is how we do things on this team."

Peluso: "Jacques was the best coach of all-time. From matching lines to tactical issues, to putting together game plans; there was nobody better. On the one hand, he didn't say a lot but he was a great communicator, whether it was hand signals from the bench or group talks in the locker room."

As a player, Lemaire had digested knowledge by studying his coach, Scotty Bowman. According to NHL Roundup podcast co-host Vic Morren, "Lemaire took a lot of his approach from Bowman, who now had become his bitter rival.

"During the 1995 Cup Final - with Jersey up two games to none - I spotted Jacques in a folding chair near the team bus and congratulated him. He said, 'Thank you' and took a long puff on his cigar. That said it all. He knew he had his teacher beaten!"

After the Devils won the third game of the Final, Lemaire was asked about being so close to pulling off a sweep. "I know my players pretty well now," he allowed. "It took time to get them to this point. I've always looked at the team first before I looked at individuals. It took 25 guys to have them look in the same direction."

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One of those players was Devils icon John MacLean who asserted, "Lemaire's biggest asset as a coach was that he had the right things to say at the right time."

That "right time" had come after the Devils easily defeated Detroit, 5-2, in Game 3. They now were a mere one win away from The Cup. Captain Stevens remembered being a nervous wreck until Jacques addressed the team.

"I couldn't sleep the other night," Stevens recalled, "but the night before Game 4, I was able to sleep based on what Jacques had said; something that made so much sense. The man was unbelievable."

So was the four-game sweep of the Red Wings - un-real! Or, as author Tim Sullivan stated, "The dominant Devils had won the Stanley Cup with ease!"

At the top of this story, Bobby Holik called Lemaire the best coach ever. When I asked him to amplify, Holik put it this way:

"I never played for a more knowledgeable man in hockey. A lot of people show you how to shoot and skate; it's just that he showed you how to do it better.

"He was as good a teacher as he was a psychologist. He sensed the pulse of the team very quickly and came out and said the right things at the right time."

Now you really know why Jacques Lemaire is being inducted into the Devils Ring of Honor!

(Editor's Note: Special thanks to Bobby Holik, Glenn Resch, George Falkowski, Leo Scaglione, Jr., Matt Loughlin, Vic Morren and Noam Kogen for their insights.)