Hynes Out! Nasreddine In! (For the Moment)

John Hynes has been fired as head coach of the New Jersey Devils. It's about time: He had coached the team for 4 seasons and change, had a record of 150-204, and missed the Playoffs in 3 of his 4 full seasons. It only took back-to-back performances of 4-0 to the despised New York Rangers at home and 7-1 away to the Buffalo Sabres to convince general manager Ray Shero that enough was enough.

The interim coach is Alain Nasreddine -- in full, Alain Jean-Paul Mohammed Nasreddine. A 44-year-old native of Montreal, possibly of French-Algerian descent, he was a defenseman who played briefly for the Chicago Blackhawks and the Montreal Canadiens in the 1998-99 season, for the New York Islanders in 2002-03, and for the Pittsburgh Penguins on and off from 2005 to 2008. Other than that, he was a career minor leaguer, from 1991 to 2010.

He must have done something in the Penguins' system to convince Shero, their GM at the time, that he had something, because he was named an assistant coach with their farm team in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for whom he had once played. When Shero came to Newark, he brought Hynes with him as head coach, and Nasreddine as an assistant.

Nasreddine is not expected to be the long-term head coach. Who that will be, probably even Shero doesn't yet know.

David Fizdale is also expected to be fired as head coach of the Knicks soon. His replacement is also anybody's guess.

And, yes, Greg Schiano has been rehired at Rutgers. I am still angry at him for leaving with the job half-finished, but let's see what he can do.

So, in the space of 5 days, I've seen Arsenal, Rutgers and the Devils change their head coaches. I'm still waiting for the Red Bulls to fire manager Chris Armas, and for Brian Cashman to justify keeping his job as Yankee general manager, since I know he won't be fired. He could shoot someone on River Avenue, and still not lose his job.