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Devils’ coaching situation still has many, um, ‘variables’

Lou Lamoriello, Adam Oates, Scott Stevens

New Jersey Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello, center, Adam Oates, right, and Scott Stevens, left, watch their team play during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2014, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

AP

In case you’re wondering, no, the New Jersey Devils’ bizarre coaching situation doesn’t seem any clearer. At least not yet.

GM and interim head coach (or whatever you want to call him, really) Lou Lamoriello spoke with the Newark Star & Ledger on the subject on Sunday, and the conversation seemed to amount to a big shoulder shrug.

It’s very much a “make things up as you go” situation, as this chunk of the interview exemplifies best:

Might you spend the rest of the season behind the bench?

“I’m not even thinking beyond a day at a time and a game at a time. I don’t want to say A and B happens or C happens.”

What has to happen to convince you not to be behind the bench?

“How we play. How it’s going. What the receptiveness is. A lot of different variables. There is not one in particular.”

The things that are clear could change whenever Lamoriello sees fit: he’s the one who will address the media (for now) and he’s not sure how long he’ll employ the current three-headed dragon setup with Scott Stevens and Adam Oates.

Really, it all boils down to what many have know about the Devils for some time: Lamoriello essentially wields as much power as he chooses. If he’s aware of how much he’s willing to delegate, he’s not sharing that information at this time.

Of course, there’s the very real possibility that he’s still making that determination, as he says ...

Catch up on this odd situation

Some optimism after Devils lose first game with Lamoriello behind the bench

What we know about the coaching plan

Criticism goes Lamoriello’s way

One big area of criticism: an old roster

NHL on NBC panel breaks it down

Oates, Stevens say the right things

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins