- Joined
- Nov 14, 2002
- Messages
- 30,281
I really like Alain Vigneault. He seems like a really good guy, and you can't argue with his record as a hockey coach. If he wants to coach again soon, the jobs will be there.
At the same time, as a fan ... It was time to move on given what Jeff Gorton started at the trade deadline. Vigneault's greatest strength is that he knows how to stay back and let a team police itself privately in the lockeroom. It worked well on a team with good leadership. It's probably not the best way to coach a young team that needs to be guided, if that is where the Rangers are headed. After he last game, Vigneault seemed to be suggesting he can coach that way, but looking back, there were still a bunch of things that Vigneault failed at as coach. First, their defense got worse and worse over the last 3 years. In part, you can credit that to the players, but by putting a primacy on quick stretch pashes and trying to use their speed, they never seemed to figure out how to get the defensemen back and in position and the forward were really bad at coming back helping out. It got much worse over the last two years. I lost count of how many goals were scored with a man in the slot because two Rangers defensemen were chasing a guy in the corner. And that was with Ryan McDonagh who did yoeman's work trying to cover for everyone else. They brought in Lindy Ruff to try to deal with that (and I always thought he was looking over Vigneault's shoulder), but it made little difference. I look at the collection of defensemen they have now, and I don't see Vigneault being able to get more out of them than he was over the last 3 or 4 years with better, more mature pairings. Then, there were two other problems with Vigneault. 1) His reliance of veteran players, to the point that he was stunting the growth of some players with a lot of upside. Such as how he handled Pavel Buchnevich. Even Brady Skjei seemed to take a small step back this season. One mistake, and he'd sit you for 3/4 of the third period, then relegate you to the fourth line. He'd put guys in the press box who were better players than the veterans who were borderline AHL players he had a fetish for. It was Tanner Glash at one point. This year, it was Steven Kampfer on defense. Things like that. 2) The team lacked toughness and it was a reflection of Vigneault. I am not a fan of goon-it-up hockey, but when teams cross a line, SOMEONE has to put a stop to it. Too many times, teams would take a bunch of cheap shots and there was no retaliation. There was a game against Nashville midway through the season that was tough to watch. They took a cheap shot at Marc Staal who has a history of concussions, and then bloodied Jimmy Vesey's face with the business end of a stick. No penalties called, and no one from the Rangers stepped up to do anything about. They got destroyed in the game after they seemed to roll over and accept being beaten up that way. And in fact, from what I understand, in a playoff game a few years ago when someone took a run at McDonagh and Chris Kreider responded, Vigneault gave him hell for taking the minor penalty in a playoff game rather than accepting that they needed to set a tone that they weren't going to get bullied. It was interesting seeing Vigneault get saddled with Cody McLeod to finish the year after the Rangers got him off the waiver wire, because McLeod is terrible. Slow skater, can't pash. ... but he was good for a fight a game, and that had to rankle Vigneault.
I don't mean to totally trash Vigneault. Honest. He is an excellent hockey coach, and I think he is adaptable enough to coach different styles. I think if you give him a good team with some veteran leadership, good role players, and a little speed, he can ensure a run to a playoff spot. And then anything is possible. He got to the finals with Vancouver and New York, and has another Eastern Conference finals with the Rangers, and they were the most exciting seasons we've had since the 90s, so I am grateful for what he did. And he deserves a ton of the credit for it.
One other note: This is now Jeff Gorton's team. I suspect if Glen Sather were calling the shots, Vigneault would still be there. For better or worse, Gorton is on the hot seat. I am not sure he has a clue what he is doing, but they did manage to put together an impressive number of high draft picks in the deals they made and they do still have some players with upside on that roster. So we'll see. We'll find out if Gordon Ramsey is really all that as a hockey scout. I also hope that they retain Benoit Alaire. Look back at all the goalies that came through the organization and what Alaire did with them. He's like the goalie whisperer, Cam Talbot (who cashed in nicely) and Aanti Raanta became viable starters under him. And even Ondrej Pavelic (who is surely a goner now) gave them more than they could have expected from this year. Alaire is some kind of goalie savant.
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