One of the top priorities going into this off-season for
the New York Rangers was finding someone to replace former head coach John
Tortorella behind the bench.
That mission was accomplished yesterday when the Rangers’
announced that they hired
former Canucks’ bench boss Alain Vigneault to be the
organizations’ next head coach.
While the Rangers had some interesting candidates,
including former Rangers’ legend and captain Mark Messier, the team decided to
take the safe route and hire a coach that has had both plenty of experience and
success in this league.
For starters, Vigneault knows what it takes to win. As
the head coach of the Canucks, Vigneault led his team to six Northwest Division
titles, two Presidents' Trophy and in 2011, got the team to within one win of
the franchise’s first Stanley Cup as they lost in seven games to the Boston
Bruins.
Vigneault has also racked up awards and award nominations
for his work behind the bench. As head coach of the Montreal Canadiens during
the 1999-2000 season, Vigneualt was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the
league’s coach of the year because despite various long-term injuries to some
of his club’s best players, he was able to keep the team above .500.
In 2007, Vigneault won the jack Adams for leading the
Canucks to their first division title as they won a then franchise record 49
games and got to the second round of the postseason before being eliminated by
the eventual Cup champion Anaheim Ducks. Four years later, Vigneault was a
finalist for the award as he led the club to their first President’s Trophy and
second trip to the Cup Final.
Secondly, Vigneault knows how to deal with offensive
players. While in Vancouver, Vigneault had the likes of Henrik Sedin, Daniel
Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Alexandre Burrows, and Mason Raymond.
Under the tutelage and offensive style of play that
Vigneault implemented, these Canucks’ forwards were able to excel in a big way.
They scored a lot of goals, were creative with the puck, generated a lot of
scoring chances and came through at big points in the game.
With the Rangers having the likes of Rick Nash, Brad
Richards (for right now), Ryan Callahan, Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Derick
Brassard, and Mats Zuccarello, Vigneault has a lot of offence that he can work
with and get going. What’s more, Vigneault is apparently the kind
of head coach that gives the players a lot of ownership whether it was on the
ice or in the locker room, something that Tortorella
did not seem to do.
Rick Bowness, Vigneault’s assistant in Vancouver for
seven seasons, told Daily News Rangers’
beat writer Pat Leonard that Vigneualt respected the players and respected the
way they could handle themselves.
“Alain gave the players a lot of
ownership for what was going on, and the players absolutely had to respect
that,” said Rick Bowness, a former Islanders coach and Vigneault’s assistant
for seven years in Vancouver. “Whether you like him or any of us — (coaches
are) never the most popular guys around — but he always gave players ownership
of what was happening, on the ice, in the locker room, the whole thing, so they
always respected that.”
Vigneault’s style of coaching and play
is one that should keep Rangers’ star netminder Henrik Lundqvist happy.
Vigneault is someone that likes to play his starter as often as a possible
while also utilizing a style that should lead the Rangers to putting more pucks
in the net, helping to take off the constant pressure that Lundqvist feels that he has to be perfect in every game.
It is more than apparent that the
Rangers need a new voice and a new leader behind the bench in order to get this
team playing the way they should be every single game. For the Rangers, that
man is Vigneault.
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