Alain Vigneault needs to shake Rangers out of Garden misery
Alain Vigneault is entitled to a large measure of credit for the Rangers’ comparative success since manning the bench prior to the 2013-14 season, and the coach has been rewarded for it by virtue of a midseason contract extension through 2019-20 under which he will earn more than a combined $8.25 million over the final two years of the deal.
Fair enough, for the Blueshirts have amassed the sixth-most points in the league over the past four seasons and have won as many playoff series as anyone in the NHL other than the Blackhawks over the past three postseasons. And this group has had two players — Rick Nash in 2014-15 and Henrik Lundqvist last year — receive top-five votes for the Hart Trophy.
But if credit is due to Vigneault for the upper-echelon level of hockey the Rangers have produced under his watch, it is at the same time fair to wonder how much blame, if any, can be assigned to the coach for his team’s six-game playoff losing streak at the Garden, in which it has fallen flat over and over and over again.
At some point, responsibility must be shared between the personnel and the coach for these repeated debacles, through which the Blueshirts have been outscored 21-4, that continued with Sunday’s Game 3, 3-1 stink bomb of a loss to the Canadiens.
Maybe the CEO approach — where Vigneault delegates authority and leaves the room — which has worked so well, not only in New York but in Vancouver, needs adjustment for times like these, when the narrative and weight of negative reinforcement seems to overwhelm the big picture. This opening-round series is only 2-1 approaching Tuesday’s Game 4, after all.
Sunday seemed a self-fulfilling prophecy, somehow sadly predictable even in the aftermath of two committed efforts in Montreal. The Rangers might not have executed anywhere close to the full extent of their ability, but played with as much fortitude and moxie as they had all year.
Maybe that was the time for Vigneault to step out of character and infuse emotion into the room. And if not then, now. This is the time for the coach to do as much soul-searching as his players as they confront their demons in the House of Horrors that is no home.
Vigneault reveals little in his press briefings, so it is all but impossible to glean what goes on, not only behind the closed doors of his team’s room and the coach’s office, but inside his mind.
No doubt, he is extremely confident in his approach and extremely comfortable in his own skin, and why wouldn’t he be? That said, a coach does not win 614 regular-season games plus another 64 in the playoffs, as has Vigneault, without engaging in self-examination and evaluation.
Following Monday’s practice, I asked Vigneault whether he feels he needs to look at his own approach to preparing the Rangers for home games within the context of the losing streak, beginning with Game 2 of the 2015 Tampa Bay series.
He answered a slightly different question, responding with what I infer was a version of the message he delivered to his players before they took the ice at the Garden, where the approximately 150 members of the media made as much noise as the approximately 18,000 fans in the stands had during Game 3.
“I’m looking at one thing, in the playoffs in 2017 we’ve had one [home] loss; different group, different year,” he said. “Obviously we didn’t pick a good time to have a very ordinary game, but [Tuesday] we’ve got an opportunity to make this series 2-2, and anybody who believes that this group doesn’t want to play well and doesn’t want to win, doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
“We’re going to go out and we’re going to compete, we’re obviously going to make a few adjustments and we’re going to play a lot better than we did [Sunday].”
No one doubts this group’s desire or commitment. How could you after Games 1 and 2 in Montreal? How could you after the core has combined to win 26 games the last four tournaments, and 41 over their last six playoff appearances?
But this is a buttoned-down, low-key group of athletes and leaders that apparently needs more than technical advice to overcome the Ghosts of Losses Past that haunt the Rangers on 33rd Street.
They need more from Vigneault. Or, if not more, then at least something a little bit different.