If you remember on May 22, 2013 Alain Vigneault was finally fired by the Vancouver Canucks after another first round exit, this time a sweep by the San Jose Sharks. The lockout-shortened regular season for the Canucks was one where there was an unnecessary goalie controversy after Cory Schneider started 30 games but the incumbent starter, Roberto Luongo, started only 18.
Yet, we could also see him play favorites as well. Among them was Maxim Lapierre, who played all 48 games for the Canucks during the regular season, a player who was his early love, before he remembered a guy named Tanner.
When he arrived in New York, we initially saw him develop some of the younger kids in the group. He came to the Rangers and easily allowed Chris Kreider and J.T. Miller to develop and turn into the players they are today. Also, he helped turn Kevin Hayes from a lazy center, by most fan accounts, to a lazy defensive center – good upgrade!
Yet, we are seeing some of his ugly behavior return, and it’s making us wonder – why?
The Rangers haven’t gone further than the second round since their Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2014-2015, where they lost a heartbreaker against Tampa in game 7.
We saw Vigneault slowly rear his ugly head back during the Cup Final against Los Angeles, where he allowed Darryl Sutter to out coach him. John Cooper did the same thing, yet injuries took over with the Mats Zuccarello injury and then the Ryan McDonagh foot injury was too much for the Rangers to overcome. Cooper, who we all know has his problems with player management, got in the way of something that could’ve been special for this particular Rangers team: a return trip to the finals.[/text_output][custom_headline level=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Abuse of His Goaltender[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” info=”popover” info_place=”bottom” info_trigger=”hover” src=”1334″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”Credit: Henrik Lundqvist `{`dot`}` com” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]We then saw Alain Vigneault slowly begin to go back to where he felt comfortable, where he felt it was necessary to overwork his starting goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist.
During the 2015 entry draft, the Rangers traded their backup goaltender Cam Talbot to Edmonton. In return, the Rangers acquired Chicago cast off Antti Raanta, after losing his backup job to Scott Darling during the 2014-2015 season. A season of retribution was needed for Antti Raanta to cement his claim as a solid NHL goaltender.
Yet, from a December 17 through January 17 of that season, Raanta only saw one start, a loss against the Washington Capitals, where he gave up 4 goals on 23 shots. His next start, an overtime loss against the Los Angeles Kings on February 12, is a game I remember all too well. Rangers in typical fashion did not deserve to get a point out of this game, and Raanta after that game said he lost his confidence and it’d be hard for him to get it back. He wouldn’t start again quickly after that, against the Maple Leafs, but after starting the year 5-4-2, he turned his season around and finished at 6-2, giving him an overall record for his first year at 11-6-2.
Lundqvist on the other hand, at age 33, would start 65 games during the regular season. The amount of games Lundqvist played during this season caught up to him and we would see that come full circle as the Rangers would get trounced by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, Pittsburgh Penguins in 5 games.
Fans were questioning Lundqvist, wondering if he lost a step, which was disheartening to say the least because this was the start of the Lundqvist haters in the Rangers fanbase.
Yet, Vigneault starting Lundqvist in an unnecessary amount of games in a year he could’ve started Raanta, almost makes this year eerily similar. Look at Ondrej Pavelec this season; he has only started 5 games for the Rangers this year so far. For context, at this point in their first regular seasons with the Rangers, Raanta started in 7 games and Talbot started 8 games (October – December 19).
Looking at his time in Vancouver, they had four different consistent backups during Vigneault’s time, and the goaltender that got the most time during his first season as Luongo’s full time backup was Schneider with 22 starts during the 2010-2011 season. Also on this list: Danny Sabourin (9 starts in 2006-2007), Curtis Stanford (9 starts 2007-2008) and Andrew Raycroft (14 starts in 2009-2010).
What does this prove? Maybe nothing, but it’s interesting seeing that during the first year of a new backup, especially as the season starts, the backup rarely sees ice time, unless Vigneault decides to pull his starter after a poor start, which was the case with Luongo in Vancouver, and Lundqvist in New York.[/text_output][custom_headline level=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Everyone Has Favorites – But Vigneault’s is Adorable[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” info=”popover” info_place=”bottom” info_trigger=”hover” src=”1336″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Do you think Vigneault misses Tanner Glass this year? After seeing him play Glass over Pavel Buchnevich, and the ongoing debate in regard to who should play by Ranger fans across social media. It made me wonder if Vigneault misses Glass this year?
We all know what we’re getting from Carey, a full time AHL forward, getting fourth line minutes on a NHL team, that has a few other forwards (Boo Nieves comes to mind), deserves playing time over him. We also look at Holden, getting top line defensive minutes with Ryan McDonagh. It really seems like Vigneault is trusting former Avalanche coach, Patrick Roy’s off base assessment of him. Yet, it doesn’t end there, his benching of Brendan Smith, for reasons not fully confirmed by the team though it might have to do with him not coming into camp in shape. During that time, Steven Kampfer became Vigneault’s long lost son and we discovered, that he would do anything to keep him in a lineup, over someone more deserving, maybe someone like Tony DeAngelo or Neal Pionk.
Now don’t get me wrong, since arriving in Hartford, DeAngelo hasn’t shown interest of playing down there, which may slow any time for him to get back up to the big club. You have to understand though, we traded away Derek Stepan and Raanta for him and what turned out to be Lias Andersson. You have to at least let DeAngelo work through his issues, which he looked like he was doing as he had his best game of the season before being sent to Hartford.
In true Vigneault fashion, we saw our other first round pick Filip Chytil play a total of 7 minutes in two games, before getting sent down to Hartford, where he showed he still wants to play, and will be representing his country in the World Juniors, and possibly if all goes well there, the Olympics.
Yet, we have seen Vigneault push down our throats players that didn’t deserve to be up in the NHL, or at the current spot they are in. In Desharnais case, yes he has gotten time up above, when Mika Zibanejad went down with a concussion, we saw Desharnais slotted between Kreider and Buchnevich, I spoke about this in my first article, drove awful possession numbers, and their expected goals rate was way below their normal pace.
The fact that Vigneault didn’t trust him enough to get playing time over Paul Carey, yet, slotted him for failure on the first line just proves my third and final point, for now.[/text_output][custom_headline level=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Alain Vigneault Doesn’t Understand His Players Potential[/custom_headline][image type=”circle” info=”popover” info_place=”bottom” info_trigger=”hover” src=”1338″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”Credit: USA Today” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]Vigneault seemingly doesn’t get it. Or does he not want to get what he has out of his players? Discussed on the latest podcast was Jimmy Vesey and his lack of production. Could it be that Vigneault is using him incorrectly?
Could Pavel Buchnevich actually be a first line player? Well, we’re slowly finding out the fact that he is, and deserves to be paired with complimentary players who are also of the caliber he is. So, after he got out of that rut of being forced to play with the fourth line of Carey and Desharnais, and eventually Nieves (which wasn’t bad), Vigneault smartened up a bit, and placed Buchnevich back with Kreider and Zibanejad and as they say, the rest was history.
Though you look at the rest of the lineup, and you’re seeing a shuffling of Miller and Hayes. Both players have been flopped around numerous times since playing under Vigneault but it seems as for now, Vigneault is content with keeping Miller at center. Yet, it’s him trying to tinker with what was and is working. Hayes is going to be your Stepan-like shutdown center, and needs to have defensive minded forwards like Jesper Fast and Rick Nash to help supplement him.
Miller, on the other hand, was gelling with Michael Grabner and Zuccarello. After seeing how both Miller and Hayes played with their new wingers, it’s surprising to me at least that Vigneault is allowing this another go.
Yet, it doesn’t surprise me.
Fast, interests me the most. Yes, he is one of my favorite players so the slander I’m about to do is surprising even to me. You can slot him anywhere between lines two and four without any issue. It’s my problem when I see Fast on the first line, or did in previous years. He’s not offensive minded enough to be effective there.
Him being on the second line with Hayes and Nash make the most sense. That line is defensive minded first, yet has the ability to be lethal offensively. Hayes is starting to understand his role, and flourish in it, while Rick Nash is being the Rick Nash you’ve seen since Mike Babcock requested for Nash to be put on the penalty kill.
Yet Vigneault does what Vigneault wants. In the end it’s what kills the team, and their true chances from being quite the contender.[/text_output][custom_headline level=”h5″ accent=”true” id=”” class=”” style=””]Conclusion[/custom_headline][image info=”popover” info_place=”bottom” src=”1340″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”Credit: giphy” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]I could bring up his playoff success, or lack thereof, and the fact that he gets out-coached on a semi-regular basis. However, these key things are what’s driving me mad the most.
Mainly because Glen Sather and his team of experts felt Vigneault was the right guy for the job when the Rangers hired Vigneault after getting rid of John Tortorella. Even hockey media thought that he was the right guy for the job.
Yet, as we’ve seen the issues that drove him out in Vancouver and are slowly starting to (I hope) drive him out of New York.
This will not be an easy breakup for the team. The team honestly felt that Vigneault was the guy to take them to the next step, and he almost was.
Yet, old habits, especially bad ones, are sometimes hard to break.[/text_output]
Author: Shawn Taggart
Shawn Taggart is a New York Ranger fan, who loves to dive in to the statistical side of hockey.
Besides watching the Rangers, he watches the Yankees, Knicks and Giants and has this strange obession with finding some really good obscure craft beers. Loyal listener of music.