New York Rangers: Civil War

[image type=”circle” float=”none” info=”popover” info_place=”bottom” info_trigger=”hover” src=”1493″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”Credit: NHL.com” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”aligncenter” style=””][text_output]There is a rift in the Ranger fanbase.

All thanks to a young Russian stud.

Now, before you come and say, “No Shawn, this split happened earlier this year”. Sure you may be right the shift between fans started when people were siding with our coach, Alain Vigneault.

While this wasn’t a surprise, we knew there were Vigneault supporters. People genuinely like the fact that we’ve been to the playoffs, we’ve been in the Stanley Cup Finals, we’ve seen Kevin Hayes, J.T. Miller and Chris Kreider turn into players we’ve expected.

So, what broke the camel’s back?

Pavel Buchnevich, getting benched.

You can argue that Buchnevich hasn’t played well as of late. Or hasn’t played consistently enough. In this week’s Breakaway Takeaways, Drew will tell you benching Buchnevich, while he was struggling, was a mistake.

Especially when you’re having issues offensively.

Especially when you’re facing the top team in the Western Conference.

Here we are though.

The fan base divided.

The fan base is at odds with one another. This is something that Greg, on a podcast a few weeks back clearly stated, after Vigneault made another boneheaded roster decision and made a statement saying there is no in-between. You’re either with Vigneault, or you’re against Vigneault.

That is correct. With things getting worse and worse in terms of in-game management and now roster decisions, you are either for everything that Vigneault does, or want someone in upper management for the Rangers holding Vigneault accountable.

There is no in-between. There shouldn’t be any in-between.

Yet, people will look to blame a player or look to blame someone else for a decision that was clearly something that could’ve been avoided if Vigneault did his job properly. At this point, does Vigneault even want to fight for his job.

He’s become complacent, because why should he try anymore. He’s not getting any heat from upper management that we know of. He’s not getting heat from the beat writers, who had no problem putting John Tortorella’s feet under the fire.

The divide of the fanbase has a lot to do with the way the beat reporters handle the coach during post-game press conferences, during pre-game press conferences, and after practices.

While there was a follow-up and a lack of response from Vigneault in regard to why Buchnevich was scratched, but the answer while typical of Vigneault, wasn’t the answer we wanted or expected from the coach. Seemed fine to the people who cover this team though.

This is another case of the beat writers, that we have no choice but to read and listen to at times because of how deep they are in the weeds with the team, fall flat on their face.

This won’t be the first time, this won’t be the last time. They’ll continue to do that. They will continue to cater to the coach, because the coach has done nothing wrong to them. There’s no reason to go out and write scathing articles against the coach, because the coach has done the song and dance with them.

Larry Brooks has slowly started to come around, yet for every time Brooks write something negative about Vigneault, he’ll slowly go back to being pro-Vigneault at the flip of the switch. Granted I understand he is supposed to see both sides of the story but he has constantly been flip flopping more than ever with Vigneault compared to how he behaved with Tortorella.

This rift will continue, this pull on the fanbase will continue to happen. The Rangers will continue to do what they do with Vigneault at the helm.

Poor asset management, poor deployment and poor handling of the younger players will always haunt this Rangers team under the Vigneault-era, the same issues that eventually led to his demise in Vancouver. The same issues that they are still slowly cleaning up with their fanbase. We have to wonder though, when is enough, enough? What is it going to take to get Vigneault fired from the Rangers?

We thought we would have a new coach beginning of this season. We didn’t.

We thought we would have a new coach before American Thanksgiving. We didn’t.

We now think we will now be looking for a new coach after the end of the season. Time will tell.

Alain Vigneault must go. He’s tearing this team apart. He’s tearing this fan base apart.[/text_output]

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[text_output]It’s going to take a long time to fix this broken fanbase.[/text_output]