He kept putting them out there, including in overtimes and other critical moments. That same year Skjei was sitting for critical moments in the playoffs the pairing of Nick Holden and Marc Staal was on the ice late for three blown playoff games with less than five minutes left.
I was fired but never got walking papers how to#
He played players like Tanner Glass over Buchnevich and Hayes in separate playoff years because he trusted him despite all the evidence that he wasn’t working.Īnd there’s the second problem: Vigneault never knew how to look at himself and realize the things he wanted to work weren’t actually working. Brady Skjei sat in critical moments for the 2017 playoffs despite being one of the team’s best playoff performers (with Brendan Smith) because he wasn’t a veteran. Miller is thriving in Tampa with elite linemates, sure, but he’s also getting a first line role night in a night out. Hayes scored 25 goals despite being forced to play a two-way game that he’s clearly not suited for. Even Saturday, with Buchnevich sitting fourth on the team in points, he was a fourth line player, as he has been the past few weeks. Players who were offense-first, who made mistakes in the name of trying to find offense, were often found without a real role or very harsh punishments.
(You could throw Filip Chytil in here, too, I guess). Miller, Kevin Hayes, and Anthony DeAngelo are the biggest.
There are a ton of names we can go with for this point, but Pavel Buchnevich, J.T. At yesterday’s press conference, Gillis acknowledged the importance of getting contributions from younger players going forward, a passive indictment of Vigneault’s record in that regard. The rift with Hodgson, in fact, began when Coach Vigneault accused the rookie of faking what turned out to be a serious back injury.Ĭlearly, young players who were committed to defense first (like Tanev and Hansen) would be in the good books of Vigneault, while those with creative offensive instincts (Hodgson and Kassian) would be forever shackled. But more strikingly, players like Cody Hodgson and Zack Kassian could never find their way out of his doghouse. To his credit, Vigneault developed the likes of Ryan Kesler, Jannik Hansen and Chris Tanev. In the salary cap constrained world, getting contributions from young players with small salaries is paramount. You can read through that story and see all the similarities to the Rangers you know (complacent teams, playoff failures, etc) but the below is the biggest red flag:ĭuring his time here, Vigneault displayed an inability to consistently nurture young talent. Look at this Vancouver Sun article from FIVE YEARS AGO. Some of the bigger issues were the exact same things that got him fired in Vancouver. Sometimes that turnover happens in a single summer just look at Vigneault’s body of work in 20, and then 2016 until last night. But when the veterans start turning over, and the kids start making a case for bigger roles, or the players that he likes don’t fit his system and it needs a tweak? He becomes a disaster behind the bench. On a team laced with veterans, with few kids trying to bud up through the topsoil, and leadership already entrenched in the locker room, Vigneault is your guy. He will more than likely get hired this summer, and if he goes to the right team I guarantee you he will do well. I need to say this close to the top: Vigneault presided over two of the most exciting years of Rangers hockey since the 90’s, and for that you should be thankful. It’s hard to imagine Sather making a call like this, especially with Vigneault’s history.
No more fingerprints of Glen Sather, his team, his way. In other words: Welcome to Jeff Gorton’s team. That evaluation lasted six hours, because in truth Gorton had already made his decision: The Rangers considered this a lost year anyway, and there was no point in bringing a new voice behind the bench when there was a chance they were going to blow it up mid-year anyway. Gorton gave Vigneault no vote of confidence as the Rangers sold off two months ago, but said the team would evaluate him at the end of the year. That, to me, speaks volumes about this situation. He’s gone, and he was booted out as soon as he realistically could have been.
I was fired but never got walking papers free#
He won’t be involved with any free agency decisions. He won’t be involved in the process leading up to the draft. Jeff Gorton didn’t even wait until the day was finished, handing Vigneault his walking papers around 11 p.m. After the Rangers were embarrassed in their regular season finale in Philadelphia, Vigneault went on an alleged unsolicited post-game speech about how good of a job the coaching staff had done for the team, and how it was one of the organization’s strongest assets moving forward.įitting that would be the final thing he had to say to the public as the man behind the Rangers’ bench, because in the five years he spent on Broadway he never did end up finding a single thing to blame himself for. Alain Vigneault had to have felt the heat.
0 kommentar(er)
