Alain Vigneault (Source: Getty Images)
The coaching of Alain Vigneault has come under fire in past months, as he appeared to be routinely outcoached by Barry Trotz and Jon Cooper in the playoffs. Compounding this was his decision to play Tanner Glass regularly, a decision which left most fans baffled.
But Vigneault is a Jack Adams finalist, so it’s not like he was all bad this season. He did a lot of good, and there’s a ready why he’s a Jack Adams finalist.
Good: Easing the kids into the lineup
The Rangers came into camp with a lot of question marks on the roster. No one knew what to expect of Kevin Hayes, who made the roster out of camp, and was transitioning to a new position. J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast were sent back to the AHL to work on little things in their games as well. In the end, it wound up being the right decision.
Vigneault took the slow approach with the roster, seeing what he had in veterans Ryan Malone, Matt Lombardi, and Chris Mueller. All three played a good portion of the first two months with the big club. Perhaps Vigneault wanted to see what they had, or perhaps he wanted to buy time for the kids to develop properly.
By December, Miller, Fast, and Hayes had prominent roles in the lineup. Lombardi and Malone would eventually see their contracts mutually voided. Mueller spent most of his time in the AHL. We don’t know what would have been had Vigneault played all three kids from the start. Maybe the team wouldn’t have had a slow start, but they won the President’s Trophy, so I think letting them grow a bit in Hartford was the right move.
Bad: Soft spot for Tanner Glass
As mentioned above, Vigneault had a penchant for playing Tanner Glass, despite the fact he’s not very good. For the one millionth time, this is not a slight on Glass himself, who is a stand-up guy. He’s just not a good fit for Vigneault’s systems, and wound up being an anchor on the fourth line.
One of the biggest factors in the run to the Stanley Cup Finals last season was Vigneault’s ability to pin Dominic Moore, Derek Dorsett, and Brian Boyle in the defensive zone for roughly 65% of their shifts. This allowed him to get his top-nine, his real scoring threats, out in the offensive zone, where they would have a better chance of scoring. Zone starts are a huge part of coaching, and AV –last season– showed poignancy in his deployment.
However, with Glass saddled on the fourth line, AV did not have the luxury of deploying his fourth line –which still had Moore, and added a solid defensive player in Fast– in the defensive zone. This led to more 50/50 splits across the lineup. While it didn’t matter much in the regular season, the Rangers were exploited for this in the playoffs. Their inability to deploy a shutdown line killed them against Tampa Bay.
Bad: Outcoached in the playoffs
This is something I touched upon in the Caps series, but it’s worth revisiting here. Vigneault was getting severely outcoached by Barry Trotz early in that series, as the Caps adjusted their breakouts to account for the Rangers 1-2-2 forecheck. They also forced the Rangers into a more cycle-based game, getting them away from their rush-based attack, and stymieing them offensively. Henrik Lundqvist won that series for the Rangers.
Jon Cooper took a page out of that book, mimicking the Caps’ shot blocking style in Game 5 and 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, both shutouts for his club, completely inexcusable at home. The Bolts are a lot younger, thus more prone to inconsistency, so that may be why we saw games like Game 6, where the Bolts forgot how to play defense. But for the majority of the series, Tampa Bay was able to limit the Rangers ability to generate offense off the rush.
Vigneault also had trouble matching up his defensemen, as Trotz was able to get Alex Ovechkin out against Dan Boyle way more often than he should, especially as the visiting team. Now, part of this can be explained by the injuries to Dan Girardi and Marc Staal (Ryan McDonagh didn’t get hurt until the Tampa series), but it’s still something worth pointing out.
Neutral: Martin St. Louis’ ice time
I initially listed this as “bad,” but Vigneault was in a bit of a pickle in the playoffs. The injury to Mats Zuccarello forced Martin St. Louis into a top-six role for the last two rounds. However, there’s absolutely no reason why he should have been top-six in the first round. St. Louis’ declining play was not only evident on the scoreboard, but to every single fan watching the game. The vision was there, the heart was there, but the body wasn’t able to keep up.
Good: Calm demeanor
The Rangers had a knack for never being out of it. They came back against Washington, down 3-1 and 1:30 away from elimination. Throughout the regular season, they never really seemed out of a game, and it’s a testament to AV’s calm, motivating demeanor that keeps the players focused on the task at hand. It’s never too much to handle for the Rangers, and that’s the sign of a coach who knows his guys.
The vocal fans point out the love affair with Glass and the ice time for St. Louis, and they immediately ding Vigneault as a bad coach. That’s simply not the case. He’s a great coach, but he got caught up in his soft spot for Glass, despite having a better option in James Sheppard. While it may have been name recognition for St. Louis at the end, there was no one else to really replace him in the top-nine, and there was certainly no one available once Zuccarello went down.
This year, Vigneault is a finalist for the Jack Adams. However, I believe that to be one year too late. What he did last year was simply mesmerizing. This year he made more mistakes.
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