Alain Vigneault’s patience is being rewarded

Alain Vigneault’s teams have won three President’s Trophies and made eight straight playoff appearances

Alain Vigneault has made many, many puzzling decisions over the course of the first 49 games this season – from his insistence on giving top minutes to Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, to his refusal to give Keith Yandle the lion’s share of power play time, to repeatedly dressing Tanner Glass.

He’s not perfect – not by any stretch. And he’s not always right, but he’s earned a certain amount of latitude after bringing two clubs to the Stanley Cup Final in four seasons, winning a Jack Adams Award and leading his teams to eight straight playoff appearances including three President’s Trophies and five division crowns.

Say whatever you want about Vigneault – the man has had a great deal of success and is widely considered to be one of the top hockey coaches on the planet.

It’s not an easy job, especially in New York, and especially in 2016. Every decision is under the microscope in the Big Apple, which goes with the territory, but the recent boom of hockey analytics and social media has resulted in many sharp hockey minds that were once hidden behind the curtain now trumpeting their sound logic and arguments to the masses.

That’s a pretty tough combination, and one that would have me banning internet access in my house if I were a coach and acting closer to John Tortorella than Vigneault when dealing with probing questions from the media.

But one of Vigneault’s greatest strengths – and a truly necessary character trait to be a good coach – is patience.

Vigneault has preached it since the start of the season. He readily admitted that the team’s scorching start was a mirage and cautioned that the Blueshirts had a long way to go. Then, when the team came crashing back down to earth in December, Vigneault insisted on sticking with his trusted guys and was adamant that the team would begin to turn things around in due time. It hasn’t been pretty, but Vigneault was right.

There’s a swoon for the Rangers every year – some worse than others. Was this one particularly bad? Given the team’s performance in recent years and sky-high expectations, undoubtedly yes.

But 82 games over six months is a longggg time – a fact we seem to forget every time the puck drops in October.

No matter how bleak things seem, it’s important to remember an age-old rule of sports: you’re never as bad or as good as you seem – the answer always lies somewhere in the middle.

We didn’t need #fancystats to recognize how horribly the Rangers were playing, but it was also easy to see how much more several individuals were capable of.

And despite the widespread panic, there have been no massive overhauls, unless you consider handing $525k to Daniel Paille and briefly recalling Jayson Megna to be earth-shattering moves. Instead, the sum of the parts has become significantly greater with a few of those parts simply returning to their usual level of play.

With a solid cushion heading into the All-Star break, the Rangers seem likely to make it to the postseason yet again under Vigneault’s watchful eye. Will they be a contender when all is said and done? It may not be in the cards – but you can bet Vigneault is willing to wait to find out.