Alain Vigneault Thread

RGY

Kreid or Die
Jul 18, 2005
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Appreciation thread? Are you kidding me? The teams that were successful won in spite of him. He had good veteran leadership with an elite goalie to get them to the playoffs and play deep. His defensive system is a complete disaster. His personnel management is idiotic. He is garbage.
 

True Blue

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The moment I became fully cognizant of his unhealthy appreciation of Tanner Glass meant I could no longer appreciate him as a coach.
I never liked the Torts for AV trade. I never loved AV style of hockey. I am not one of these that believe that he is an absolute incompetent. His own arrogance in what he believes he drew up as SHOULD be working is his own worst enemy. That and I believe that at points and time, a team needs to bring the fight to the other team. That and standing up for your teammates. Both are big no-no's to AV. As such, the team adopted that persona. And you get what you get.

His system can only work when working with top 2 or 3 goaltending. Not a miracle that his Vancouver tenure and NYR tenure looks very similar.
 

McRanger

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Tort's teams couldn't transition to save their lives but could cycle the puck. AV's teams could transition the puck but couldn't or wouldn't cycle.

I think to have sustained success against better teams, especially in the playoffs, you need to be able to do both.
 

Levitate

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Jul 29, 2004
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I appreciate he came in and saw this team had the talent to loosen the reigns a bit and focus on offense after Torts repeated insistence that the team wasn't talented enough to do anything except defend. I like the idea of working to create more high percentage scoring chances, and it's hard to not appreciate that he took this team to the first SCF in 2 decades and almost followed it up with another finals appearance.

He came in and succeeded for awhile and almost got the Rangers over the hump. For all the faults, those couple of years were pretty great.
 

Elevate

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13/14 and 14/15 were pretty exciting seasons, let's not deny it. Can't recall many people moaning about AV back then.. Now there's a queue to give the dead horse a final kick.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!
 
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Amazing Kreiderman

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Apr 11, 2011
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He had to go because he was no longer the right coach for this team but I also feel he doesn't deserve the amount of hate he is getting. I don't care for the Cup or bust mentality. Under AV we won a Presidents Trophy, reached the Cup final. I have a lot of great memories of the Rangers under AV. Those Cup runs mean more to me than the 1994 cup win to be honest because I was 9, living in Europe and didn't watch the games live. These more recent runs I actually lived through. Stayed up until 5 am at times, fighting against the biological clock. Going to bed when the sun comes up, unable to sleep because of the adrenaline rush of beating the Penguins in game 7.

AV didn't win a cup with us but he will still be one of the most successful coaches in franchise history. Kreider, Zuccarello, Miller, Brassard, Hayes, Buchnevich, Fast, Skjei, Talbot, Raanta, Stepan all became better players under AV. He deserves credit for that. He deserves criticism for a lot of other things as well, don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day the Rangers had one of the most successful 5-year spans in franchise history (just waiting for someone to point out our franchise is shit and this doesn't mean anything because of that).

I have fond memories of the last 5 years, but I'm happy he's gone because we need a new direction.
 

True Blue

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I appreciate he came in and saw this team had the talent to loosen the reigns a bit and focus on offense after Torts repeated insistence that the team wasn't talented enough to do anything except defend. I like the idea of working to create more high percentage scoring chances, and it's hard to not appreciate that he took this team to the first SCF in 2 decades and almost followed it up with another finals appearance.

He came in and succeeded for awhile and almost got the Rangers over the hump. For all the faults, those couple of years were pretty great.
In fairness to Torts, the team that AV took to the Finals was MUCH more talented than any team that AV had.
 
Feb 27, 2002
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He had to go because he was no longer the right coach for this team but I also feel he doesn't deserve the amount of hate he is getting. I don't care for the Cup or bust mentality. Under AV we won a Presidents Trophy, reached the Cup final. I have a lot of great memories of the Rangers under AV. Those Cup runs mean more to me than the 1994 cup win to be honest because I was 9, living in Europe and didn't watch the games live. These more recent runs I actually lived through. Stayed up until 5 am at times, fighting against the biological clock. Going to bed when the sun comes up, unable to sleep because of the adrenaline rush of beating the Penguins in game 7.

AV didn't win a cup with us but he will still be one of the most successful coaches in franchise history. Kreider, Zuccarello, Miller, Brassard, Hayes, Buchnevich, Fast, Skjei, Talbot, Raanta, Stepan all became better players under AV. He deserves credit for that. He deserves criticism for a lot of other things as well, don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day the Rangers had one of the most successful 5-year spans in franchise history (just waiting for someone to point out our franchise is **** and this doesn't mean anything because of that).

I have fond memories of the last 5 years, but I'm happy he's gone because we need a new direction.
Very good post. Thank you.
 

True Blue

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13/14 and 14/15 were pretty exciting seasons, let's not deny it. Can't recall many people moaning about AV back then.. Now there's a queue to give the dead horse a final kick.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Not speaking for anyone else, but I can honestly say that I have never liked the style of play that his teams seem to have. That is not kicking a dead horse. There were many AV cheerleaders. I can appreciate what he did, but again world beating goaltending covered up a lot of warts.
 
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ReggieDunlop68

hey hanrahan!
Oct 4, 2008
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It’s a rebuild.
This place has turned into a real hive mind eh?

Anyway, he was not my favorite coach, but he was brought here for end game, because Tort’s didn’t have the final gear he found in 2004.

It’s a shame we didn’t get to hoist the cup in 2014.

My main issue with the AV comments wasn’t that AV didn’t make mistakes.

It’s that most of issues with AV people harangued about really were just about the team.

At the start of the new era, the Ranger fans were blessed with 2 things: the salary cap and the King.

I mean the cap still didn’t prevent the MSG brass from never doing a true rebuild, but it limited how much they could f*** the team up.

I mean the truth is this team never truly rebuilt. 2 years into the new era, Gomez + Drury. Constant roster turnover. Redden. NO home run drafts. Rick Nash couldn’t be what we needed him to be as the last piece.

The truth is the King has covered so many holes and carried this team so far despite many of the mediocre decisions made by thother franchise as a whole.

Yes the decisions from the 90s and Y2k were worse because the Rangers didn’t have the same financial handcuffs.

Again, good luck to AV. He will land somewhere. He’s not an all time great, but he was a good coach. He seemed to enjoy his time on Broadway, and he didn’t call out his players like a bitch in public. I’m certain he did those things face to face as a man and coach should.

But the truth is regardless of what the new internet stats say, most of the issues I’ve seen people angry with AV about were either issues that have been horrible for decades, or were actually just reflections of an aging and injured team who could no longer be whitewashed by the best goalie to wear the blue shirt between 7th and 8th.
 

Chytilmania

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I will say one thing...we were fast before the Penguins and the rest of the league got fast. We just made bad roster moves that made us slower and drained our pool.
 

True Blue

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I will say one thing...we were fast before the Penguins and the rest of the league got fast. We just made bad roster moves that made us slower and drained our pool.
It is far more than that. Roster moves are one thing, but being able to see the players for who they are and not who you want them to be is another. Most people's "systems" are adaptable.
 

Chaels Arms

Formerly Lias Andersson
Aug 26, 2010
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Bumping this as he made some very interesting comments recently regarding the perception that he is a coach that "ruined" younger players. In a league where coaches rarely say anything interesting I think it's great he's actually addressing a criticism that was definitely leveled at him by many people during his time here:

"Following practice Wednesday, Vigneault was asked about the Flyers’ youth taking immediate strides under his watch contradicting the can’t-coach-kids perception.

'At some point, someone is going to give me a list of all those young players that I’ve screwed up — I’m not saying I’m perfect — but that have left my coaching and gone to somewhere else and become these incredible players. In [Vancouver], there were three players that [people] were on me constantly — none of them really turned out to be these amazing players.

In New York, I would really like to have that list. I know I’m not perfect and I never pretended to be, but I don’t know a lot of players that left our coaching, my coaching, and did go somewhere else and become these great players. I look at the Chris Kreiders, I look at the Derek Stepans, the Ryan McDonaghs, the Jesper Fasts, and I go on. All those guys when I got to New York, they were just the same as all these young guys. And they’re all turning out to be pretty good players.

Sometimes there’s a perception — sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. For me, it’s no big deal. I’ve just got to go do my job.'"
https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelp...neault-make-his-own-list-young-players-flyers

Thoughts? Anyone want to give him the list he's looking for?
 

Kupo

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Bumping this as he made some very interesting comments recently regarding the perception that he is a coach that "ruined" younger players. In a league where coaches rarely say anything interesting I think it's great he's actually addressing a criticism that was definitely leveled at him by many people during his time here:

"Following practice Wednesday, Vigneault was asked about the Flyers’ youth taking immediate strides under his watch contradicting the can’t-coach-kids perception.

'At some point, someone is going to give me a list of all those young players that I’ve screwed up — I’m not saying I’m perfect — but that have left my coaching and gone to somewhere else and become these incredible players. In [Vancouver], there were three players that [people] were on me constantly — none of them really turned out to be these amazing players.

In New York, I would really like to have that list. I know I’m not perfect and I never pretended to be, but I don’t know a lot of players that left our coaching, my coaching, and did go somewhere else and become these great players. I look at the Chris Kreiders, I look at the Derek Stepans, the Ryan McDonaghs, the Jesper Fasts, and I go on. All those guys when I got to New York, they were just the same as all these young guys. And they’re all turning out to be pretty good players.

Sometimes there’s a perception — sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. For me, it’s no big deal. I’ve just got to go do my job.'"
https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelp...neault-make-his-own-list-young-players-flyers

Thoughts? Anyone want to give him the list he's looking for?

Why’d you bump this roach infested thread.

Roaches with herpes, nonetheless.

giphy.gif


Kreider, Stepan, McDonagh and Fast would still be relevant NHL players with or without ****ing turtle master-flex.
 

Rempe73

RIP King of Pop
Mar 26, 2018
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Another example of his lack of accountability. The guy never owned up to anything. And if I was him, I don’t know if I would. He wants to have a job as an NHL coach. Not sure if admitting his mistakes would have helped him or hurt him.
 

Raspewtin

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I don’t think AV ruined anyone but i do question the double standard where non-elite young player development is credited to coaches but non-elite young players that don’t succeed were never good and always destined to be bad

it’s just not very consistent from what i’ve seen
 
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Thirty One

Safe is safe.
Dec 28, 2003
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I don’t think AV ruined anyone but i do question the double standard where non-elite young player development is credited to coaches but non-elite young players that don’t succeed were never good and always destined to be bad
And when one doesn't want to believe the coach is any good, the exact opposite of this is seen in abundance.
 

Shesterkybomb

Registered User
Dec 30, 2016
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What is he talking about? All of those players had the pedigree and skill to be solid with our without him.

That's exactly what he is taking about... the players who had it made it under his watch, the players that didnt, didnt make it. If anything it might be true that he is a better talent evaluator than he was given credit for.
 

Irishguy42

Mr. Preachy
Sep 11, 2015
26,791
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NJ
I don’t think AV ruined anyone but i do question the double standard where non-elite young player development is credited to coaches but non-elite young players that don’t succeed were never good and always destined to be bad

it’s just not very consistent from what i’ve seen
Woah woah woah.

Slow down.

You either live up to your potential and become elite, or you suck.

Those are the rules.
 

Inferno

Registered User
Nov 27, 2005
29,681
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Atlanta, GA
I'll fight on the hill that he did mcilrath no favors at all when he and yandle were playing like a top dpair together and inexplicably he took him out of the lineup for a hurt Klein. That was the end for mcilrath... It's like he never recovered
 

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