Confirmed with Link: Alain Vigneault fired

[haohmaru]

Big deal. It’s embarrassing and now they have no alternative. It’s a move a losing organization would make to appease a couple clueless fans.

The clueless thing was our coach, not the fans.

 

[East Coast Bias]

Big deal. It’s embarrassing and now they have no alternative. It’s a move a losing organization would make to appease a couple clueless fans.

Lol sure.

 

[haveandare]

Big deal. It’s embarrassing and now they have no alternative. It’s a move a losing organization would make to appease a couple clueless fans.

Firing a crappy coach who has made your team worse year after year is embarrassing.

And do you really think they did this to appease fans at all? Let alone just a couple of them?

 

[will1066]

I'm sure they fired the coach five hours following the final game to appease some fans

 

[Irishguy42]

Man...it feels like it's been forever since he was our coach, but it's really only been a week.

Time simultaneously flying by and also slowing down to a crawl.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Man...it feels like it's been forever since he was our coach, but it's really only been a week.

Time simultaneously flying by and also slowing down to a crawl.

I don't mind it. The playoffs have been lit and I get to bask in the glory of AV no longer being here.

We're ping pong balls going our way in 12 days from this being the best off season in franchise history.

 

[kovazub94]

One thing I remember is that I loved AV in his first year as a coach, both in his own right and also as an alternative to Torts.

Torts era ended before we got totally exasperated by his antics but the team and most of fans were growing tired of his perpetual lines mixing, no transition game, off-boards dumps out of zone, screaming and yelling, etc. When AV came in it was a full 180 degrees and it was refreshing. It is hard to believe right now but his lines stayed together and were allowed to figure it out even when they had a 3-4 stretch of no results. By January all of his lines were showing results from being allowed to develop chemistry. Even defense was playing relatively well and I remember thinking that was going to get better as they continue to learn his system.

To me it all went downhill in the 2nd season and I have no idea what triggered it (other than AV's arrogance taking over).

 

[Levitate]

One thing I remember is that I loved AV in his first year as a coach, both in his own right and also as an alternative to Torts.

Torts era ended before we got totally exasperated by his antics but the team and most of fans were growing tired of his perpetual lines mixing, no transition game, off-boards dumps out of zone, screaming and yelling, etc. When AV came in it was a full 180 degrees and it was refreshing. It is hard to believe right now but his lines stayed together and were allowed to figure it out even when they had a 3-4 stretch of no results. By January all of his lines were showing results from being allowed to develop chemistry. Even defense was playing relatively well and I remember thinking that was going to get better as they continue to learn his system.

To me it all went downhill in the 2nd season and I have no idea what triggered it (other than AV's arrogance taking over).

I think the attempts to change up the roster resulted in a less overall talented team and other teams kind of caught on to what the rangers were doing and were doing a better job at slowing them down or controlling the puck. IMO that really kind of took effect in the third season and the Rangers just kept on doing the same things over and over but losing talent and growing complacent

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I think the attempts to change up the roster resulted in a less overall talented team and other teams kind of caught on to what the rangers were doing and were doing a better job at slowing them down or controlling the puck. IMO that really kind of took effect in the third season and the Rangers just kept on doing the same things over and over but losing talent and growing complacent

One thing that I will say, I feel like he did as well as he could in 16-17. That team wasn't that amazing but they ended up with a decent record. Then of course he blew it in the playoffs.

 

[TheTakedown]

One thing I remember is that I loved AV in his first year as a coach, both in his own right and also as an alternative to Torts.

Torts era ended before we got totally exasperated by his antics but the team and most of fans were growing tired of his perpetual lines mixing, no transition game, off-boards dumps out of zone, screaming and yelling, etc. When AV came in it was a full 180 degrees and it was refreshing. It is hard to believe right now but his lines stayed together and were allowed to figure it out even when they had a 3-4 stretch of no results. By January all of his lines were showing results from being allowed to develop chemistry. Even defense was playing relatively well and I remember thinking that was going to get better as they continue to learn his system.

To me it all went downhill in the 2nd season and I have no idea what triggered it (other than AV's arrogance taking over).

The difference between AV's 1st year and AV's 2nd year is that in his 1st year, he worked with what Sather built. Sather had the right parts (whether this was by luck or by design I am not quite sure), and a lot of guys hit were hitting on all cylinders at all times. Stralman became a top pairing defenseman, McDonagh entered his prime and hit 43 points (his career high to this day) albeit earlier than what was expected, Girardi was still a mid tier #3 dman, Pouliot played above expectations, Zuccarello literally came out of nowhere and was a 60 point player.

The 2nd year, His arrogance is exactly what the problem was. I fully believe that once AV took that 2014 team to the Finals, Sather gave him free reign on the roster... AV decided he needed his pieces. They swapped out Stralman for Boyle, waste of time, Tanner Glass for Intangibles and Sather loved his tough guys so it was a match made in heaven, Traded for Yandle and then shoe horned him into the 3rd pairing. This does not even get into the forcing of players into roles they were not meant to be in. Girardi as a top pairing defender, Yandle as a 3rd pairing defender, Staal as an all-around 2 way guy, McDonagh not getting more than 23 minutes/game when there were certain games (read: playoff games) that he should have been rolling him for 30+...

McDonagh crashing down at age 26 also caused an issue. Girardi declined real fast for this system in particular. There was not enough of an analytical pull on the team at the time Girardi was signed, and this system specifically is very taxing on defensemen. Staal's game falling off is completely on management. John Moore would have been able to handle his minutes (I did not think this at the time but the analytics basically stated so).

What never made sense to me was his love for Girardi... Cooper in Tampa realized that Girardi was a 3rd pairing intangibles guy, so they signed him. Guess what? For the first time since his rookie year, Girardi has seen the least amount of ice time--17 mins/game. Is it a coincidence that since the 2012-13 shortened season, Girardi has over a 50% corsi rating to go along with that ATOI? No, it's not (and yes I am aware that some of this is due to playing on the best team in the league, but that's only part of the equation)...

Long and Short, Girardi is a microcosm of what is wrong with AV. He falls in love with the wrong players and then blames his goaltender when it goes to shit, and has a system that requires the perfect mix of players. Those are not signs of a good coach. Those are the signs of a guy who needs to be child proofed and spoon fed into the perfect situation in order to win. He's stubborn as an ox, and that will be the reason he will never, ever win a cup.

PS: I also think a part of the problem with the Boyle/Stralman issue is that it seemed to me that there was a certain reliance on McIlrath making it to eventually walk into that spot and give them some cap savings to make up for Giradi and Staal's extensions. When McIlrath failed they had nothing left back there in the RD position

 

[McRanger]

Its not just that AV falls in love with the bad players, its that he falls in love with players who do not work in his system. Glass and Girardi might be bad regardless of the team but it would make more sense if a Torts fell in love with them because of their willingness to take the body or block shots or whatever.

AV loving slow or unskilled players while pushing an uptempo transitional offensive system and a man-to-man scrambling defensive system makes zero sense.

 

[GregSirico]

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

That quote should be the example people point to when teaching young players how to give a non controversial athlete answer.

 

[will1066]

Man...it feels like it's been forever since he was our coach, but it's really only been a week.

Time simultaneously flying by and also slowing down to a crawl.

He probably is thinking the same about us fans

 

[Roo Returns]

One thing that I will say, I feel like he did as well as he could in 16-17. That team wasn't that amazing but they ended up with a decent record. Then of course he blew it in the playoffs.

That team was fun most of the year. Really enjoyed them. The only dud part was when they got really lethargic in February because they knew they had WC #1 wrapped up.

The Ottawa series stung and is kind of our generation's Ken Morrow goal from 1984, HOWEVER, if Chytil becomes a big part of this team the next decade, we can thank AV for his bench (mis)management in that series lol. Rangers win that series they automatically draft 28-31 and there is no way Chytil is still on the board, Montreal was going to take him.

 

[GregSirico]

 

[will1066]

Did they ask Glass? Holden?

 

[Irishguy42]

What I found more amusing about the exit interviews wasn't the fact that they all said basically nothing about AV, but almost all of them were SUPER excited about next season.

::thinking::

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Did they ask Glass? Holden?

They couldn't reach them as they were at home crying.

 

[TheTakedown]

So basically the entire team was sick of AV...

Like we couldn't tell this from the on-ice play.

 

[GregSirico]

https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/the-r...medium=site buttons&utm_campaign=site buttons

“I don’t think it’s a secret that A.V. and I were not a great fit,” said Miller, who could never completely escape the doghouse despite the package of size, speed and physicality he embodies. “I’d say there are better fits for both of us.”

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

One thing I remember is that I loved AV in his first year as a coach, both in his own right and also as an alternative to Torts.

Torts era ended before we got totally exasperated by his antics but the team and most of fans were growing tired of his perpetual lines mixing, no transition game, off-boards dumps out of zone, screaming and yelling, etc. When AV came in it was a full 180 degrees and it was refreshing. It is hard to believe right now but his lines stayed together and were allowed to figure it out even when they had a 3-4 stretch of no results. By January all of his lines were showing results from being allowed to develop chemistry. Even defense was playing relatively well and I remember thinking that was going to get better as they continue to learn his system.

To me it all went downhill in the 2nd season and I have no idea what triggered it (other than AV's arrogance taking over).

You call it his arrogance, Ill call it his stubborness.

If you're looking for another reason, the personnel also got shittier from top to bottom.

 

[Machinehead]

This is still great

 

[Reijo29]

So many of you talk like they’ve had this stacked team that somehow underachieved. The last three years their roster isn’t that good.

 

[Mac n Gs]

So many of you talk like they’ve had this stacked team that somehow underachieved. The last three years their roster isn’t that good.

And you’re trying to lump in his accomplishments from his first two years into his entire 5-year stint as coach. First two years were great, and then he was awful after that.