Good goalies can make coaches look great

“Show me a good goalie and I’ll show you a great coach.”

That axiom certainly applies to fortunate bench bosses like Alain Vigneault, who had Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider in Vancouver and now Henrik Lundqvist as his latest superlative stopper, although the New York Rangers starter has struggled this season.

Vigneault still parlayed his goalie’s book of work into a healthy contract extension Monday, doubling his annual salary to a whopping US$4 million to become the third-highest paid coach behind Mike Babcock in Toronto and Joel Quenneville in Chicago.

Vigneault has injected better structure and systems play, but where would he be without consistent and usually standout goaltending?

By comparison, Ken Hitchcock was shown the door Tuesday in St. Louis, not just because the Blues have lost five of their last six and are clinging to a wild-card playoff position, but because their three struggling stoppers have combined for a league-worst save percentage — Jake Allen has a save percentage of .895.

Willie Desjardins doesn’t get enough credit for advancing the learning curve of his young players, but he knows what he has in Ryan Miller and Jacob Markstrom.

“We have good goaltending and Miller has done a great job working with Markstrom,” the Canucks coach said.

“You get confidence in them because every night they go out and perform. And Miller is a good team guy. He’s very smart and he can throw things about at Marky and help him be good as well.”