Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Vigneault pushes back against Lehner’s accusation
PHILADELPHIA » Blindsided by a social-media barrage from a player he never coached, Alain Vigneault Monday was forced to deny veiled accusations that he authorized prescriptionstrength pain killers to be spread about NHL locker rooms without medical approval.
The 60-year-old Flyers’ coach also was called a “dinosaur,” an allegation he disputed, if slightly less vigorously.
The carry-on began when Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner tweeted that he had knowledge that certain NHL operations supplied sedatives to players without prescriptions. He added this Vigneault-centric post, convoluted as it was: “Dinosaur coach treating people robots not human. Fire these dinosaurs. Fire #vigneault first story. I got proof.. try to shake your way out of this one.”
The situation seems to have begun as a reaction to a controversy over how the Buffalo Sabres have treated the herniated disc of forward Jack Eichel. Lehner implied that he had an ankle injury mistreated when he played for Buffalo, and hinted that he will continue a fight against alleged rogue distribution of pills by “many” NHL teams.
“The thing about me pushing pills?” Vigneault said after a morning skate Monday. “I don’t need another income. I have no idea where that comes from. I don’t know what else to say. I have no idea. “I am very disappointed.” Vigneault said he had no further intention to publicly dwell on the issue, while Lehner tried to walk back the accusations on the website SportsNet, saying he was using Vigneault, 60, as an example of NHL coaches pushing players too hard and not necessarily charging him with pill-pushing.
“I don’t know the young man,” said Vigneault, who began coaching in the NHL in 1997. “He said I was a dinosaur. I consider myself experienced. I guess with experience, you become a dinosaur maybe. I have been coaching for years. I am tough. I am demanding. I care about my players and want their best.
“Through the years, there probably have been guys who have liked me, and some other guys maybe a little bit less. But I’ve done it with the best intention, with respect. And, like I said, I don’t know the young man who said that.”
According to the Associated
Press, Flyers’ general manager Chuck Fletcher disputed that coaches have any say over medical decisions, adding that there was “no reason to believe any of our players have received improper care.”
That was consistent with the reaction from player rep James van Riemsdyk, who is in his second hitch with the Flyers.
“It is always surprising when someone from a different organization who has never necessary played for someone says stuff like that,” van Riemsdyk said. “In the instances I’ve been here, all the medical decisions go through the medical
and training staff. That’s been my experience.”
Vigneault has coached the Flyers since 2019 after previous stops in Montreal, Vancouver and with the New York Rangers.
“This is the National Hockey League,” he said. “There is not one head coach and not one of the 90 assistant coaches that, if a player came to them with a problem, wouldn’t steer them the right way.
“It’s the National Hockey League. It’s disappointing. But it’s out there now and some people are going to believe it. Some other people are not. That’s the way it is.”