Vigneault takes place among Coach of the Year finalists
An announcement Wednesday that seemed to validate the progress the Flyers have made in the past year was taken in typical shrugging style by head coach Alain Vigneault.
After all, he’s been here, was nominated for this before.
Vignuealt, whose first season as a Flyers head coach has certainly been a memorable one for more reasons than we care to ponder, was named as one of three finalists for the NHL’s Jack Adams Award, given annually to the league’s coach of the year.
Along with Vigneault, Bruce Cassidy of the league’s points leader, the Boston Bruins, and John Tortorella of the Columbus Blue Jackets were named as finalists.
The official wording of the award notes it will be presented to the head coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success.”
That would seem accurate in Vigneault’s case.
As he’s likely done the four other times he’s been tabbed as a finalist for this award, however, Vigneault cast all the blame for his success on his players.
“There’s no doubt that any team in any sport that has any success is because first and foremost, there’s trust, there’s accountability,” Vigneault said. “Players like being with one another, and probably the word that comes first for me is that respect between teammates. Not to let your partner down, your linemate down, defensive partner, your goaltender down.
“I think throughout the season our group has built that and has developed it. They understand the accountability factor and how important it is between teammates, from game to game and from shift to shift. That’s (how) our group, in my mind ... evolved. We understand that part and now we’re going to get a chance to prove it here moving forward.”
The Flyers are one of four top Eastern Conference seeds for the upcoming
2020 NHL Sort Of Playoffs. Along the way, Vigneault set a league record.
No other coach has been a finalist for the Adams five times. He won the award in 2007, following his first season as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, leading them to a 49-26-7 (105 points) record.
Vigneault, 59, was a finalist with Montreal in 2000, again with Vancouver (2011) and once with the Rangers
(2015).
“This time here in Philly, I have to say is extra special,” Vigneault said. “We had a very challenging month of October where we went to Europe and then went out West. From the first of November (until) the season was postponed, with Boston and Tampa we had the best record in the league. Boston had 80 points. Us and Tampa had 78. I look at that and I look at how our players responded to the Oskar (Lindblom) situation. I’m so proud of this group and everybody associated with it.”
Lindblom was one of the team’s leading scorers early in the season when he was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in November. Making great progress in his recovery, and seemingly determined to rejoin the club next season, Lindblom was the Flyers’ nominee for the annual Bill Masterton Trophy, given to the NHL player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.”
Three finalists for that award will be named Thursday.
As for Vigneault, he led a team that finished at an NHL version of .500 (37-378) and out of the playoffs a year ago to a club that steamrolled through the second half en route to a 4121-7 (89) record through 69 games before the league put everything on pause March
12 due to the coronavirus. The Flyers will enter that East seeding round-robin mini-tourney early next month with the most home wins (25) and best home winning percentage (.771) in the NHL.
Of course, all their seeding tourney and playoffs are going to take place amid a “hub” in Toronto, so their home dominance won’t be a factor.
It’s up to Vigneault to help his club gain an edge elsewhere.
“We’re going into the best part of the season,” Vigneault said. “We’ve made the playoffs. We’ve earned the right to compete for the Stanley Cup. Our business is far from over. That means that my job is far from over. Right now we’re in what I call Phase 1 of this first segment, which is going to bring us to the bubble. We’ve got a lot of work.
We’ve planned it. We talked to the specialists about it. We’re using science to make sure that the group is ready. ... We still have a lot of work to do.”
Cassidy received his second finalist nod in three seasons for the Adams, after leading the Bruins to the NHL’s best points mark (100) through 70 games played. That included a league-best 44 wins.
As for Tortorella, he could be nominated every year if post-game comedy standups were part of the qualifications. Other than that, his team finished at ninth in the Eastern Conference with a 33-22-15 mark ... so it seems kind of funny that he’s a finalist.
Then again, The Blue Jackets did lose a couple of stars in Artemi Panarin (to the Rangers) and Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida) to free agency during the offseason. So that’s something.
“From Day 1, I felt the veteran players of this group were looking for direction and that’s basically what myself, my staff and management did,” Vigneault said. “We gave them direction. We told them this is the plan that we have, this is what you need to do, to do your jobs on the ice. The month of October we knew was going to be challenging with the travel to Europe, the travel back, the travel out west. Like I said, since November 1, we have been top two in the league with Boston and Tampa. This group has progressed. I cannot state enough how proud I am of how everyone, the players and the organization, but also the hockey community, the support we got.”