VIG’S MR. BIG NOW
Ex-Ranger coach looks to bring Cup to, ugh, Flyers
VOORHEES, N.J. — The Tampa Bay Lightning team that just flamed out in the first round of the playoffs is dotted with former Rangers who played in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals:
Ryan Callahan, Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi, Anton Stralman, J.T. Miller all helped the Rangers to get within three wins of their first championship since 1994. Five years later, a new team and a stunning elimination. They were used to deeper runs in New York with Alain Vigneault running the show. He led the Rangers to the Cup Finals in his first season and bumped the win total by eight in his second.
After a year out of coaching, Vigneault takes over a fallen Flyers franchise. He seems to expect a similar quick fix.
“I was looking for was an opportunity to win; an opportunity in the short term to win a Stanley Cup,” Vigneault said Thursday.
Vigneault also led the Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup Finals, is a former NHL coach of the year and will spend the summer as the head coach for Team Canada at the world championships.
“It’s unusual and difficult to find coaches like Alain,” Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said.
Indeed, Vigneault has done it all on the bench except win the Stanley Cup and he joins a franchise mired in one of the longest championship droughts in the league. The Flyers haven’t won it all since 1975 or even played for the Stanley Cup since 2010. Even worse, they missed the playoffs this season and haven’t made it past the second round since 2012. And he thinks the Flyers can win in the short term? Maybe, because the talent is there: Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, James van Riemsdyk and Sean Couturier all have some heavy miles on their skates but are still productive veterans. There’s still untapped potential in a group of promising 20-somethings that include Travis Sanheim, Oskar Lindblom, Shayne Gostisbehere and Nolan Patrick. All have shown flashes of stardom along with infuriating inconsistency.
“I can get them to be more consistent. The way that I prepare a team for games I believe permits a player to understand what he needs to do against that team to be successful,” Vigneault said.
Couturier will get an early peek at Vigneault’s
system at next month’s world championships in Slovakia. So will Carter Hart, the 20-year-old rookie goalie who nearly carried the Flyers into the playoffs after his December call up. He won eight straight games and pushed the Flyers (37-37-8 for 82 points) to the verge of a wild-card spot until they collapsed over the final two weeks.
The Flyers used a record eight goalies this season. Vigneault knows a true No. 1 should be enough to carry the load in a championship chase. Vigneault rode Henrik Lundqvist to within three wins of a championship and Roberto Luongo had four playoff shutouts when the Canucks reached the Final in 2011.