FAILING GRADE
Vigneault makes line changes after Rangers get ‘schooled’
When Alain Vigneault, the mildmannered and often positive Rangers coach, said his team “got schooled” Thursday night by the Canadiens, you knew changes could be coming.
That’s like most coaches saying their team stunk. So it was hardly a surprise Saturday’s practice featured all new lines and defensemen pairings.
“It sure is a message we need to raise our level of play,” captain Ryan McDonagh said after the Rangers were outscored by a combined 71 in consecutive losses. “We need more, we need more from everybody. [The coaching staff] is looking for ways for the team to be successful, looking for answers. Ultimately, as a player, you see things like that happen, its got to come from within … realizing what it’s going to take for this group to win a game every night.”
Among the notable changes were Derick Brassard moving from the firstline center to the second line, replaced by Derek Stepan; Jesper Fast moving up from the fourth line to the second; Kevin Hayes dropped from a second line winger to third line center; Viktor Stalberg dropped from the third line to the fourth. Vigneault also broke up his top defensemen duo, putting McDonagh with Keith Klein and Dan Girardi with Keith Yandle. Marc Staal and Dan Boyle were the third pair.
“Right now, Dan and Ryan, who have probably been very consistent, are having a tough time,” Vigneault said. “So sometimes you split them up and see what comes up.”
Vigneault made changes after the second period of Thursday’s 30 loss to the Canadiens, in which the Rangers had just two scoring chances. Overall, they had five chances at full strength against Montreal, which Vigneault said, “is not nearly good enough for our group, and I know our group knows that.”
“I thought it was an appropriate time to make a couple of little subtle changes there,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll perform better. It’s about our process right now. There are a lot of areas in there that I feel we can be better at, as much offensively as defensively.
“Anybody watching that game [against the Canadiens can see] the number of [oddman rushes we gave up]. That’s defense pinching maybe at the wrong time, maybe not having a third man high. That’s an area we need to be better at, and we’re going to be better at starting tomorrow.”
Vigneault made it clear he wasn’t looking to send a message or get a point across. He simply didn’t think the line combinations and defensive pairings were working, and so he’s trying a different mix.
“It’s more about trying to see if we can get a little bit of momentum,” he said. “We’ve got quite a couple of guys right now, who results wise, offensively and defensively, can be a lot better. So we’re trying to see if we can get them going with different linemates. Sometimes it grabs their attention a little bit, excites them to have an opportunity to play with somebody else.”
Through the Rangers started the season 30, McDonagh felt they didn’t play particularly well.
“You can fool yourself if you find a way to win a game, you feel good about yourself, but the last two games here it comes back to bite you and costs you a victory,” McDonagh said. “For us, it’s about trying to get consistent in our play, and not just spurts of playing in sync, playing fast, playing well in our own end.
“You have to do it consistently for a full 60 minutes.”