Wow. Fantastic article on BlueShirtBanter about Alain Vigneault's twist for this season. He is quoted telling about how he learned so much from that Vancouver series in 2011 and how that has mixed with what he's learned the last couple of playoff runs here with Rangers. So this season he is trying something new and he thinks it will have this team in the Cup finals again, but with much different results.
It sounds cool.
He said something about how guys like Kevin Bieksa (defenseman back on that 2011 team that had quite the season that year, becoming a pretty stalwart player in his own end) and Dan Hamuis, although great that season, weren't ready for certain types of players. He said it was somewhat his fault because he protected those guys throughout the season by shifting them off quickly against speedier forward lines as any coach would.
He said he really didn't know how to train players to play against types of players that just beat them regularly, like Brad Marchand versus Bieksa. But over the summer after last season's exit against the Lightning, Vigneault said he had an epiphany.
"I'm gonna flip my matchups this year." That simple.
He said his plan all season was, after getting the guys playing his system well - however long it took, which wasn't much as the Rangers came out hot to start the season, he was going to do his best to keep guys playing against the other teams' guys that would exploit his players' biggest weaknesses.
He says that you take a guy like Ryan McDonagh and find that there isn't anyone he can't play against, really. But at one point early in the season, I started playing him in front of the net against stronger bigger players. He didn't like it and struggled for a few games. But soon, he changed his tactics and played these guys as well as he played faster smaller forwards. It was awesome to witness.
But then take Dan Girardi. He said he's hearing all the negative commenting on this guy. But it is unfounded. Vigneault said he is purposely giving Girardi near impossible assignments for his skill set. Sounds crazy, but Vigneault claims Girardi has grown the most out of his season-long experiment and will be a beast in the playoffs. "The fans will love him again!"
AV gives some great examples of some specific games for guys like Girardi, Klein, and Yandle. He talks about some of the development work with the forwards too.
It's pretty insightful, to say the least. And it gives me some hope for the Rangers in the playoffs.
Read it here.
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