The only things missing on the Garden stage Wednesday were the orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle and a bottle of Jack.
Because Alain Vigneault did his best Sinatra, and he did it a cappella, in explaining how he approaches his job as coach of the Rangers. As students of the NHL know, it is no different than the way he gained tenure behind the Vancouver bench before taking his cross-continental flight last summer to Broadway.
“I’ve got to think I was seven years in a Canadian market and the other Canadian markets at that time, 20 coaches went through. It’s a tough environment to coach,” Vigneault said. “I did it my way, and I’ve come to New York in another great hockey market, and I’m doing it my way.”
This was shortly after Vigneault spoke in response to a question about whether his approach here was at all related to following John Tortorella behind the bench.
“This is about me being me and bringing the right thing to this team,” he said. “This has nothing to do with what happened before me.”
Vigneault’s way has become the Rangers’ way. Steady goes the course for the coach and for the Blueshirts, who are seeking to gain the proverbial commanding 3-0 lead against Montreal in the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night on Broadway in what will be the biggest show in town.
What you see is what you get from Vigneault and what the Rangers have seen all year is what they’re getting now from their coach.
“He’s the same guy, he communicates the same way, he creates the same environment for us now as he did all during the season,” center Derek Stepan said. “Right from Day One, he sent the message of how he wants us to play.
“After that it was a matter of him getting to know us and us getting to know him. There are no surprises,” he said. “From the season to the first round, then the second round, and now this, there are no surprises.”
There is mutual respect between the coach and his players; an easy, yet entirely respectful relationship. There is no doubting who is boss here, but there is equally no doubt the Rangers feel comfortable having some fun with the coach.
Evidence of that can be found on the back of the T-shirts the players have worn through the playoffs on which Vigneault’s favorite in-game commands from behind the bench — delivered in high-pitched screeches that probably are still echoing — are listed as follows: “Speeeed … Deeeep … Chaaange … Pitchfork … EPO.”
EPO?
“Yea … but I don’t know what it means and I don’t think anyone does,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who conspired with Brad Richards to have the T-shirts manufactured before the tournament began. “I mean it.”
“Nope, sorry; don’t know,” Brian Boyle said. “It’s a drill we do, but nobody knows what it stands for.”
Vigneault stands for composure and poise. He delegates authority. He leaves the room to the players. He trusts his leaders.
A couple of weeks ago that now seem like dog years ago, Vigneault complained about the schedule after the Rangers had lost Game 3 to the Penguins in their fifth match in seven nights. I wrote that it reminded me of the way the coach had responded to adverse events in the 2011 Final against Boston when he was behind the Vancouver bench and compared him unfavorably to Bruins coach Claude Julien.
Funny how things have turned so quickly (or how sometimes knee-jerk reactions can make the reactor appear like a jerk). Because in this series, it is Vigneault who has responded to all manner of potential controversy with equanimity, refusing to engage, while Montreal’s Michel Therrien has appeared to be a bit of a whiner, escalating verbal attacks on Chris Kreider before suggesting after Game 2 that a team needs “breaks and calls” to win in the playoffs.
If the players have said it once, they’ve said it a thousand times since this journey started against the Flyers: The Rangers play “whistle-to-whistle.” It has become the team’s mantra. Not surprisingly, it is the coach’s mantra as well.
“That comes straight from him,” Rick Nash said. “We understand that there may be times in a game where you want to go at a guy for something, but you have to swallow your pride and skate away. You can’t take the extra penalty.”
The Rangers took three bad offensive-zone penalties in Game 2, but they were not retaliatory. During the season, the Blueshirts were shorthanded the second-fewest times in the NHL. During the playoffs, the Rangers have been awarded 65 power plays while skating shorthanded only 48 times.
Vigneault is a delegator. He leaves the room to the players. He believes in that. He trusts his leaders, where mistakes are almost never made. He has the pulse of the Rangers.
And the heartbeat can be heard throughout the city that never sleeps. As Sinatra might sing.