NHL

Rangers’ Vigneault: ‘We were treated very unfairly’

Alain Vigneault might be fed up with all the verbal jousting being done in the Eastern Conference finals, but the Rangers coach sure isn’t shying away from partaking.

On Sunday morning at the Garden, hours before Game 4 with the Rangers holding a 2-1 series lead, Vigneault was asked about a couple different things said by the Canadiens the day prior, and boy, did he let his feelings be known.

First was the fact that his assistant coaches were shooed out of their seats at the Garden by Montreal coach Michel Therrien during Canadiens practice on Saturday afternoon. Therrien later explained that there is a “gentleman’s agreement” not to watch practice in between games, and Vigneault vehemently disagreed.

“We were treated very unfairly,” Vigneault said. “There is no rule, there was no agreement between both teams. [Not watching practice] is the exception, not the rule. It has been asked in the past to do that on a couple of occasions. Usually the coach calls me, or the GM calls the GM. Never happened.

“What happened [Saturday] was uncalled for. Without a doubt, my staff handled it with a lot of class, just like our team, play whistle-to-whistle, don’t get involved with the other stuff. Very regrettable. This is the National Hockey League, that type of behavior – we’re lucky it didn’t escalate.”

Then came the comment from Therrien about injured Rangers center Derick Brassard, who is set to return in Game 4 after a two-game absence as a result of an upper-body injury. Therrien said on Saturday, in French, that, “We expect Derick Brassard to play and we know exactly where he’s injured.”

Turns out Vigneault didn’t like that one either.

“Well, let me put it this way,” he said. “I hope nothing happens to Brass. The player and Michel could be in trouble.”

The next topic brought up was the fact that some Montreal players had called into the question the veracity of Derek Stepan’s injury, the Rangers having explained that their top center had broken his jaw on a late hit from Brandon Prust in Game 3 – a hit that earned Prust a two-game suspension. Vigneault had obviously read those comments, as without prompt used the term “fishy,” which was how Daniel Breire interpreted Stepan’s injury on Saturday.

“I can’t speak for the other organization [but] if you ask me about Step, he has a broken jaw and he just got operated on,” Vigneault said, adding that Stepan is recovering at home and stopped by the Garden on Sunday briefly to say hi to his teammates. He is not playing in Game 4, and Vigneault said there is no timetable for his return.

“The answer about the incident yesterday, I can’t comment on their players saying Step’s injury is fishy,” Vigneault said. “We’re trying to play whistle-to-whistle, we’re trying to do the right things.

“I know in the hockey world, we were painted as dishonest and dishonorable. We’re not. We follow the rules. We follow the rules on the ice, and we will follow the rules off the ice.”

Vigneault is also good friends with Therrien off the ice, the two having coached in the Montreal system together for years. Yet that friendship, like most in this series, is on hold.

“I think [Therrien] said it prior to the series, [that] for this two-week period, we’re not really friends,” Vigneault said. “He’s probably right.”