Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks

NHL

Vigneault is Tortorella’s opposite behind Rangers bench

Alain Vigneault has been behind the Rangers’ bench for 10 games with the puck-drop of Monday’s Garden opener against the Canadiens, and what we know most about the coach isn’t so much who he is, but who he isn’t.

Which would be, the guy who came before him.

Which was exactly the idea when the Blueshirts went about replacing a tempestuous personality with an even-tempered one. When they went from white hot to medium cool. When management wanted a team that would play on the edge, not always be on edge.

When they fired John Tortorella despite being one of only two teams to win at least one playoff round the last two seasons and replaced him with Vigneault.

The last guy talked very loudly and carried a very big stick. This guy walks with a stride that doesn’t leave an obvious imprint, while talking in a measured tone that does not reverberate off the walls.

It would seem to be culture shock for the Rangers, who were fully indoctrinated, drinking the hockey equivalent of Kool-Aid the last four-plus seasons under the umbrella of the Cult of Tortorella.

It would seem to be the equivalent of going from a class in school taught by the strictest, hardest-marker extant to one taught by the most lenient professor around and grades on the curve for everyone.

Shortcuts, anyone? That would simply be human nature, correct?

“Except it’s not that way in here,” Brian Boyle told The Post. “I can see the analogy, I can definitely understand that, but there is simply too much at stake here for us as individuals in our careers to allow a mentality to creep in where there’s any slacking off, even if it’s unconscious.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a little bit of an adjustment for me with the difference in approach, but I still have to do a job and hold myself accountable. We all have to do our jobs and hold each other accountable.

“To suggest that we aren’t being held to the same standard now as we were by Torts wouldn’t be respectful to this staff. We are. It’s just a different style.”

Vigneault’s leadership style is one that presupposes his players do not require a constant loud voice in their ears or a perpetual scowl in their faces in order to push them to excel, yet alone succeed. It’s one that isn’t based on the proposition conflict is required and indeed meant to be celebrated.

“With Torts, it was just so different between periods, pre and postgame, and in our preparation,” Marc Staal said. “If he was unhappy with a certain player or the way we were playing, the response was totally different.

“I’m not going to criticize the way Torts went about his business. We got used to it and we did have a certain amount of success. But with Vigneault, it’s more on us to hold each other accountable.

“Everyone wants to be coached and needs coaching, but there comes a time when it’s better for a guy to hear it from a teammate than the coach.”

It’s a seemingly endless cycle in pro sports, where a “players’ coach” is invariably replaced by a disciplinarian who is then replaced himself when that approach has run its course by, of course, a “players’ coach.”

Indeed, the Rangers went through the spin cycle late in the 2008-09 season when Gentleman Tom Renney was replaced by Tortorella.

“It was reverse,” Staal said. “Different, to say the least.”

“There is a difference in atmosphere, that’s for sure, but it doesn’t have as much impact on me because I do most of my communicating directly through Benny,” Henrik Lundqvist said, alluding to goaltending instructor/assistant coach Benoit Allaire.

“Going from Tom to Torts was a big change — Tom seemed more of a European-style coach — but I enjoyed that,” he said. “I try to learn from every experience.”

The Rangers are learning from a coach who, in the words of Dominic Moore, “is very calm, very composed, very even-keel in getting his message across.

“He’s teaching; he’s great in one-on-ones.”

There is calm where there was fury. There is Vigneault, whose Canucks lost a Game 7 of the 2011 Final to the Bruins, instead of Tortorella, whose Lightning won a Game 7 of the 2004 Final against the Flames.

That’s the difference. Well, that’s a difference.

“I respect Torts as a coach, but there are different methods of coaching and different ways to win a championship,” Brad Richards said. “Torts only won once, you know.”