Ryan McDonagh totally gets the Alain Vigneault firing

Much like his former Rangers teammates, Ryan McDonagh took the firing of coach Alain Vigneault in stride.

The former captain, who was traded to the Lightning just before the Feb. 26 deadline, had a measured response to what happened. The Blueshirts sent Vigneault packing on April 7 just after the regular-season finale, as they continue on their process of rebuilding.

“It wasn’t necessarily a very big surprise just because everything that’s been going on, the changes,” McDonagh said before his Tampa team took on the Devils in Newark on Monday night for Game 3 of their first-round series. “It just makes sense, if you’re going to go in a big different direction, you might as well start with a new coach at the same time. So I think you could kind of see it coming.”