Rangers players do not seem too broken up about Alain Vigneault

The Rangers essentially held a two-month breakup day, where players had to reflect and explain away a disappointing season and rationalize management’s decision to begin rebuilding. By the time the actual breakup day rolled around Tuesday, the emotion had been drained into a cold, calculated outlook.

And still, it was hard not to notice just how easily they absorbed the fact coach Alain Vigneault had been fired following five years on the job, abruptly canned after the regular-season finale in Philadelphia on Saturday.

“It’s sad, for sure. But it’s like with the players — you trade players, and it’s a business,” Mats Zuccarello said in just about the closest remark to being emotional about Vigneault’s departure.

“Nothing you can do about it. It’s part of it. I’ve been here with them for five years and it’s really sad to see stuff like that happen. It’s nothing you can control.”

Vigneault was fired as a matter of timing, with the organization moving in a different direction after missing the playoffs for the first time in seven years. General manager Jeff Gorton began an explicit rebuild just before the trade deadline, starting with an explanatory letter to the fans that was put into action with the trades of veterans like Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, J.T. Miller, Michael Grabner and Nick Holden.

And despite Vigneault giving an impassioned plea to keep his job after the final game, citing highlights from his résumé before and including the Rangers, it wasn’t enough. If he knew in part that it was coming, it seems that the players did, as well.

“You don’t want to see guys leave, but things happen,” Mika Zibanejad said. “It’s unfortunate. It’s a testament that we didn’t do as good as we wanted to this year. Those things happen.”

For as matter of fact as they took the firing, the players did understand their own responsibility in making it happen. The Rangers might not have had super high expectations coming into the season, but no way that nine months ago they would have predicted that right now they’d be tearing it down.

“It’s disappointing, obviously. But you understand we didn’t get the job done,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “When that happens, changes are going to happen. We had players leave, now we have the coaches leave.”

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It’s hard to tell at this juncture just exactly where Gorton is going to turn for a new coach. The organization got five good years out of Vigneault, a tenure that took him to third on the franchise’s win list and included one trip to the Stanley Cup final and another to the Eastern Conference final.

But those were very different teams. They were loaded with veterans, and they were expected to win.

What is likely coming next season is a much younger team, one that is going to have to learn how to win again — and do it under a new coach.

“The focus the last couple months here was a lot of let’s improve and get better, and be a little realistic, too, with the team we have,” Lundqvist said. “But if I compare the last two months with the runs we had with strong teams, it’s a different mentality. It’s not so much about improving. It was about winning. It was about winning every night. But we had a different team. It was a different situation. So that’s why it was a different atmosphere.”

That change in environment continued with the dismissal of Vigneault. It was not just pandering when Gorton declared this rebuild, and the Rangers are ready to leave this whole season behind them — including Vigneault.

“It’s been a tough season for everyone, the fans, players, the whole team and organization,” Zuccarello said. “It’s been a tough season, mentally. You lost a lot of good players, friends. But at the end of the day, right now, it’s over.”