Why Alain Vigneault thinks he should remain Rangers’ coach

PHILADELPHIA — This was a man desperately pleading his case, having spent at least the past few days accumulating all the history, stats, anecdotes and any other shreds of evidence necessary to defend himself against the rising pitchforks.

Then Rangers coach Alain Vigneault stood and delivered his autobiographical soliloquy, a postgame press conference Saturday afternoon following a 5-0 loss to the Flyers in the regular-season finale that was an inspired declaration of his worth to the organization.

Vigneault was making sure that if this was his last stand, everyone was going to know that he thought he did a great job. And if he was going to be fired, it was going to be a big mistake — just as it was when he was fired from his two previous NHL head-coaching jobs in Montreal and Vancouver.

And this is how he responded when asked if he expects to be back with the Rangers next season:

“Yes, yes, without a doubt,” Vigneault said. “I think my staff is the right staff for this job. I think, and this is just my opinion, but I think one of the strongest assets of this organization is its coaching staff and their experience. We’ve been able to do it with veteran players, we’ve been able to do it with younger players. Our development record — and our record, wins and losses — you know what, it’s pretty good, with young and older players.”

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Vigneault said he had not yet spoken to management about his future, but he also did not expect to have that conversation until the season was over. Now that the Rangers have missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years, that conversation is going to happen sooner rather than later.

“Every year, you do your season, and at the end year, you sit down and talk and you analyze and you work on getting better,” Vigneault said. “And I didn’t think this year was going to be any different.”

There is a stated goal from management that the Rangers (34-39-9) are going to get younger, which was what led to the full-on rebuilding they undertook this season. It got ugly, and it ended ugly, but there is hope it isn’t going to take too long to turn it around.

But the question is whether Vigneault is the right man to lead that turn around, following an impressive five-year run that included one Stanley Cup final and one Eastern Conference final, to go along with a regular-season record of 226-147-37 and one Presidents’ Trophy.

Vigneault began his diatribe by stating his philosophy that “you have to coach the team you have in front of you.” He then went through the injury-plagued Canadiens team he had in 2000-01, which missed the playoffs on the last day of the season, leading to his dismissal.

He then went through his seven years in Vancouver (mentioning almost every player on the roster), where he had a mix of veterans and youth and ended with six division titles and a run to Game 7 of the 2013 Stanley Cup final, a loss that is seemingly never too far from his mind.

“That brings me to New York,” he then said. “When we got here, you coach what you have. And what we had was a veteran group.”

Vigneault has clearly been a mostly hands-off coach, intentionally allowing his leaders to run the locker room. With those veterans, he said, “We put a system in place and a culture in place that maximized them.”

But he did not want to be pigeonholed as someone who can only coach a team loaded with older players. He remembered being criticized with the Canucks for his handling of three unnamed young players, then explained that two eventually flamed out and one barely hung on to a NHL career. He wanted it to be a testament to his evaluation skills, with the likes of the Sedin twins as examples of him helping to develop young players into great players.

“I’ve gone through every facet, whether it be a young team whether it be an older team. Once we know the team, every year is the same thing,” Vigneault said. “We try to put in a system that maximizes their talent and their potential, and we try to mask and work on the areas we need improvement. That’s not going to change.”

It remains to be seen whether the Rangers coach changes, but at least Vigneault knows he can leave now with very little left on his chest.