New York Rangers

It looks like former Canucks' coach Alain Vigneault is set to take the Head Coach position for the Rangers, beating out Mark Messier who had also been in the running. This will be a great coup for Vigneault as Messier has described coaching the Rangers as a dream job. It’s almost better than winning a massive jackpot at your favourite iPhone casino and fans eagerly await the finalizing of a deal.Although nothing has been signed yet, it seems that Vigneault is very close to making Broadway his new home as he has the strongest credentials to succeed outgoing head coach John Tortorella. Certainly Vigneault fits the classic coaching carousel criteria in that he has a very different temperament and demeanor to the previous coach and he will certainly shake things up if he is signed.The concept of Vigneault becoming the next head Coach isn’t a surprising one, but the situation came to a head rather fast as the Rangers had been very quiet about a head coach vacancy. There may have been a few team meetings held out in California but there was no indication of the direction they were planning on going. Seems they like to keep the element of surprise both on the ice and off.Vigneault had already been approached by the Dallas Stars but the Rangers got aggressive and ensured that they would snare him as their next bench boss. The Stars had already gone as far as putting an offer on the table and were simply waiting for him to sign, but James Dolan stepped in and made sure the Rangers would get their man.The probable new Rangers coach is the right man for the job and although he has a very different personality to Tortorella this may be exactly what is needed. He has had success at NHL level and took the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Final, accumulated 313 wins in 540 games as the Canucks bench boss and has won a Jack Adams Award.Although nothing has yet been made official, insiders say that the writing is on the wall and that Vigneault is a head coach in waiting. Now the pressure shifts to Glen Sather who will have to ensure that he can tailor his team to accommodate Vigneault’s style, so this could be an interesting summer.

Henrik Lundqvist, who on break-up day became the Rangers’ public voice of disaffection that in retrospect foretold the firing of John Tortorella as head coach 48 hours later, told The Post that he “would never put pressure on management on decisions like that.” “I know there is some speculation regarding Torts being fired, but let’s be clear on one thing,” Lundqvist said via an e-mail on Wednesday that contained his first comments on the matter. “It’s not my call who the coach should be for the New York Rangers. “I would never put pressure on the management on decisions like that. I’m just a player. My focus is to play the game and do the best I can on the ice. Whatever [happens] off the ice, I leave to our great staff we have working for this club.” A player? Yes. Just a player? Not quite. No one in sports is irreplaceable, but the franchise goaltender is as close as they come to fitting that description for the Rangers. And when Lundqvist issued a tepid response on the May 27 break-up day regarding his desire to sign a long-term extension on his contract that expires after this coming season, it set off alarm bells across all time zones of Blueshirt Country. This morning, Lundqvist further clarified his position regarding an extension. “It has no impact for me on who the coach is when it comes to my contract,” the 31-year-old told The Post. “I love everything about the New York Rangers. I love the fans. I love the organization. “I hope we can work something out when it is time to do so.” Left intentionally unsaid, of course, was when it will be time to do so and what he believes should be the cost of doing business. The Rangers have every intention to try and get this done before training camp opens in September. Lundqvist’s public comments in the wake of the team's elimination by the Bruins were the tip of an unseen iceberg of a break-up day on which a critical mass of players had used their exit interviews with management to express their extreme dissatisfaction with Tortorella’s unyielding approach and their belief that the club had gone as far as it could under him. The Post reported on May 30 that Lundqvist was troubled enough by the deteriorating dynamic between his teammates and the coach that he felt the need to give voice to it. But Lundqvist in his e-mail expressed nothing but gratitude to Tortorella, under whom the goaltender won the 2011-12 Vezina and finished second in the balloting this time around. “Torts and I had a great relationship,” said Lundqvist, who has returned to his home in Sweden for the summer. “It was exciting and refreshing to play for him. I never had a coach challenge me the way he did, in a good way. “When you play for a coach and he is let go, you feel really bad as a player. I feel like I should have done more. In the end, it’s up to us players to get the done, but coaches sometimes pay for our mistakes,” the goaltender continued. “I felt the same way when Tom [Renney] was let go four years ago.” Now, the Rangers will move on under Alain Vigneault, who reached an agreement to coach the club over the weekend but whose hiring has still not been officially announced. “I don’t know that much about him,” Lundqvist said. “All I hear, though, is that he is a great coach.” http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/rangers/lundqvist_wasn_behind_rangers_firing_tUopaAXDxi3Ia6Pc7vJlGM

I am convinced that no one actually reads what I write up here for the open threads so I am just going to write a few of my favorite words/sounds. Enjoy! Disposition, anodyne, iridescent, lithe, svelte, welkin, ink, chrysalis, beguile, meandering, succor, quandary, decrepit, thorough, mulch, dew, cacophony, cataclysm, sepulcher, cantankerous, curmudgeon, mellifluous, melancholy, morbid, cumbersome, belligerence, benevolence, muck, juice, meat, maw, coarse, quagmire, heave, lunge, scramble, moss, endoplasmic reticulum, dulcet, tomahawk, effervescent, lobe, epitome, ethereal, halcyon, surreptitious, murmur, myriad, satchel, sequestered, tomfoolery, bubble, plethora, nebula, squander, boop, unctuous, sate, muzzle, filthy, and ham. Okay, so that was weird. Not as weird as the little statues of duckies with tiny Bruins capes/jerseys on them but pretty weird. Anyways, I hope you guys and gals enjoy a great Game Four tonight and that we in for some more intense and entertaining playoff hockey. What have you thought of the series thus far? What was the best game? The worst game? To follow the action and catch up on developing stories check out the two outstanding SB Nation blogs that cover the teams in the finals. The Stanley Cup of Chowder covering the Boston Bruins. Second City Hockey covering the Chicago Blackhawks. Remember to enjoy the game, be civil and respectful to one another, and please observe the Community Guidelines. Let's go hockey!

The Rangers have announced that they will introduce Alain Vigneault as the new head coach Friday afternoon during a press conference from Radio City Music Hall. Vigneault officially signed his five-year $10 million contract this week. It is assumed that the Rangers may announce the assistant coaches at this press conference. Previous head coach John Tortorella was fired shortly after Memorial Day, and it is likely that assistants Mike Sullivan and Jim Schoenfeld will also be relieved of their coaching positions. Tweet

The New York Rangers will hold a Press Conference on Friday, June 21 at 11:00 a.m. MSG Network will have live coverage of the Press Conference.

The team announced that they will hold a press conference at Radio City Music Hall on Friday at 11 a.m.

As per a report from Andrew Gross, the New York Rangers will officially announce Alain Vigneault as the new head coach on Friday afternoon. Due to ongoing renovations at Madison Square Garden, the press conference will take place at Radio City Music Hall. Vigneault was officially signed to a 5-year contract back on June 15, according to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. The contract will pay Vigneault $2 million per year, which is about $200,000 more than he received with the Vancouver Canucks. This is the first official confirmation that we have seen from the New York Rangers, as they have kept Vigneault's hiring on the down low for quite some time. Glen Sather also spoke with the Pat Leonard at the General Manager meeting in Boston, and shed some light on what led to the firing on John Tortorella. The biggest issue was the lack of puck possession in the offensive zone, and low-scoring offensive production with the amount of talent on the roster.

Per Larry Brooks, Henrik Lundqvist made his first public comments since his “Comments heard ’round the world” that set all of New York into a panic. Per Brooks, Lundqvist denied having any say in the decision to fire John Tortorella: “I know there is some speculation regarding Torts being fired, but let’s be clear on one thing,” Lundqvist said via an e-mail on Wednesday that contained his first comments on the matter. “It’s not my call who the coach should be for the New York Rangers. “I would never put pressure on the management on decisions like that. I’m just a player. My focus is to play the game and do the best I can on the ice. Whatever [happens] off the ice, I leave to our great staff we have working for this club.” Lundqvist elaborated on his comments a little more, and it’s definitely a good read on the whole Hank situation. Tweet

The Rangers will hold a press conference Friday at Radio City Music Hall. While the team has not made an official announcement about the press conference just yet, it will be to introduce Alain Vigneault as the team’s new coach. Vigneault, 52, agreed, in principle, to a five-year deal worth $10 million on Saturday after receiving a similar offer from the Dallas Stars. However, the deal had to be finalized and Glen Sather is currently in Boston for a general managers’ meeting. It will be the first chance for Vigneault to meet the “vaunted” New York media and, no doubt, there will be a heavy Canadian contingent in attendance for the former Canucks and Canadiens coach. But handling large media gatherings should not be an issue for Vigneault after his experiences in hockey-crazy Montreal and hockey-crazy Vancouver. If anything, the Big Apple might seem like a relaxed atmosphere for him once he gets past this initial press conference. Among the key questions for Vigneault will be his staff - there have been reports Ulf Samuelsson might be a candidate to be an assistant - and just how different his presence will be from predecessor John Tortorella, who, ironically, has a chance to succeed Vigneault in Vancouver. ====================================================== Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports

Briere is to be bought out, and will hit the UFA market. While this has not officially happened yet, the rumors are abound that the Flyers have informed Danny Briere that the organization will use one of their two compliance buyouts on the 35-year-old winger and his $6.5 million salary. Not only are the rumors rampant, but Briere himself seems to think he will be bought out as well. Briere is fresh off one of the worst two-year stretches of his career, a stretch where he shot under 10% in both seasons, well below his career average of 14.4%. Briere is still pretty decent offensively, capable of putting up 15 goals and 50 points, and can play both center and right wing. However, this year was just an atrocious performance for Briere, who posted a 0.9 OGVT and 0.8 DGVT in the lockout-shortened year. While he has never been a defensive stalwart, the 0.9 OGVT is a significant drop from the 7.5 OGVT of last season. The big decision here is determining whether or not this horrible season –where he shot an abysmal 6.9%– was an off-year or a sign that the 35-year-old has hit a wall. Looking back at Briere’s metrics, he was a major puck possession driver in the 2009-2010 season, leading all Flyers with a 10.1 RCorsi. However, that appears to be the last season where Briere actually posted a positive RCorsi, despite being used in favorable situations (Corsi Rel QoC always under 0.3, always over 50% OZone starts). In 2010-2011 his RCorsi was -0.3, 2011-2012 was -3.1, and this 2013 season was -1.8, all with minimal variation in his Corsi Rel QoC and OZone start percentages. On the scoreboard, Briere still managed to post 50 point seasons despite his declining puck possession ability, but it wasn’t until the past two seasons where we saw his goal totals take a big hit, dropping from 34 in 2010-2011 to just 6 in 34 games this season (16 in the 2011-2012 campaign). Briere’s name is going to be brought up many times when the Flyers officially buy him out, but this is a classic case of buyer beware. Briere has a name value, but he has been declining in all major categories over the past three seasons. Briere isn’t just on the wrong side of 30, he’s on the wrong side of 35 as well. There are better top-six options available for the Rangers, even if he does come at a likely discounted price. Tweet