Love him or hate him, Boomer Esiaspn brought up a TREMENDOUS point about coaching, in any sport, in New York City. You have to be tough on players and you have to keep then in line. Coughlin, Parcells, Keenan, Torre, all winners with a few having multiple titles. Ryan, Edwards, Fassel, Renney, Kotite, all couldn’t get it done.
With that being the case, Lindy Ruff is the perfect fit for the New York Rangers. He isn’t as abrash as Tortorella or as, for lack of a better word, dickish as Torts. Actually, no, dickish works. But he still has that, no BS, blue collar way about him. More importantly, he played with Messier, Richter, Leetch, and Graves in one of three of the organizations most successful seasons in the past 23 years. According to John Vogl of the Buffalo News, the job title of Head Coach of the New York Rangers has been a frequent thought in the mind of Lindy Ruff. This is the team he wants to coach and he is dying for a cup.
Lindy Ruff brought a team of forwards HEADED by Michael Peca and Miroslav Satan, (Michael Peca even came out and said Ruff would work well for New York. Coming from a guy that didn’t do much after leaving his tutelage, that carries some weight) to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance due in large part to Hasek and defense.
Maybe that’s where the “Lindy Rufff is just as defensive-minded as Tortorella” statements come from? But after the 2004-2005 lockout, with much more offense at his disposal, he coached a team that has 3 or 4 Top 5 finishes offensively with a season leading the league in goals for. But alas, despite having another workd class goalie in Ryan Miller, he had very little defensively to work with and help Miller out.
With the New York Rangers, he has young forwards with tons of potential at his disposal and a world class scorer in Rick Nash. He has one of the best defensive corps in the league, especially if Staal can regain full vision or we pull off a trade for the Canes 5th overall pick and draft his future replacement, and he has the best goalie in the league.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he is the coach the New York Rangers both need and deserve right now. He knows how to win with unbalanced teams, he wants to win, he wants to coach here. To me there is no better fit than Lindy Ruff.
To make things a tad more interesting, Ruff last played for the New York Rangers in the 1991-92 season which is very comparable to our 2011-12 season. Then came our decline year followed by a Stanley Cup that Ruff missed out on.
Alain Vigneault is I’m sure, an excellent coach and will thrive somewhere that isn’t New York. But he won 6 Division titles in a weak division while Ruff was coaching in one of the more difficult divisions. Since their tenures post-lockout, 40% of Western Conference playoff teams were from Vigneault’s division while 57% of Eastern Conference playoff teams (the tougher conference in my opinion) came from Lindy Ruff’s division.
Numbers don’t lie folks and all the numbers point to one man, Lindy Ruff.
Ruff having played for the Rangers 2+ decades ago with guys like Leetch & Co. means absolutely nothing. There isn’t anything interesting there that should hold any weight when considering a new head coach. It’s a novel factoid, but that’s about it. He’s supposed to be looking at the head coaching job, not to meet up with some old buddies. And what does Peca know about who would be a good fit for the Rangers, or make what he says somehow credible? He has even less ties to the organization than Ruff.
Okay, thank you for bringing actual numbers into that. I appreciate the research you did on this. My point on Vigneault and the division titles is that He had roughly 48 games a year against at best average teams. Ruff had 48 games a year against very tough teams. Ruff would miss the playoffs a few years by 4 points and 2 points but he would’ve easily made the playoffs had he been in the Western Conference.
My point on playing for the Rangers was just an interesting storyline tidbit. It has no swaying in my opinion on whether or not he has the ABILITY to coach the team. Just an interesting little factoid I thought was amusing.
As for you point on Peca and Satan, you say they had 5 productive seasons under Ruff. Look at what they did after that and he shows he get’s production out of his stars. We remember Peca and Satan being not that great for the Islanders but they were 30-40 goal scorers with Ruff coaching. And yes, he never had absolutely horrendous defense, but he never had the defense we have here while also having the offense we have here. Hasek never had a deep offense to bail him out and Miller never had defense to bail him out.
Ruff also turned Gerbe into an effective offensive prodcuer and gave Grigorenko every opportunity to thrive. I fully believe in his ability to coach young talent and how many coaches can we honestly say can handle injuries?
Now for Vigneault, he coached in a sub-par division in the weaker conference. He never had to deal with a Crosby-Malkin or Ovechkin or Chara and so on. Granted, there is some talent in the West especially with Detroit and now Chicago. However, it doesn’t match up to the depth and talent in the Eastern Conference. Ruff made 4 Conference Finals and one Stanley Cup Final in the tougher conference while Vigneault made just one Stanley Cup Final and that was the only year he was able to get a team out of the 2nd round.
Not to mention personalities. Vigneault is known to be more of a players coach and gives his players a long leash. That doesn’t work in New York. It never has, and it never will regardless of the sport. Ruff knows how to communicate with his players better than Tortorella does but he also knows how to push them. Was he fired? Yes. Is it most likely because he could no longer get through to his players? Yes. But he was there for almost a decade and a half with two different nuclei. Not to mention he’s been coaching in a tough division in a tough conference that happens to be our own. So he knows the Bruins more than Vigneault, he knows the Maple Leafs more than Vigneault, he knows the Canadiens more than Vigneault, and he knows the teams in our division more than Vigneault.
Either way, I appreciate you actually bringing something to the table.
(via theofleury-deactivated20150126)