Hartnett: AV's Belief In Staal-Holden Pairing May End Up Rangers' Undoing

By Sean Hartnett
» More Columns

NHL head coaches put their neck on the line with lineup selections and in-game adjustments.

If a coach gets them right, he'll smell like a rose and be the toast of the town.

When decisions backfire, however, pointed criticisms are directed more often than not at the man in charge. A fine line separates the bench bosses who thrive in this fishbowl environment and nomadic coaches who shuffle from one organization to the next.

Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault has largely thrived in the Big Apple pressure cooker, guiding the Blueshirts to four straight regular seasons with at least 96 points, two conference finals and the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. It's difficult to poke holes in the 55-year-old's track record since he replaced John Tortorella in the summer of 2013, and the Rangers rewarded him with an extension through 2019-20 in late January.

When Vigneault arrived in 2013, he was a breath of fresh air for a hockey team that had been worn out physically and mentally from the defense-first constraints placed on them by Tortorella. AV offered a clean slate and desired to get the most out of the roster he inherited through his uptempo, counter-attacking system. Franchise defenseman Ryan McDonagh was given the freedom to join attacks, unleashing his offensive potential after serving as a shutdown man under Tortorella.

Fast forward to the here and now. The Rangers don't have a systems issue, but Vigneault's in-game deployments have come into question. On Saturday during Game 2 of their second-round series against Ottawa, the Rangers let a two-goal lead slip away over the final 3:19 of regulation before ultimately falling 6-5 in double overtime.

Suddenly, Game 3 is a must-win for the Blueshirts.

MORE: Hartnett: When It Comes To The 'D,' Only Vigneault Knows What He's Doing

Brady Skjei and Brendan Smith were pinned to the bench in the final minutes of regulation despite Skjei having scored twice earlier. The pair had excelled all afternoon by defending well in their end, jump-starting transition attacks and driving offense.

Skjei did not play over the final 6:48 of the third period, while Smith didn't see the ice over the final 5:37 of regulation. Instead, Vigneault leaned on his second pairing of Marc Staal and Nick Holden. The Staal-Holden pairing was on the ice for three goals against, including the double OT goal that doomed the Rangers to an 0-2 series deficit. Holden committed an ill-advised pinch on the game-winner, leaving Staal exposed on a two-on-one rush.

It was a repeat of Game 2 of the Montreal series. Vigneault left Skjei and Smith on the bench for the final 2:30 of regulation, and the Canadiens went on to tie and eventually win the game in overtime.

During a conference call on Sunday afternoon, Vigneault did not sound like a coach willing to shake up his defensive pairings or give Skjei the promotion his superb play is warranting. Skjei has excelled during the second postseason of his career, his four goals leading all NHL defensemen. Yet, the 23-year-old is getting the short end of the stick when it comes to ice time.

"Right now, I like the look of our pairs and I don't see myself making any changes there," Vigneault said.

Skjei is averaging 19:10 of ice time per playoff game and has been limited to a third-pairing role. His 26.5 shifts per game is significantly lower than McDonagh (36), Dan Girardi (33.1), Staal (31.6), Holden (30.3) and Smith (29.6). His pairing with Smith has outperformed the Staal-Holden pairing, yet Staal and Holden have been the ones seeing the ice during crunch time.

"Minutes are based on how you're playing," Vigneault said. "Not everybody's game on different nights is the same. On some nights, certain players have got their execution and their ability to make plays higher than others -- even if they have more or less experience. In Brady's case, obviously, he had a pretty good night. (He) got caught there on that four-on-four where he got beat wide and they scored a goal, but other than that he played some pretty good minutes -- moving his feet, moving the puck and jumping up in the play when the opportunity was there."

The Blueshirts return to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday in a series hole and Vigneault has been outfoxed in the matchup battle by Ottawa bench boss Guy Boucher. If Tortorella's fatal flaw in his final years behind the Rangers bench was his insistence on playing a black-and-blue brand of hockey, then Vigneault's most questionable trait is his late-game deployments.

"We were looking for certain matchups and sometimes within a game's flow and the matchups, sometimes certain players get lost for a couple of shifts or a couple of minutes and that's what happened," Vigneault said after being asked about Smith's benching. "It wasn't performance-related. He was playing a good game, he was playing with bite. It just happened that way."

Great coaches are able to adapt as a playoff series progresses. If Vigneault continues to prioritize the struggling Staal-Holden pairing over Skjei-Smith, fans are going to scratch their heads and continue questioning his methods. All the evidence is there in plain sight to break up the Staal-Holden pairing, yet Vigneault appears to be sticking to his guns and his belief that the underperforming duo will get the job done.

Follow Sean on Twitter at @HartnettHockey