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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RANGERS v CANADIENSMay 24, 2014Alain VigneaultNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Practice Day Q. Do you have a better idea today about the timeframe for Stepan? Do you have any update on him? COACH VIGNEAULT: I don't have an update as far as time. He's in the hospital right now recovering from surgery, so that's all I've got. Q. Are you calling it day‑to‑day? Is the name for it day‑to‑day, indefinitely, do you have a name at all for it? COACH VIGNEAULT: Call it whatever you want. Q. Whatever I please? Okay. What's it mean to your team and your lineup to have Brassard back? COACH VIGNEAULT: I was told he cleared himself, so it's good to know. He didn't tell me. I haven't spoken to him yet, but I was told that he cleared himself to you guys, so that's good news. I'll talk to him probably tomorrow and find out and make sure everything's good. Players at this time want to play, and we've got to make sure that everything's all right. Q. He seemed before last game like he felt like he was going to play. Is Stepan's absence creating the need for him to come back in? Was it more precautionary last game? COACH VIGNEAULT: No, the players obviously want to play, but we're not going to put anybody in a bad situation. He cleared himself to you before he spoke to me, so he must be feeling better than he was yesterday. Q. Just for point of clarity, is there any chance Stepan plays tomorrow, or is he ruled out? COACH VIGNEAULT: He's at the hospital right now recovering from surgery, so I would say unlikely. Q. Were you satisfied with (No Audio), ten games? COACH VIGNEAULT: At the end of the day it doesn't really matter whether I'm satisfied or not. Throughout this whole ordeal, the penalty, depending on who you talk to, it wasn't a penalty or they didn't see it. My biggest disappointment in the whole thing is probably what's happening to Dan Carcillo. At the end of the day if the right call is made on the ice, that whole situation doesn't happen. Dan didn't have a penalty on that play. There was no penalty there. I still don't understand why Scott grabbed him in that fashion. All Scott had to do was tell him Dan didn't know he had a penalty. Just can you come to the box with me? Here, you have a penalty, and it would have been over. In that split moment of grabbing him like that, obviously, it's inexcusable what Dan did, but those situations or incidences put one after the other leads to a young gentleman's career moving forward might be very tough here. Q. In the other series Darryl Sutter said when he got to L.A., as far as leadership with the players go, he kind of had to take control of it and slowly give it back to the guys where now it's on them as far as leadership. Was that your approach when you got to New York, or did you have trust in the guys immediately as far as letting them control the room? COACH VIGNEAULT: I didn't really know anybody coming in, so coming in is no different than any other coach coming into a new team. You get to know your team, you get to know the personalities, you get to know the skillset. You start figuring out how you can play with the group, what your strengths seem to be, and you try to implement that. As relationships grow and build, depending on what you have as far as leadership and depending on what time of personalities you have, you can get a big pulse of what you have and make the right decisions moving forward. Q. How long did it take for you to get a real good feel for that? COACH VIGNEAULT: I would say I'm still learning every day, and we're still growing as a group. I mean, it's part of the evolution. It's part of growing together, and I'm hoping that we're just starting to get better. Q. Do you have any idea whether Carcillo is going to appeal the suspension? COACH VIGNEAULT: I talked to him, but I didn't talk to him about that, sorry. Q. I know in a playoff series stuff like this happens all the time, but does this have any different feel after Game 3 after yesterday going into Game 4? COACH VIGNEAULT: Not really. For me I look at our Game 3, and I thought we played better than we did in Game 2, different outcome. We've got to find a way to finish on some of our opportunities. We've looked at a couple of areas that I think we can work on and maybe get better looks. Our group is definitely going into tomorrow's game, feeling good about how we're playing, and we're going to try to put our best foot forward. Q. Any concern about (No Audio)? COACH VIGNEAULT: No. Q. What has J.T. shown you in the time he's played this postseason that he's ready for this? Definitely the biggest stage he's played in as far as the NHL. COACH VIGNEAULT: When we've used him in other games he's been all right. He's got a good skillset. He's got a good shot, goes to the net hard. Doesn't mind going into tough areas. He's a good player. He's a young player. He's been working with us throughout the playoffs, and he's been in all the video sessions. He's been in everything. He knows what to expect from the Habs in this series. We're definitely going to use him tomorrow, and hopefully he'll be good for us. Q. Has his approach matured since say a month and a half ago? COACH VIGNEAULT: I mean, he's under the most intense time of the year. I mean, he's been focused and he's been working very hard. So if you want to call that better maturity, yes, I would say it's just part of the process of a young player as he's trying to become a good pro. Q. Has Brian Boyle elevated his level of play in the playoffs? If so, what has he done to elevate it? COACH VIGNEAULT: If you ask Brian, he loves to tell everybody that he's a playoff player, so (laughing). But he plays real important minutes for us as far as penalty killing and a lot of times I'm not afraid at all to use him or his line against the other team's top line. He's done a good job for us. I think for whatever reason, ever since the start of the playoff, I don't know if it's more attention on his part or better focus or whatever, but his game is better now than it was during the regular season. Q. Carcillo, perhaps understandably, didn't want to speak to us. You have spoken to him. Can you share generally what his feelings were? Was he regretful? Frustrated? Does he share your view that this is something that didn't need to happen? COACH VIGNEAULT: I would say to you his first comments to me was I know I should have been in better control. He knows that. There is no excuse for what happened. Two wrongs don't make a right. Whatever happened before, he should have been in better control there. He knows that. I can't begin to tell you how bad he feels about the whole thing. I mean, his situation, his personal future, the team. There is nothing he can do about it now, and there is nothing we can do about it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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