Confirmed with Link: Head Coach Vacancy Pt III: How's your spelling? (Eakins/Vigneault/Messier/Gretzky)

[ThisYearsModel]

How did they do?

10th in their division. They won in 2011. The coach was DOUG Messier.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

Messier would be such a classic Sather move. Just classic. Throwback even.

 

[ecemleafs]

If Messier wants to be a coach than he should force his way to being the Wolfpack HC. The NHL isnt for rookies behind the bench. When was the last NHL head coach with no coaching experience to be a success?

 

[Ola]

I agree with you. I don't think it would be a good idea either (Messier wasn't very good as a player/coach or whatever he was in the early 2000's), but I don't get the uniform intense disgust with the idea. Surely MSG has done far worse things in the past. Once again though, I don't want Messier as the coach, I would certainly prefer either AV or Eakins etc. and have Messier start off somewhere else if he wants to pursue coaching.

The reason is simple, the game changed tremendously from late 80's and early 90's to around 94-95. The little older crowd here lived in Messier land post 94'. The entire league was extremely defensiveminded, but we tried to play 80's hockey and missed the PO's with the most expensive rosters in the league.

Messier back then, like when he returned the second time, completely failed to realize that the game was changed. The disaster peaked in 03' when a Slats coached and 200% Messier backed team missed the PO's, the NYR for the 6th straight year.

Just imagine yourself how it would feel if this team didn't make the PO's again until 2021...

-Messier in 2003 failed to realize that the game had changed from 1993. What could we reasonably expect to get in 2013???

-Messier or Gretzky is not like say Adam Oates who got experience of the modern game. Oates made the PO's twice on trapping teams. He was an offensive guy himself, so that part comes natrual to him. That "league" Oates played in was about winning as a team. That wasn't the case for Gretzky or Messier. You could win as individuals and they only won as individuals. In the "man against man" way. The game back when they won was just that diffrent. The diffrence between the best and the worst was enourmous. etc.

-Messier in interviews just sounds like he isn't really in touch with the reality that is the NHL 2013. It wasn't that long ago that I heard him talk about how the game in the end was about getting pucks on the net and other cliche's like that. The coaches in the NHL toady spend an enourmous amount of time on details. You just cannot cheat in any area. To be competetive, you need to have solutions for so many details and you need to work extremely hard drilling your players to be able to execute those solutions at the high pace the game is played.

-Messier picked Canada's WCH's team 2010. He was the GM. He picked an incredibly unbalanced team that is widely talked about as one of the worst Canadian teams in decades at the WCH's.

We all love Mark Messier. But the tendency around this league is undoubtedly that the most professional organization has the most success. The winners are the people willing to pay the most attention to details. The people willing to put in the most work. With Messier, we all the reaosn to expect him to go about this job as every other task. Believing that his prescense will be enough.

 

[Chief]

The thought of TGO Being considered doesn't bother me. Messier is a little different but I wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand. Is it that hard to think that he might no some x's and o's. It's not like the guy hasn't been around the game for decades. The reason a lot of guys who weren't good players have experience as assistant coaches, etc...is because they stunk as players and went into coaching to make a paycheck connected to hockey.

If TGO or Mess are seriously considered, then they both better be committed to spending hours on end at the job. I don't want any figure-head overseeing the team with the thought that they'll delegate the nuts and bolts to others (even though that's how Bowman coached the Pens - he wasn't even at practices from what I heard).

 

[Ola]

I could live with something like this (besides the part with all the top 3 picks).

Messier one of Vigneault's two assistant coaches. If he shows an aptitude for it, consider him for a head coaching job down the road.

I don't believe in that set-up, is Vigneault supposed to coach a team knowing that the guy next to him is there to replace him when he fails?

I could live with Gretz, Messier and Vigneault sharing the duty... Or maybe not...

 

[Thirty One]

I don't believe in that set-up, is Vigneault supposed to coach a team knowing that the guy next to him is there to replace him when he fails?

Not set in stone. Didn't you see all the words I bolded?

It may still be too weird of a dynamic, with all the press this is getting already.

I'd think AV would bring Bowness with him anyways, so couldn't have Gretz and Mess. Dangit.

 

[Brooklyn Ranger]

John Shannon ‏@JSportsnet 1m
Can confirm what others have reported that Mark Messier is truly interested in coaching the NY Rangers.



Let's hope Sather has the will to say no.

One thing about hiring Messier: it's all or nothing. Either Sather walks out a genuis with one more Stanley Cup ring on his finger, or he gets fired because Messier can't do the job.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

One thing about hiring Messier: it's all or nothing. Either Sather walks out a genuis with one more Stanley Cup ring on his finger, or he gets fired because Messier can't do the job.

That actually sounds like a win-win for us, lol.

 

[The Gloaming]

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/h...ngers-sources-article-1.1360072#ixzz2UuPBmfJw

He can **** right off.

 

[Thirty One]

That actually sounds like a win-win for us, lol.

Win-win-win.

 

[Kreider Typical]

WE'RE DOOMED!!!!! Nooooooo!!!!!!! Dark years are back!

honestly... i don't think mess would be nearly as bad as gretz... either REALLY good or REALLY suck, but not as bad as gretz

 

[Hire Sather]

We're gunna have to dodge a bullet here.

Messier or Gretzky would set the organization back ages. All the positives since the lockout out the window.

 

[The Gloaming]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/gretzky-messier-interested-in-rangers-job/

Pass the vomit bag.

I'm catching up to what I missed during my nap.

This just gets worse and worse.

 

[Kershaw]

He can **** right off.

Luckily, incompetence runs in the NHL.

Sather approached Messier in 2002 about coaching the Rangers, during his second run with the franchise as a player, but he continued to play through the 2003-04 season. Last year the Oilers approached Messier about their vacancy after firing Tom Renney, but Messier opted to stay in New York.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/h...ngers-sources-article-1.1360072#ixzz2Uuhy6CZ2

 

[*Bob Richards*]

One thing about hiring Messier: it's all or nothing. Either Sather walks out a genuis with one more Stanley Cup ring on his finger, or he gets fired because Messier can't do the job.

But can you imagine Sather firing Messier? Mother of God.

 

[NHRangerfan]

No, like I said I don't want him as the coach, I would prefer he start in the AHL or somewhere else, and in all liklihood he won't ever be a good coach anyway since star players in any sport rarely are.

However the idea of Messier being coach doesn't make me want to "vomit"; that seems a little extreme!

Any candidate being given consideration with no coaching experience AT ALL would make me want to vomit.

 

[mike14]

thought we already were the joke of the NHL...?

 

[Thirty One]

thought we already were the joke of the NHL...?

You were wrong.

 

[The Gloaming]

Haha, has this been posted yet?

“Oh, I had a huge smile on my face, no question about it,” Avery told The Post yesterday. “It’s not that I’m happy for myself. I’m happy for the Rangers and Ranger fans.

“When I was a Ranger, no one was happier to walk into the Garden every day than me. I loved the team. I still do. I want the atmosphere to be the best it can be for the players. I want everyone in New York to be proud of the team. That’s why I felt the way I did [on Wednesday] and that’s why I sent that tweet.”...

...“But there’s no bitterness and I’ll tell you why,” Avery said. “When John Tortorella forced me out of one career, that opened the door for me on a whole new career and life in New York that is perfect for me.....

...“I said the day I came back to the Rangers that Tortorella was going to be the best thing for me in my career. Well, he was the worst thing ever that could have happened to my hockey career but the best thing that ever happened to my life.”...

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/rangers/avery_happy_guy_yxZjOGMDSFrF3z9ttbe8NJ

 

[rangers5000]

messier-head coach
#99-assistant head coach

get ready

 

[Brooklyn Ranger]

But can you imagine Sather firing Messier? Mother of God.

If Sather is "forced" to fire Messier, it will be because he failed by assuming that Messier as the best fit in the first place . And if that happens, it means Ranger fans will not only have seen whatever hope has been built up until now crash and burn big time, but also that the future will look very bleak too.

Bottom line, better hope for the best regardless of who is hired.

 

[NAI77]

The reason is simple, the game changed tremendously from late 80's and early 90's to around 94-95. The little older crowd here lived in Messier land post 94'. The entire league was extremely defensiveminded, but we tried to play 80's hockey and missed the PO's with the most expensive rosters in the league.

This was the era when I became a Rangers fan so i'm one of those "old timers" In fact I never saw Messier be any good since I wasn't really that into hockey in '94 or before; only post '98 when Messier was an old man who refused to retire; crippling the team.

I'm well aware of the costly failures of Sather's reign, from Lindros to Kamensky, Theo Fleury etc. (although i did really enjoy watching Bure!). I think Sather in general tends to be behind the times since Tortorella would have been the perfect coach ten years ago (when he won the cup) in the clutch and grab-NHL of that era. He did fairly well here but the game has moved on!

Once again I don't want Messier as the coach right now, I want someone with experience who can capitalize off the several remaining years of peak that Lundquist has left (IMO the main reason the Rangers have had success in the last few years) The idea in and of itself simply doesn't make me vomit, though!

 

[mike14]

You were wrong.

really? Well there you go. We obviously talk in different hockey circles

 

[NHRangerfan]

All you clowns who called for Torts' firing, when we end up with ****ING mark ****ING messier as our coach and we become the JOKE of the nhl, will you be happy then? will you?

Because everyone expected this from Sather?