During John Tortorella’s tenure as head coach of the New York Rangers, the team saw a resurgence. Built upon a blue-collar mentality and the bedrock of Henrik Lundqvist’s goaltending, Tortorella’s Rangers became a playoff mainstay, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012.
In the years since Tortorella was fired and Alain Vigneault was brought on board, things have continued on that trend. 2014 saw the Rangers in the Cup Final and 2015 was their third trip to the Conference Final in four years.
It’s been easy to talk about how much better AV’s open, speed-oriented style is than was Torts’ defense-first, six-goalies-on-the-ice approach.