Alain Vigneault 'not looking' to make any trades for Rangers

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Alain Vigneault (c.) sees a definite need for improvement, but doesn’t necessarily believe a trade is the answer for the Rangers.

After a franchise-best 16-3-2 start, the Rangers for the following month crashed back down to Earth, surrendering goals left and right throughout December, allowing mistakes to tailspin into frustrating losses.

Right before the start of 2016, beginning with a win in Tampa, Alain Vigneault started to see a Rangers team on the brink of returning to form. For weeks he insisted his team was improving, despite inconsistent results. Considering the Rangers are 27-17-5 (59 points) and managed to keep themselves in second place in the Metropolitan Division entering the NHL All-Star break, perhaps some solace can be taken that things haven’t been as bad as they once were, that they’ve kept themselves in the thick of the playoff race.

That was until Sunday, when Vigneault saw a listless effort in a 3-0 loss in Ottawa, one which took him by surprise and caused him to rip into his players and storm off from his post-game press conference in disgust.

“That poor performance, it was throughout our lineup,” Vigneault said Monday before the Rangers defeated the struggling Sabres, 6-3. “It definitely caught me and my staff and everybody off guard.”

It was a jolting reminder just how much the Rangers have to improve if they want to return to the postseason and make the kind of run they’ve made each of Vigneault’s first two seasons as Rangers coach.

There wasn’t much turnover from the team that went to the seventh game of the Eastern Conference final last year against the Lightning; Martin St. Louis retired and Carl Hagelin was traded. But the slightest tinkering can have a big impact.

“Every team is different,” Vigneault said. “We’ve got some similar parts but every team is different. As soon as you add one new component, the chemistry, the dynamics of the team changes. I believe this is a good team. I believe this is no doubt a playoff team, but it is hard to get into the playoffs. Once you’re in the playoffs, I think our chances are as good as anybody else. But you’ve got to get there, and it’s a battle … I believe we have a good team and we’ve got a couple players right now that no doubt can play better than they have and we’re working on getting them to play as well as they can.”

Could it be that the Rangers need another wrinkle to change the dynamics within the team for the better down the stretch? A new body before the Feb. 29 trade deadline?

“That’s tough to say and I’m not looking for that,” Vigneault said. “We’re right against the cap and that’s not my job. My job is I’ve got players here, it’s my job is to make them perform up to their potential. Obviously I could say right now that I haven’t done that. I need to make sure that I get this group here to play to their full potential. And we have not done that.”

Vigneault has 33 games left in the regular season to do so.

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