Coach V: My teams compete, play hard;NYR haven’t all the time

             In a strong affirmation of his philosophy, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault set aside all the talk about “system change” today and is challenging his players to compete consistently.

             “There’s still some understanding on their part to be put together (on systems),” Vigneault said after practice. “That being said, our situation (2-5) right now, has in my estimation, a lot more to do with us competing better, competing harder, and having a push, when a push is needed on the ice. For whatever reason, it has not been there as consistently as it needs to be at the NHL level, hopefully we’ll be better…I’m new to this group…I had no expectations one way or another. I do know that my teams compete, my teams play hard and they’re hard to play against, and we haven’t been that way and it’s my responsibility to get it there.”

               Is there still some confusion in the ranks? Shouldn’t be.

              “From my standpoint, my directions, my standards, what my expectations are to the players and what they’re supposed to do are very clear, it’s not very hard to understand what I want," said Vigneault, who coached in Vancouver and Montreal…"It’s a matter of them putting the right compete level on the ice. We played two games where our compete level and push are what’s expected of this group and that’s what we need to see on a regular basis. Being a professional is about preparing yourself, making sure that your teammate knows night in and night out, practice in and practice out, that you’re going to be ready and do what you need to do to be the best you can be. So far we haven’t shown the consistency we need to show in that area. We’re working on that…"