Vigneault trying to reach Benoit 'Goes to the moon' Pouliot

Maybe Benoit Pouliot, a fine fellow and fourth overall draft pick in 2005, needs a nickname.

 "Le Astronaut"?

"Apollo 67"?

Or maybe just "La Lune"?

Pouliot, 27, has two goals and an assist for the Rangers, who signed the left wing to a one-year, $1.3 million contract. The Blueshirts are his fifth NHL club, and he was pretty productive in 2011-12, the last full season, when he was 16-16-32 with the Bruins. 

Pouliot has bounced around, likely because he has big-time skills, but has yet to weave them with preparation and execution.

In whatever language you prefer, Pouliot hasn't been consistent because, head coach Alain Vigneault believes, he sometimes has his head above the clouds.

“In French we say, ‘Dans la lune,’ goes to the moon,” Vigneault said. “I’ve told him this. I don’t know why it happens. You explain something to him on a shift and in a drill, he does it once, he does it twice and all of a sudden the third time, ‘Oh, yeah,’ like he’s got to put it together. I think he can. I’ve seen too many stretches where he’s done it. Whether it’s focus or whatever, he’s got to figure it out.”

The topic has certainly been discussed.  “I’ve had this conversation with Ben, I’ve had this conversation with a few players in my career," Vigneault said. "You only get so many kicks at the can here, you only get so many teams. Obviously a guy like Ben, a high pick, a high skill level, you see it now and then and you go, ‘Wow, why does the consistency or whatever is, not there on a more regular basis?’ That’s a question we’re trying to figure out with him, obviously he’s aware of it."

“I’ve been very, very direct: ‘Ben you need to figure this out here.', " Vigneault said. "Because you see it and I see it, the high end skill. It’s not from game to game sometimes, it’s from shift to shift.  And he needs to in his preparation, in his sitting on the bench getting ready for the next shift, he needs to figure it out here. If he figures it out he’s going to be able to have a good career. If he doesn’t, I don’t know how many other kicks he gets.”

“In my opinion, he’s top nine,” Vigneault said. “Some guys have to definitely play in the top six because they can’t defend well. Ben can defend and he can skate well enough that he can get back and help out our D. He’s got a tremendous amount of attributes, a tremendous amount of upside. He’s got to put it together. Hopefully he will for his sake and I’m banking on it for our sake, too, because we need him.”

Vigneault, a head coach for four years in Montreal and seven in Vancouver, referenced Long Island native and former Ranger Chris Higgins, currently a Canuck.

"The guy that comes to mind is Chris Higgins,”  Vigneault said. “I remember when I had Chris, he walked into my office and he had just gone through four teams, it was his fourth team in a year and a month or two. I said, ‘This is it, son,’  and we talked about what he needed to do on the ice and what he needed to do off the ice and he figured it out. For whatever reason I caught him at the right time and with his maturity, he figured it out and he’s become one of the best, most dependable, two-way players I’ve seen in a long time. I’m hoping Ben would be at that same stage in his career. You see guys and they don’t figure it out and then you don’t hear about them anymore."