Who Made The Right Decision- The NY Rangers Or The Vancouver Canucks

Ok get out your coaching scorecard. The New York Rangers fired their head coach, John Tortorella. The Vancouver Canucks Fired their head coach Alain Vigneault and he becomes the new head coach of the Rangers. So who got the better end of this swap?

For my money it is the Canucks, but I reserve the right to change my mind.

Here is the funny thing. The Canucks wanted a coach he preacher tough and hard nosed play. They have underachieved badly in the playoffs despite a highly skilled club. They lost the Stanley Cup finals after leading the Bruins 3-2 in 2010.

The Rangers wanted a coach who was more an offensive minded leader. GM Glen Sather said as much when he claimed the Rangers grinding style which included blocking shots and playing conservative wore down the players mentally.

So the teams essentially swapped coaches and philosophy and now claim their new coach fits what the team needs. They may both be correct in the end and it will be fascinating to watch how both teams progress or regress from here.

Here is the rub. Both coaches will be fired at some point because coaches are hired to be fired. when this comes both teams will want to reverse their philosophy again. The Rangers will take advantage of Vigneault's easy going ways and the Canucks will be unhappy with Tortorella's hard charging ways and both teams will want a total reversal. happens all the time in sports.

Teams hire a drill master and when it comes time to change the leader they go in the exact opposite direction. So perhaps both these clubs will trade their new coaches back to their old teams at some point?

For my money I will take the rugged, hard charging style of Tortorella. Sure watching the Rangers could be frustrating because their offense, especially the power play, was stagnant much of the time. But the team did overachieve in my view based on talent alone.

It's going to be interesting to see how Vancouver, with all their play making and offensive prowess will adopt to Tortorella. He will wear them out in all probability and they will want to go more offensive. But here is the difference the way I see it.

Tortorella has won a cup with a potent offensive team in the Tampa Bay Lightning. Vigneault has never won a cup with a finesse team. I actually think Tortorella, with all his blemishes and reputation is the better all around coach. Right now I am thinking it is Vancouver who got the better end of this "swap"