Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Alain Vigneault Uses Mike Babcock's Advice

03/09/2014 at 7:47am EDT

from Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants at The Record,

Another good anecdote from Vigneault today came when he was asked about using Rick Nash as a penalty killer, as he is now and as Red Wings coach Mike Babcock did for Team Canada. Vigneault was asked whether he got the idea to use Nash as a penalty killer came from watching the Olympics, where Nash played on the fourth line and killed penalties.

“It’s funny it’s a combination of a few things,” Vigneault said. “Our last game against Detroit I was talking to Babs before the game and he said, ‘In Canada’s best interests, why don’t you start using him on the PK because we might use him there.’ I had already had him before in our thinking spreading the minutes around. I’m not a big fan of using players on both situations (power play and penalty kill) but Step’s (Derek Stepan is) our only right-handed centerman when he’s good I like using him there and I started using Nasher for different reasons, not just that Babs wanted me to help, and then all of a sudden, he had a couple of good shifts on it, played well, Cally (Ryan Callahan) leaves and we need another penalty killer. Zuccy (Mats Zuccarello) was hurt, that’s when it started. He’s doing pretty good, we’re going to continue to use him.”

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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