Islanders head coach Barry Trotz skates during summer training camp at Northwell Health Ice Center on July 19. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Barry Trotz and Alain Vigneault are paid to win hockey games, not speak eloquently about societal issues or mold young men, the way college coaches are expected to do.
So one had to feel a little bad for Vigneault, the Flyers coach, on Saturday as he defended himself over charges he seemed out-of-touch and/or indifferent to the issues that led the NHL playoffs to pause for two days.
More on that later. But Vigneault’s struggle served to illustrate by contrast how good Trotz is at this sort of thing.