NEW YORK (AP) David Quinn had been contacted by other NHL teams in recent years Gordie Howe Jersey , and chose to remain at Boston University. When the New York Rangers came calling, it was different.As talks with general manager Jeff Gorton and assistant GM Chris Drury – both of whom he’s known for many years – progressed, he knew it was time to make the move.”It just seemed like a natural fit,” Quinn said Thursday when he was introduced as the Rangers’ coach at Madison Square Garden. ”I’m 52 years old and at this point in my life, to be able to be the head coach of the New York Rangers was an opportunity I could not pass up.”Quinn led the Terriers to four NCAA Tournament appearances in five seasons, including a trip to the national title game in 2015.”This was a hard decision because of my love and passion for Boston University. It was an incredible opportunity for five years,” he said. ”This is really the only situation I would have left Boston University for.”Quinn spent the lockout-shortened 2013 NHL season as an assistant on Joe Sacco’s staff with the Colorado Avalanche, and also coached in the American Hockey League. Now, he becomes the 35th head coach in franchise history, replacing Alain Vigneault, who was fired April 7 just hours after the Rangers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010.Gorton said he considered five to 10 people for the vacancy, but ruled out veteran NHL coaches while looking for someone to relate to the team’s younger players as it goes through a rebuilding mode.Quinn was high on his list from the beginning.”We were looking for somebody with fresh ideas, a fresh approach,” Gorton said. ”It just kept coming back to David as the guy we wanted and could see as we move forward with the Rangers and do what we have to do.”The things that stick out for us were obviously his communication skills will be important as we move forward. His feel for the game Authentic Gustav Nyquist Jersey , the way he wants to play has meshed well with what we want to do here.”Through his discussions with Gorton and Drury, Quinn said he also felt they ”seemed to be on the same page.””Every time they said `this is what we’re looking to do,’ I would say to myself `I do that. That’s kind of my coaching DNA,”’ he said. ”As time went on it just seemed more of a natural fit.”The new coach stressed practices will be hard with an eye toward improvement, and players should come in with that mindset.”I like to think I’m fair and demanding,” Quinn said. ”There’s no gray area with me with players. They want to get better, they want to be held accountable, but the message has to be this is in your best interest. This is not about me being the big, tough coach. It’s about me letting them know everything that we’re doing is to make them better players.”Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who played at BU when Quinn was an assistant there and also under him with Lake Erie of the AHL, agreed with the coach’s assessment.”He treats players with a lot of respect but he expects you to show up to work every day and he wants to work on something every day,” Shattenkirk said. ”I think that’s something that we need here.”The Rangers made the playoffs in four of five seasons under Vigneault, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014. This past season, they finished last in the Metropolitan Division Womens Henrik Zetterberg Jersey , 20 points out of the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card spots while missing the postseason for the first time since 2010.Though several key players were dealt at the trading deadline in a youth movement, there is still plenty of talent on the roster, including veteran goalie Henrik Lundqvist, forwards Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes and Mika Zibanejad, and defensemen Shattenkirk and Brady Skjei.”There’s a lot of good core players here, older and younger,” Shattenkirk said. ”A lot of them, they’re young but they have NHL experience. We’re not bringing in a lot of 18- and 19-year-olds who don’t know what the lay of the land is in the league.”Gorton said he and Quinn have begun compiling a list of potential assistant coaches, but there is no timetable for filling out the staff. The status of Lindy Ruff, hired as an assistant under Vigneault last year, has not been determined.Shattenkirk, recovering from surgery on his left knee in January, said his rehab is on schedule and he could start skating in a month and be ready for training camp in September.—Follow Vin Cherwoo at www.twitter.com/VinCherwooAP— ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues will have a decidedly new look when the puck drops on the team’s season opener as it hosts the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.The Blues are going with a youth movement as prospects Robert Thomas Jimmy Howard Jersey , Jordan Kyrou and Sammy Blais all made the roster. Blais is the old man of the group at age 22. Thomas, regarded as one of the Blues’ top prospects, is 19 and Kyrou is 20.What they lack for in experience, St. Louis hopes they make up for in skill.Article continues below ...Blais, who played in 11 games last season, scored a team-high four preseason goals.“It’s a great feeling,” Blais told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “This year I just wanted to stay here all year and keep working hard and do what I did during the preseason.”Thomas had a goal and three assists in the preseason.“It’s obviously tough when coming in, with the environment and everything, and some pressure on you,” Thomas told the Post-Dispatch. “Whenever you’re trying to make a team, you always focus on stuff, (but) sometimes it’s just better to relax and have fun each day.”Kyrou scored a goal and an assist in the preseason opener in Dallas on Sept. 18. He added two more assists to cement a roster spot.“I just feel a lot more comfortable out there (this year),” Kyrou told the Post-Dispatch. “My speed is a big factor, so I really feel like I can skate out there Jonathan Ericsson Jersey , create a lot of opportunities.”The trio joins veterans Pat Maroon, Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron as newcomers. All six players start the season as part of the Blues’ top 12 forwards.The Blues start the season with no reserve forwards and will carry nine defensemen, two more than usual. The team elected to go with the extra defensemen as Robert Bortuzzo will serve the final game of a three-game suspension against the Jets and Joel Edmundson is dealing with a groin injury.The Blues and Jets split their four games last season, with each team winning one and losing one on home ice.After a 114-point season and a second-place finish in the rugged Central Division, the Jets are dealing with high expectations. ESPN ranked the Jets No. 1 in its preseason power rankings and nine of Sportsnet’s NHL Insiders predicted that the team will win the Stanley Cup this season.Jets coach Paul Maurice said the team isn’t interested in what others are saying.“They all have a really good understanding of the value of a prediction,” Maurice told NHL.com. “We don’t want to downplay it. Go through the list and find one that was picked first, won the Presidents (Trophy) and won the Cup. Right, there’s a bunch of good teams at the top and there’s a bunch of really good teams that miss the playoffs. It happens every year. And you don’t want to be that team, right? You want to be that team over the course of the year that gets stronger and gets better.“We believe we have enough talent now to be a good team but an understanding that maybe that’s a smaller fraction of the whole pie that goes into having a year like last year.”