The Athletic Don Granato has breathed life into the Sabres

[joshjull]

 

[Sabre Dance]

The Don sounds like a natural motivator.

 

[joshjull]

Love this quote. Be prepared before the game. Then go out and play. Don’t worry about mistakes.

 

[jc17]

The Don sounds like a natural motivator.

It appears he's showing guys what they can be instead of telling them what they are not.

 

[Jim Bob]

It appears he's showing guys what they can be instead of telling them what they are not.

Coaching at the pro level is largely about limiting mistakes.

There are two general approaches that a coach takes in this regard:

1) Don't do this, that, and the other thing.
2) Do this and that thing that you are good at.

It seems like Ralph took a type 1 approach and Don takes a type 2 approach.

 

[These Are The Days]

I saw this thread pop up on the front page of the site and I wanna wish you guys well and hope the Sabres will push for a guy like Gallant or Boudreau. Granato has done wonderful but my God is it such a small sample size. I wouldn't hire a guy based on that alone.


But again, all the best. Hopefully I'll run into one of you guys outside Amalie Arena

 

[Uberpecker]

That "meatball" - moniker, though...
I understand, it's because of his Italian last name?

I've heard cleverer nicknames, if that's the case...

 

[Sabre Dance]

It appears he's showing guys what they can be instead of telling them what they are not.

We've all probably had coaches throughout life try to motivate. Some simply come off as BS and others make you want to play for them. It is a two-way street. Players have to trust what they're hearing.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Those Sam comments are amazing.

If Granato stays, we could actually see a Jack/Sam combo in the top 6. Something many of us have wanted to see for some time.

The possibilities on the wings would be exciting with all the youth and Skinner.

Yup. Im all for a center spine of Eichel/Reinhart/Mitts/Cozens, and filling out the wings via FA and trades, which should be more cost effective.

But I also see the value in going with Eichel, Reinhart, and Mitts as our top-9 centers, and allowing Cozens to work on the wing in the top-9 next season.

Regardless, it seems as if center depth may not be an issue going forward for the first time in a long time. Good to see.

Granato is a keeper.

 

[Sabre Dance]

This thread pop up on the front page of the site and I wanna wish you guys well and hope the Sabres will push for a guy like Gallant or Boudreau. Granato has done wonderful but my God is it such a small sample size. I wouldn't hire a guy based on that alone.


But again, all the best. Hopefully I'll run into one of you guys outside Amalie Arena

You're 100% right about sample size. History shows teams do get a burst of energy after firing a head coach. There is very little pressure. I mean we should all remember Ron Rolston.

So yeah if we can land a top guy then do it, Bruce Boudreau would be great. However if the young players continue to respond to Granato then there are many reasons to move forward with him.

 

[jc17]

We've all probably had coaches throughout life try to motivate. Some simply come off as BS and others make you want to play for them. It is a two-way street. Players have to trust what they're hearing.

Yeah, and it's obviously not as easy as "just tell guys to do what they're good at" .

You still want to see guys improve areas of weakness but it can't cripple everything else.

The trust is definitely important too. I've had coaches who I liked as individuals but they were a bit like Ralph in that they were stubborn in their "principles", and there was little reasoning other than "this is how we do things". Needless to say, trust of the team wasn't there and there wasn't a ton of success, because the athletes didn't feel they were being set up for success, and couldn't even have a conversation about it

 

[BloFan4Life]

This thread pop up on the front page of the site and I wanna wish you guys well and hope the Sabres will push for a guy like Gallant or Boudreau. Granato has done wonderful but my God is it such a small sample size. I wouldn't hire a guy based on that alone.


But again, all the best. Hopefully I'll run into one of you guys outside Amalie Arena

Granato's work on the ice, is only a fraction of the work he has done off the ice.

He deserves the job. He has the resume. Gallant and Boudreau both have way more recent issues than Granato. With the crap fans just went through with Krueger and his personality, I want nothing to do with the headstrong Gallant.

 

[jc17]

You're 100% right about sample size. History shows teams do get a burst of energy after firing a head coach. There is very little pressure. I mean we should all remember Ron Rolston.

So yeah if we can land a top guy then do it, Bruce Boudreau would be great. However if the young players continue to respond to Granato then there are many reasons to move forward with him.

Does anyone remember the consensus on rolston at the time?

Were there rolston red flags when he was hired?

 

[Gabrielor]

He did it. He scratched Eakin.

 

[These Are The Days]

Granato's work on the ice, is only a fraction of the work he has done off the ice.

He deserves the job. He has the resume. Gallant and Boudreau both have way more recent issues than Granato. With the crap fans just went through with Krueger and his personality, I want nothing to do with the headstrong Gallant.

I can respect that because I have a very close friend who is a Panthers fan and she and I speculate that's why he was let go. She lamented the loss of Gudbranson and Marchessault figured Gallant popped off over it and followed it up with telling VGK management to screw off at some point too.

As for Boudreau, I soured heavy on Jon Cooper after the sweep and just kinda crossed my fingers if we hired him the playoff curses wouldn't continue so passing on him isn't out of a question either

 

[BananaSquad]

Donnie turning Mittlestadt into his all situation 2 way center while Ralph would still be “crystalizing” him into a 4th line RW hahahahaha.

 

[These Are The Days]

You're 100% right about sample size. History shows teams do get a burst of energy after firing a head coach. There is very little pressure. I mean we should all remember Ron Rolston.

So yeah if we can land a top guy then do it, Bruce Boudreau would be great. However if the young players continue to respond to Granato then there are many reasons to move forward with him.

This is why I get you guys shitting on the Pegula's. Their new guy Kevyn Adams needs to be on the same page for what kind of team this is gonna be. And nothing I've seen from an outsider's perspective leads me to believe he knows that answer yet. But from that same perspective, the Sabres seem to me to be shaping up as the NHL's answer to the Tampa Bay Rays, you'll have a team good enough to win in spite of constant meddling from ownership.


So all that said the brass needs to get their shit together because Dahlin, Cozens, Eichel, Skinner, Sam, Mittelstadt, Quinn (If he pans out) and (with any luck) the pick of the defenseman litter in the 2021 draft is far from a bad nucleus. It almost reminds me of the Jessica Rabbit quote "I'm not a bad team I'm just managed that way"

 

[Fezzy126]

View attachment 424527
@TheMistyStranger

Overall shot attempts and scoring chances in favor of his play under Don.

Certainly some help from shooting % and save % while he's on ice impacting the overall goals too.

The high danger goals for and against are something that interest me. I think it's difficult to determine how much of that difference is luck, granato vs ralph, Giarardi vs Smith, or goaltending.

Edit:
I hate to pile on to a guy that lost his job, when we don't know to what extent he was at fault, but it seems Adams deserves some kudos for deciding that Granato was staying and that Steve Smith was going out with Ralph

One of the things that has been on my mind is how bad the analytics still look, but watching the Sabres it 'feels' like there is serious improvement.

I took a closer look and noticed that we are allowing a serious amount of low danger shots recently, the table below is sorted by LDSA/60:

We lead the league by far in this category. I wonder if the opposition scouting report is stressing shooting from everywhere as much as possible, based on our goalies and their performance to date. This high volume shot strategy would drive the corsi and even the xG metrics down, but also explain why the Sabres seem more dangerous lately.

 

[Jim Bob]

One of the things that has been on my mind is how bad the analytics still look, but watching the Sabres it 'feels' like there is serious improvement.

I took a closer look and noticed that we are allowing a serious amount of low danger shots recently, the table below is sorted by LDSA/60:

View attachment 424552

We lead the league by far in this category. I wonder if the opposition scouting report is stressing shooting from everywhere as much as possible, based on our goalies and their performance to date. This high volume shot strategy would drive the corsi and even the xG metrics down, but also explain why the Sabres seem more dangerous lately.

It looks like what the Sabres stats looked like under Bylsma.

 

[joshjull]

One of the things that has been on my mind is how bad the analytics still look, but watching the Sabres it 'feels' like there is serious improvement.

I took a closer look and noticed that we are allowing a serious amount of low danger shots recently, the table below is sorted by LDSA/60:

View attachment 424552

We lead the league by far in this category. I wonder if the opposition scouting report is stressing shooting from everywhere as much as possible, based on our goalies and their performance to date. This high volume shot strategy would drive the corsi and even the xG metrics down, but also explain why the Sabres seem more dangerous lately.

They’re also keeping it simple in our end. Not chasing and focused on protecting the middle. They will frequently conceded the outside. Which contributes to opposing teams shooting from there a lot. Plus the goalies as you mentioned. As an example, after Pitt scored that funky angle shot on Tokarski, they kept shooting from similar funky angles on him.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

That "meatball" - moniker, though...
I understand, it's because of his Italian last name?

I've heard cleverer nicknames, if that's the case...

Granny D. I will take no questions.


And if he actually benches Eakin, holy heck what a power move. Love it.

I think the problem there is Adams signed Eakin for more/longer than he should have, and in classic Buffalo GM fashion he doesn’t wanna admit his mistake. Dunno if it woulda worked cap-wise, but he shoulda gone to Boston instead of lazar. But whatever- My boy Donny gets the team playing well, shows the Pegulas how the parts work. And it just becomes apparent that Eakin is clearly a problem, despite what Adams might want. Don benched him during a particularly bad game, then gave him a shift late- Eakin was trash so he sat again. Granato is just proving his point to ownership/front office imo, he’d gained their trust enough to pull a boss move where it’s like “look. f***ing look at what everyone else is doing, now watch what happens when I put this dude in. Doesn’t work, see? So I’m gonna bench him next game, cool? Cool.” Good stuff from the coach.

 

[2 others]

“look. f***ing look at what everyone else is doing, now watch what happens when I put this dude in. Doesn’t work, see? So I’m gonna bench him next game, cool? Cool.”

Reminds of that Kramer bit, where he forces Seinfeld to look at his chesthair

 

[jc17]

They’re also keeping it simple in our end. Not chasing and focused on protecting the middle. They will frequently conceded the outside. Which contributes to opposing teams shooting from there a lot. Plus the goalies as you mentioned. As an example, after Pitt scored that funky angle shot on Tokarski, they kept shooting from similar funky angles on him.

Still, the scoring chances against haven't really decreased. I don't believe the low danger attempts against are replacing quality ones, but adding to them

Of course, we know that all scoring chances aren't created equal, so they might be similar on paper and different in reality. But at this point it doesn't seem we're limiting the "dangerous" attempts against as defined by the stat, in terms of volume at least

 

[joshjull]

Still, the scoring chances against haven't really decreased. I don't believe the low danger attempts against are replacing quality ones, but adding to them

Of course, we know that all scoring chances aren't created equal, so they might be similar on paper and different in reality. But at this point it doesn't seem we're limiting the "dangerous" attempts against as defined by the stat, in terms of volume at least

I’m not sure what your point is. I wasn’t arguing we’re great defensively. Plus why would we expect a them to be better at suppressing chances against than when they were completely focused on it with Krueger.

What Granato is hoping for with the group he’s working with was the stat line after the first two periods against the Pens. (It changed in the 3rd) They had almost twice as much offensive zone time as we did. But we had twice as many rush chances and more overall scoring chances. We don’t really have the roster at the moment to expect much more.

Our d-group as a whole is not that good defensively. The only pair to realistically hope to win the chances battle is Dahlin/Joker. Only because they'd have the puck more not because of their play in our zone.

 

[Rastin]

What's up with the Meatball nickname?