Catching up on this thread...
If the change was something other than momentary, it wouldn't have magically disappeared. You're seeing what you want to see
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My view has been consistent in that unless Granato does something exceptional, he's just riding the temporary bump that comes from replacing a coach and a lack of pressure from a laughably lost season with a depleted roster due to injuries and trades (and yes, there is a severe lack of pressure when you know you're not playing any meaningful games that could lead to a playoff spot)
Moral victories are nice, but they have a limit to their usefulness. You're severely overvaluing minor/temporary improvements that haven't translated to the W/L column
As others have rebutted, there was a clear shift in style of play with Granato vs. Krueger. I've never played organized ice hockey / been coached, but I've watched / followed hockey for over 45 years. Under Krueger the Sabres willingly ceded their half of the neutral zone, and often the full neutral zone when losing possession in the o-zone. There was no pushing the pace. Odd-man rushes-for were an anomaly. All that changed with Granato, intentionally. It was not a result of "no pressure, meaningless games". To wit, there were several games the Sabres either came back to win, or were trying to come back to win after being down at the end of the second period. EVERY SINGLE GAME under Krueger, if the Sabres weren't up entering the 3rd, they had no chance of winning. And, there were games they led entering the 3rd and went into a collapsing shell where the eventual loss was inevitable. Those were meaningful games, by your standards. Those shit results were coaching and system.
But let's ignore that, because it's somewhat moot for you, or I, or anyone else to be right about the recent past, as the true relevant matter is who is best suited to coach the team going forward. In my opinion, the advantage of Granato is he's been part of, hand- in-hand, the suck and futility of the Krueger experiment and knows firsthand the frustration and dejection many of the current players feel. To me, that gives him both credibility and a leg up on outsiders when trying to motivate and/or congeal next year's roster. That's not, IMO, a singularly sufficient requirement to name him permanent coach, but, again IMO, it should not be dismissed.
I applaud that. Unfortunately we saw how the Pegulas handled things when Botterill didn't want to trim his staff. I hope that was more about performance than money, but I'm not confident in that being the case.
RE: Brind'Amour and declining to re-sign until his staff is settled / re-signed. Class move. If he wants certain guys with him to take the journey together, then kudos to him for striving to make it a package deal. If CAR mgmt. wants to limit the total dollar spend on coaching staff (speculating), I could see Rod B' taking less in order to spread the wealth to keep the staff together. He gets it, you want the product (total staff) to be greater than the sum of the parts (individual asst. coaches).
Please not another newcomer as a coach. even if the team performed better under granato, the attempts with inexperienced coaches did not lead to anything.
1 gallant
2 tortorella
3 boudreau
4 babcock
In all reality / fairness, any of those hired by BUF would be a newcomer to BUF (intentionally ignoring when Tortorella was an asst coach in BUF, as that was 3 decades ago and the roster, owners, management has all changed).
The excuses never end in Buffalo. The Bruins are the fourth place team in division. Okay, they are good. Are they odds on Stanley Cup favourites? No. They don't match up well. Sure. Positive signs. Yeah. Rangers whooped us back to back too. Granato has no Eichel and goalie, major deals for sure, but he's still got a 7-14-3 coaching record or .354 points %. Let's all sign up for another 60-70 point year. I don't get it. Real coach this time. Experienced and innovative. Someone who will coach to the lineup given to him.
I'm not going to die on the hill that the permanent coach must be Granato, but how is he not a real coach? How is he not experienced?
Innovative? you're losing me there. Granato is the first coach the Sabres have had in years who has used players collectively in their best possible deployment. I'll take that basic competency over "innovation" every day.
Coach to the lineup given him? Pretty damn sure that's what he did.
We're a last place team with Granato as our coach next season. We don't have a good enough goalie to prevent 4-5 goals a game. I would probably give him a chance with Eichel and Ullmark in the lineup, but still would prefer a proven NHL coach.
But what's to keep a proven NHL coach from employing the same strategy as Granato did? I don't see how they are mutually exclusively. Nor do I see how Granato must employ the same system/style next season, with an obviously different roster, than he did this (brief) season.
The problem isn’t Granato. Its the makeup of the roster for the bulk of his time as coach. We have no defensive dmen, no NHL goalies and no matchup lines.
So he chose to go down swinging every game by focusing on offense. Its led to a team that fights to the end every night. Thats why we’ve come back to win three games after trailing at the end of 2nd period. Something only one team in the NHL has done more times. They did it over an entire season (not just 27gms)
If Granato had a bunch of defensive talent to work with/NHL goalies and we were still getting scored on this much. Then I would be more inclined to buy into the idea he doesn’t know how to coach defense. It seems to me he's just playing in a way that fits the roster he’s working with.
100% agree.
As others have said, I'm fine with giving Granato a shot, as long as the organization looks around, evaluates their option, and finds that he's the best option. What I don't want is a lazy, passive decision.
I like how he seems to strive for a strong possession game, and how the team uses the ice in the offensive zone. I like how the kids are given responsibilities and how they are responding. Seems that the "don't be afraid to make mistakes" was not just talk but actually deployed. Look at Dahlin and Joker for example. They looked like new players by the end of this season compared to under Ralph's reins. Mitts and Giraffe have also made good strides, as well as Asplund. And, of course, Reinhart. If they're interviewing for the job, the first question should be "do you plan on keeping Sam at center?" and if the answer is "no" then, well, don't let the door hit you on your way out.
Now, of course not all of the above can be credited to Granato. Some are just development and experience, other is coincidental, and some can be explained by the fact that we are comparing the end of the season with the absolute worst tire fire we've ever seen. But never the less, Granato took over an absolute mess. The morale and self-confidence must have been at an all-time low, they had already lost their franchise center for the season, as well as some solid blue collars like McCabe and Girgensons. Then the 2nd center was out the door, and the prestige signing made in the offseason got traded, as well as a decent defenseman. We piled up goalies on the injury list to the point where we had to start signing guys just to put a warm body in net. This is what Granato had to work with. And with that in mind, I think he did a good job.
I only watched the two first periods of the last game against the Penguins, but over those 40 minutes, the shattered team described above was the better team on the ice and there were chunks of the game where they outplayed the Pens. From that perspective, I'd have no problem giving Granato the job and see what he can do with an actual team, not just shatters.
Best post in the past 10 pages or so, no offense to others.
They need to watch Slapshot and acquire the Hanson brothers (not serious)
I think Bogosian was the 21st century version of Mo Wanchuk.
$1.8M/season sounds awfully cheap, no? I thought he would be pushing $4M
Brind'Amour has made his money as a player. He can afford to take less so that he can get the assistants he wants.
I'd be down with Tortorella as Harrington's boss.
But think of the Buffalo media having to interview Torts, that would at least be entertaining
If Torts is hired by Buffalo, the NY Post should trade Brooksie to the Buffalo News for Harrington.
<snip> I think Tortorella would be a disaster in Buffalo, particularly with a weak GM trying to control him.
Agreed.
None of the in-demand coaches are going to want to come here after Eichel/Reinhart/Risto made it clear they wanted out, the time to hire one of them was right after Krueger was fired when there was no competition.
Beyond that, someone as unqualified to be an NHL GM as Adams isn't going to be comfortable hiring a coach who's had years of success in the NHL because the power dynamic would be tilted towards the successful NHL head coach
It's a forgone conclusion Granato is the hire and the team will be rebuilding in perpetuity, I'm just gonna wait for the confirmation before I give up on the franchise
I'll become a bandwagon fan if they make the playoffs again while I'm still alive
Unless Adams recognizes the value in shared power and hiring talent without the fear of threat, whether real or imagined. I hire people who are better or smarter than I am, or who I believe have that trajectory / potential in them. I sure as shit don't want to hire dullards and slackers to make myself look better while I / we collectively fail to accomplish everything asked / expected of us.
