Don Granato as a HC

[NAF]

[mphs mike]

10 hours ago, pi2000 said:

I like what he's done.  He knew what things were wrong and has tried to correct them.

That said, do better.

While I don't necessarily disagree, there is a part of me that likes this NHL asst/AHL head coach experience better than a fired former nhl coach. At a minimum, he has earned serious consideration, rather than just lip service and a perfunctory interview. 

[PromoTheRobot]

10 hours ago, pi2000 said:

I like what he's done.  He knew what things were wrong and has tried to correct them.

That said, do better.

Can you clarify? Better in name recognition? Resume? Winning record? Retread? Total unknown?

[Huckleberry]

***** it, I'm willing to give him a shot.

[Doohicksie]

I think you bring in a Name Coach and the Name Coach is smart enough to keep Granato as a bench coach... the new "Steve Smith" if you will.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Doohickie

[Torpedo Forecheck]

12 hours ago, NAF said:

Krueger was that bad, all DG had to do was take the shackles off the team. He deserves credit for that.

[Scottysabres]

5 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

***** it, I'm willing to give him a shot.

What has me pondering it, is that Washington game. Yes, we lost, but we were in that game. That's a top end opponent. Yea, he's definitely turning heads.

[PromoTheRobot]

14 minutes ago, Torpedo Forecheck said:

Krueger was that bad, all DG had to do was take the shackles off the team. He deserves credit for that.

That won't work. Because if this team is better because of Granato's system, he's not going to get to run it under a different coach.

[drnkirishone]

6 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

I think you bring in a Name Coach and the Name Coach is smart enough to keep Granato as a bench coach... the new "Steve Smith" if you will.

you think Granato will stifle the growth of whomever we draft with a high draft pick? you know pulling a "Steve Smith"!

[darksabre]

It's certainly interesting that if we break things down into 7 game sets, the Sabres went 1-6 in their first set after Krueger was fired. They're now 6 games into their next set and have gone 3-3. If they win against Boston that would be an astounding turnaround in such a short time. 7 games without Krueger is all it took for things to start looking different...

[Doohicksie]

14 minutes ago, drnkirishone said:

you think Granato will stifle the growth of whomever we draft with a high draft pick? you know pulling a "Steve Smith"!

Referring to the position... the HC's first lieutenant.  Not talking about how he will handle it.

[JoeSchmoe]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

I think you bring in a Name Coach and the Name Coach is smart enough to keep Granato as a bench coach... the new "Steve Smith" if you will.

Granato didn't move the needle with Krueger as the HC... He probably won't with a guy like Boudreau either.

[JoeSchmoe]

58 minutes ago, darksabre said:

It's certainly interesting that if we break things down into 7 game sets, the Sabres went 1-6 in their first set after Krueger was fired. They're now 6 games into their next set and have gone 3-3. If they win against Boston that would be an astounding turnaround in such a short time. 7 games without Krueger is all it took for things to start looking different...

The biggest point to drive home is that Granato is doing all this without Eichel.

Since the tank, the only way we've ever stood a chance is when Eichel is playing.

[Flashsabre]

Krueger had Mitts playing 3rd-4th line RW and informed him he was done as an NHL Centre.

He is now leading this team as a Centre and looks more and more like the WJC Mitts everyone was salivating over.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Flashsabre

[MODO Hockey]

22 hours ago, JoeSchmoe said:

I like him, and what he's been able to get out of this group. Especially the young guys. 

With Eichel out of the lineup, we shouldn't even be in any of these games.

Dahlin is starting to look like the 1st overall we drafted.

Mittelstadt, Thompson, and Aspland are showing signs they could be the 3rd line on a cup contending team.

Though still a work in progress, Skinner is starting to show signs of his former self.

The big one for me though is he's playing the young guys in favour of the old washouts. You see this all through the league... It's like a respect thing where coaches play the old guys even when they're terrible. You bring in an old guard guy like Boudreau, and I guarantee you he's going to be playing the Eakins, Sobotkas, and Bogosians of the world in favour of Cozens, Quinn, and Peterka.

So I say IF we finish the season playing like we are now, Granato should get the job.

It is way to early for this conversation to even take place.

[JoeSchmoe]

Just now, MODO Hockey said:

It is way to early for this conversation to even take place.

I don't think you saw the capital IF?

That said, today was another step forward.

[Weave]

6 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Krueger had Mitts playing 3rd-4th line RW and informed him he was done as an NHL Centre.

 

Did this happen?  I don't recall this being discussed here.

[Flashsabre]

14 minutes ago, Weave said:

Did this happen?  I don't recall this being discussed here.

Yeah it did. One of the Buffalo reporters mentioned it.

[DarthEbriate]

38 minutes ago, JoeSchmoe said:

The biggest point to drive home is that Granato is doing all this without Eichel.

Since the tank, the only way we've ever stood a chance is when Eichel is playing.

To be fair to one Linus Ullmark, this team didn't play nearly as well without him, either.

The thing I'm seeing with Granato that they did not have with RaKru --- even when Ullmark and Eichel were healthy [edit: even last season when Eichel was healthy, obviously this season he was never 100%]--- is their tenacity and dare I say "compete-level". Instead of folding after a bad break, this team now battles back. They aren't guaranteed to follow up a goal-against with five minutes of ineptitude, likely leading to a 2-goal deficit from which point the other team coasts. They scrap instead. And if that's on Granato, then it's just a shame he couldn't have exacted that sooner as an assistant, or... if we couldn't have just fired RaKru over the summer after he had a hot start turn to rubbish. Or just as part of the purge of all departments (even though he was likely asked to help name the names in the scourge).

Edited April 11, 2021 by DarthEbriate

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Granato didn't move the needle with Krueger as the HC... He probably won't with a guy like Boudreau either.

Granato didn't have that "Steve Smith" role with Krueger.

I'm not necessarily against Granato as HC but I fear that his cap might be what we're seeing now.  It's good, much better than RFK, but going from Basement to Bubble Team is not what this team's goal should be.

[JohnC]

4 hours ago, Doohickie said:

I think you bring in a Name Coach and the Name Coach is smart enough to keep Granato as a bench coach... the new "Steve Smith" if you will.

Why is a "name coach" so important? There are plenty of name coaches who would be a bad fit. What the organization should be looking for is a coach who puts his players in a position to succeed and with this particular team knows how to develop young players. You want a coach who holds his players accountable and has his team consistently playing hard. We have that now. No one should be selected until after the season and with a lot of consideration of a number of candidates. If the Sabres continue to play the way they are for the rest of the season then Granato should be coaching the team next season. If you think about we have an in-house coach auditioning for the next coaching stint. If he does well in his audition then why select someone that you don't know for sure will mesh well with this roster. 

[kas23]

I’m worried if we bring in another HC, he’s just going to clamp down and neuter our players again, just the same way Krueger and Byslma did. At least with Granato, for better or worse, we know he won’t. So, at this point, do we want good hockey or do we want a “name coach” coming in and forcing his round system into a square peg?

[#freejame]

The optimism lately reminds me a great deal of the optimism from the beginning of the season with a more or less unchanged roster. We are still not a playoff team. If the ATM line is our solution to a third line and Cozens can play 2C next season competently, we are still missing 33% of a top-6 and bottom-6, and 100% of a goalie tandem, with work still to be done on the defense. It’s great we are looking better, but we have a long way to go. 

[Doohicksie]

34 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Why is a "name coach" so important? There are plenty of name coaches who would be a bad fit. What the organization should be looking for is a coach who puts his players in a position to succeed and with this particular team knows how to develop young players. You want a coach who holds his players accountable and has his team consistently playing hard. We have that now. No one should be selected until after the season and with a lot of consideration of a number of candidates. If the Sabres continue to play the way they are for the rest of the season then Granato should be coaching the team next season. If you think about we have an in-house coach auditioning for the next coaching stint. If he does well in his audition then why select someone that you don't know for sure will mesh well with this roster. 

We've half-baked this for so long.  I like Granato but what if we're just seeing a rebound from the Krueger regime and this is as good as it gets?  We're playing better but still not playoff caliber.  I don't want to be a Bubble Team I want to be a Contender.  I think Granato's a good guy, even a good coach, but at this level he has very limited experience.  I would love to be wrong and Granato is the right guy, but it's hard to get my hopes up.

10 hours ago, mphs mike said:

At a minimum, he has earned serious consideration, rather than just lip service and a perfunctory interview.

No he hasn't, not yet.  Let's see how the rest of the season plays out.  If they have the same effort to the end, then yes, he has earned it.

[JoeSchmoe]

24 minutes ago, #freejame said:

we are still missing 33% of a top-6 and bottom-6

Lazar, Okposo, and Girgensens would make a nice looking 4th.

Though he has some warts as a checker and playmaker, putting Olofsson on Eichel's wing as a finisher makes him a top 6. Add in Skinner, Reinhart, Cozens, and a yet to be named free agent W acquisition, and we're set. 

And this says nothing about R2. 

I'm less confident about filling out our D. Dahlin, Risto, Bryson, and Joki should be good to go. Hopefully Borgen's small sample size of what he gave us would put him as a future bottom pair guy. Would Samuelsen be ready?