Sabres Head Coaching Search

[Kong]

8 minutes ago, MODO Hockey said:

Who did sabres hire without nhl experiance as a hc? Enlighten me.

Krueger (20 games), Housley (asst. coach experience but no hc), Ron Rolston. All Pegula hires. I bet Gronberg is a fine coach but I want someone with extensive experience and knowledge of the NHL game so strategies against NHL teams, players and coaches are a built-in benefit to the organization. Boudreau is my choice.

[thewookie1]

I'd certainly be very interested in Gronberg as an Associate Coach; just getting him here in some regards may assist our team.

[MODO Hockey]

1 minute ago, PerreaultForever said:

So what I think you're saying is a guy with MODO in his user name has a pro Swedish slant, what a shock 🙂

You might be right about him, but idk if I want to sit through another season of a coach with his own learning curve. I don't think Euro hockey will work in the playoffs, or even in the second half of the regular season. It's a failed idea imo.    Gallant, on the other hand, knows how to get the most out of his players and he can win in this league. 

Where does euro hockey come from? Sorry but you are wrong in this one because you just dont know or care enough about Rikard Gronborg, and u know im right about that.

He is not a "euro" coach and that is why he has been successful, because he coach like you do in nhl, he just mixes the experiance he has from "both" to be able to get as much as possible out of the current team he is responsible for.

Listen, i wont argue with you on this one, all im saying is that please research Rikard more.

 

[thewookie1]

1 minute ago, MODO Hockey said:

Where does euro hockey come from? Sorry but you are wrong in this one because you just dont know or care enough about Rikard Gronborg, and u know im right about that.

He is not a "euro" coach and that is why he has been successful, because he coach like you do in nhl, he just mixes the experiance he has from "both" to be able to get as much as possible out of the current team he is responsible for.

Listen, i wont argue with you on this one, all im saying is that please research Rikard more.

 

I'd certainly be cautiously optimistic about Gronborg; guy is smart and understands hockey strategy and tactics. 

[MODO Hockey]

6 minutes ago, Kong said:

Krueger (20 games), Housley (asst. coach experience but no hc), Ron Rolston. All Pegula hires. I bet Gronberg is a fine coach but I want someone with extensive experience and knowledge of the NHL game so strategies against NHL teams, players and coaches are a built-in benefit to the organization. Boudreau is my choice.

Yea my bad, i ment experiance from coaching within NHL. They both have 4 and 3 seasons from coaching in NHL as far as i know, just not as head coach but hey go look at Granato, he did quite well with no experiance either, with a insanely broken team. I dont think its all about NHL experiance today, its just that its more common and in Sabres case its easyier to believe in than not.

[Radar]

24 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Well this is where we fundamentally disagree and that won't change. To me Torts hockey is winning hockey. he gets more out of less. Not many of our players have shown me they have what it takes so I'm ready to move on from almost all of them. 

Others have alluded to this thought, but if we don't fundamentally change and we hire some untried swedish college whoever I think I'm well and truly done. 

If I want Euro hockey I can watch the IIHF..............where a guy named Gallant has once again gotten a bunch of nobodies to play way over their individual abilities, and yet he's not already hired by us, go figure. 

Yes, we probably do disagree, particularly on Torts, but I respect your opinion and think I have some understanding of why you have your opinion. Do hope you're not leaving us whoever they hire.

[Kong]

9 minutes ago, MODO Hockey said:

Yea my bad, i ment experiance from coaching within NHL. They both have 4 and 3 seasons from coaching in NHL as far as i know, just not as head coach but hey go look at Granato, he did quite well with no experiance either, with a insanely broken team. I dont think its all about NHL experiance today, its just that its more common and in Sabres case its easyier to believe in than not.

Granato did well...I hope he has righted the ship. He had been with the team for awhile so he knew all the problems internally and he also had inside info of all the idiotic instructions Krueger gave the players and how to fix it. I like Granato. One thing I think we can agree on, Krueger is not hockey coach material. And the Pegulas spent about $4 million a year to buy his services. Gronberg might do well as an outside-the-box hire. I don't know enough about him. Buffalo tends to overpay in order to bribe people to try to fix this disaster. I wonder what kind of $ Gronberg would demand  to take charge of the Sabres. Buffalo has been through this outside the box hires and we don't do well with it. We don't do well with anything, come to think of it.

[nfreeman]

@MODO Hockey -- it looks like Gronborg's main experience is coaching the Swedish national team, plus coaching a team in the Swiss league for the past couple of years -- is that right?

Unless I'm missing something, that means he hasn't been a HC in an "everyday" pro hockey league other than a couple of years in the Swiss league, which isn't a high-level league.

That seems like a very big leap to the NHL.

[Hoss]

The comparisons between Gronberg and Krueger miss the mark by a mile. It’s similar to Bills fans comparing first round pick Rousseau to Maybin. Krueger isn’t some “European coach.” He was a former hockey coach who hadn’t done so in years who had shifted to an entirely different sport. Gronberg has remained around the game.

[pi2000]

1 minute ago, Hoss said:

The comparisons between Gronberg and Krueger miss the mark by a mile. It’s similar to Bills fans comparing first round pick Rousseau to Maybin. Krueger isn’t some “European coach.” He was a former hockey coach who hadn’t done so in years who had shifted to an entirely different sport. Gronberg has remained around the game.

They have similar head coaching experience tho... exclusively Euro national or bush league euro league teams.    

Do better.

Edited June 4, 2021 by pi2000

[Cascade Youth]

Isn’t he busy filming Season 2 of Beartown?

[MODO Hockey]

3 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

@MODO Hockey -- it looks like Gronborg's main experience is coaching the Swedish national team, plus coaching a team in the Swiss league for the past couple of years -- is that right?

Unless I'm missing something, that means he hasn't been a HC in an "everyday" pro hockey league other than a couple of years in the Swiss league, which isn't a high-level league.

That seems like a very big leap to the NHL.

You are correct,

He has coached in the us before but near this level.

But in order to succeed on a national level with a bunch of NHL players, on a short notice with a very stressful schedule you need to be really good at what you do.

Coaching on national level includes a bunch of tourneys before the big one but its not like coaching a team with same players day in and day out for 7-8 months ish. Point taken, but weve seen succesful coaches in NHL fail on national level as well so im not convinced it only has to do with experiance from NHL today eventhough it sure as hell help alot knowing ur "enemys".

[Drag0nDan]

Buffalo's tried pretty much everything and it didn't work out. 

College coach - Rolston - Fail.

Coach with history - Nolan - Fail

Cup winning pedigree - bylsma - fail

Former player assistant - housley - fail.   

Outside the box thinker/european - RK - fail

I don't know that anyone should be ruled out because they fit a certain profile - because i feel like every single hire has failed regardless of pedigree.

[Radar]

1 minute ago, Drag0nDan said:

Buffalo's tried pretty much everything and it didn't work out. 

College coach - Rolston - Fail.

Coach with history - Nolan - Fail

Cup winning pedigree - bylsma - fail

Former player assistant - housley - fail.   

Outside the box thinker/european - RK - fail

I don't know that anyone should be ruled out because they fit a certain profile - because i feel like every single hire has failed regardless of pedigree.

Bylsma the exception in NHL experience.  The rest ? Still believe if we're not hiring an established successful NHL head coach why not keep Granato? Only reason I can see balking is he's in the organization. That is not a reason that he can't be a good coach.

[MODO Hockey]

24 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

They have similar head coaching experience tho... exclusively Euro national or bush league euro league teams.    

Do better.

Ralph coached in a trash league though back in the days, that league is like comparing echl and nhl with NLA. The swiss league has the money and quite good hockey indeed, and mainly the reason for most players that dont make the final step to nhl, same with coaches actually cuz the money is so good and Switzerland is a very nice country to live in - if compared to russia and khl when speaking money for example.

 

But as coaches, Ralph and Rikard may have similar experiance from coaching on national level but the difference between them two is as huge as from you to the moon. Not even compareable. Rikard knows how to win, he knows what it takes to form a bunch of NHL players to a ***** lethal weapon, Ralph does not. Just saying.

7 minutes ago, Radar said:

Bylsma the exception in NHL experience.  The rest ? Still believe if we're not hiring an established successful NHL head coach why not keep Granato? Only reason I can see balking is he's in the organization. That is not a reason that he can't be a good coach.

Granato would be great together with Gronborg. Im sure of it.

Edited June 4, 2021 by MODO Hockey

[Stoner]

3 hours ago, nfreeman said:

If they end up hiring Gronberg, and he's good, @MODO Hockey is going to be entitled to one of Sabrespace's all-time biggest I-told-you-sos.

Which will come after the Sabres win two games in a shootout to get to 6-5-2.

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, MODO Hockey said:

What? Phil had 4 seasons with Nashville did he not? Ralph 3 seasons with Edmonton.

Experiance, but not as actuall hc, which was what i ment with my question so my bad if my question was not that clear so to speak.

Gotcha. Yeah your original post said as a HC so that's all I was referring to. They both had/have NHL experience as a coach in some capacity though.

[Hoss]

40 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

They have similar head coaching experience tho... exclusively Euro national or bush league euro league teams.    

Do better.

There are a lot of successful coaches that have taken the same path as failed ones.

Fir the record, I’m not necessarily arguing for Gronberg as much as I am the weak Ralph argument against him.

[MODO Hockey]

4 minutes ago, Hoss said:

There are a lot of successful coaches that have taken the same path as failed ones.

Fir the record, I’m not necessarily arguing for Gronberg as much as I am the weak Ralph argument against him.

No offense, 

Gronborg.

Gronborg is so damn good getting under the skin of the "enemy" coach, here is a clip from 2 months ago in the playoffs in the swiss league. They are both rly good coaches imo and the other guy is screaming to Gronborg that he is a f-cking ret-rd etc, they both ended up with a coup of coffee after the game though but yea.. 
 

Gronborg did the same with the headcoach of russia, 
 

 

[inkman]

1 hour ago, MODO Hockey said:

Where does euro hockey come from? Sorry but you are wrong in this one because you just dont know or care enough about Rikard Gronborg, and u know im right about that.

He is not a "euro" coach and that is why he has been successful, because he coach like you do in nhl, he just mixes the experiance he has from "both" to be able to get as much as possible out of the current team he is responsible for.

Listen, i wont argue with you on this one, all im saying is that please research Rikard more.

 

Dude’s beard is enough for me.  

[Sabres Fan in NS]

2 hours ago, WildCard said:

Housley. Ralph had barely any.

I believe @MODO Hockey was referring to any coaching experience in the HHL, not HC.

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

A few more, just going back to when the Knoxes started bringing Rigas into the fold:

Ruff.  Nolan, the 1st go around.  Granato.

Same as above.

I believe all three you mentioned had NHL coaching experience before being hired as HC here, but not HC.  Not 100% sure about Nolan.

I think down the ages, the Sabres hired very few with HC experience.  Bowman and Muckler come to mind as two that did.  Looking back, if Scotty would have agreed to be coach only and let some other dude be GM we could have had a cup, except that the time frame was dominated by Islander and then Edmonton dynasties.

1 hour ago, MODO Hockey said:

What? Phil had 4 seasons with Nashville did he not? Ralph 3 seasons with Edmonton.

Experiance, but not as actuall hc, which was what i ment with my question so my bad if my question was not that clear so to speak.

Seems, I was correct.

I will take all the applause now.  Standing ovation, if you please.

Edited June 4, 2021 by New Scotland (NS)
It's hopeless ... I will never type goodly ...

[Drag0nDan]

3 minutes ago, Radar said:

Bylsma the exception in NHL experience.  The rest ? Still believe if we're not hiring an established successful NHL head coach why not keep Granato? Only reason I can see balking is he's in the organization. That is not a reason that he can't be a good coach.

I mean - put yourself in KA's shoes.  You basically get one shot to reshape and one shot at a HC.  Go to war with the guy you want.

[Hoss]

23 minutes ago, MODO Hockey said:

No offense, 

Gronborg.

I’m offended. 😡 

Sorry, I got too distracted thinking about how he’d fit coaching Reinhardt and Powers and forgot to double check spelling. Hopefully you’ll forgive me, MODOK.

[Radar]

3 minutes ago, Drag0nDan said:

I mean - put yourself in KA's shoes.  You basically get one shot to reshape and one shot at a HC.  Go to war with the guy you want.

I think it will be Donnie "meatballs". We'll see.

[inkman]

14 minutes ago, Radar said:

I think it will be Donnie "meatballs". We'll see.

But we could have Swedish meatballs...