“An Easy Decision” | Buffalo Sabres Coach Don Granato Moves Mittelstadt To Center Skinner, Tuch

“An Easy Decision” | Buffalo Sabres Coach Don Granato Moves Mittelstadt To Center Skinner, Tuch

For 13 14 minutes you played some of your best hockey that you could play and seemed like Seattle wanted to maybe take the air out of the game I mean how are they able to do that when you you guys played so well to start yeah I think it

Was uh the mistakes we made simple as that I I don’t know that I don’t want to discredit them obviously uh good hockey team and and a team that came in here hot uh confident they’re very confident so they what they have nine shots in the

Last two periods and it was 2-2 at one point they have nine shots the rest of the way I think you take that at 2-2 especially the way we were playing at that point and it ends up 52 um but uh you know they’re they’re in a stretch

With them where they’re very confident uh and we made uh mistakes that um thought pressed thought we pressed when we gave up the third one that was that was a uh you know we just tied it on a really nice goal to start the second period and then we forget uh the

Responsibilities we have without the puck and it end up in our net that’s that’s uh that was disappointing I think I think our group was a little uh uh deflated and you can’t be you gota you got to find a way to uh stay energized despite what was there something that

You saw early in the game that led to the decision to move Casey between Jeff and Alex yeah very first uh shift Maybe to I don’t know what how quick I did it but uh just thought it was uh the appropriate to do it and obviously they

They scored right away I think they SC they scored again too obviously so uh but yeah I didn’t like what I saw the other set and uh was an easy one when you’re around the guys you know you can see every day you’re with them and and

You can see pretty quick uh that one was pretty pretty easy to see how tough was it you didn’t you didn’t get any response from Tage that he had no shots on goal he only played 15 minutes you didn’t get much from him when he moved

Him you know I’m not I’m not uh necessarily frustrated we didn’t get anything I think he had a he had a more challenging night couldn’t get get himself out of it and get going he’s been good for us lately and unfortunately tonight he didn’t he didn’t have his game he didn’t feel the

Way he wanted to feel I’m I’m certain of that um and that’s what happened so you know you had we had middlestead there and he he he looked uh like he had good jump and um obviously you hope T get feels better in and through the game um

I think he played with some frustration that uh you know that that our team plays with sometimes it’s it’s counterproductive um and you just have to to learn to deal with that and uh let that go a little bit uh get to get to your game as a team I’m talking now uh

And um you know later in that game we we didn’t do that well enough obviously maybe ow power reset a little bit is he in his own head he hasn’t quite maybe been up to his normal standards just like how do you help him kind of he he

Is not I mean obviously he’s a much better player than um you know I could say that for all these guys’re every single player in the league can play better that’s what you have to do you have to find ways to play better um but

But for Owen yes he’s um hasn’t been as consistent at the level he’s capable of right now so not only can he get better but I I think you know where we’ seen his his normal good level um he hasn’t been able to get there consistent enough

Um so yeah you know you think of things is a reset good is it you know we talk about um different things with different players at times so um you know we’ll we’ll explore and look at any possibilities but we do know he can play better uh from the standpoint of

Consistency is it tougher to judge greenway’s return to tonight just cuz that line was swapped so early so it is all kind of out of sync yeah again I you know I don’t think T was himself tonight and that that was a challenge I thought there were elements that uh Greenway was

Real good he got some pucks finish some hits um you know so um he he was fine on the penalty kill we did make an error on the penalty kill it was not him but um so yeah he’s he’s still a presence in that lineup for us what kind of message

Do you and Mike have for after a game like that he’s only 25 games that’s a that’s that was a tough game for him um and you know it’s not something the the reflex is going to be it happened to him because he’s young it happens to guys

That are old in this league all the time I mean look at around the league uh look at guys that have just gone on waivers around the league it it happens to to anybody at any age and uh you you’ve got to reset as quick as you can and um he

Has the habits and he’s got he’s resilient and he has has good daily habits and routine that I think uh no issue he’ll reset Clifton and Samson really seemed to play well but the rest of your Decor I mean it was a pretty diff challenging night what do you make

Of just you know was it a a matter of them pressing trying to overcompensate for mistakes what did you just see from there were absolute times they pressed um and other times you kind of shook your head um as you described it I would concur uh you described it politely and

I’ll stay with that what’s The Balancing Act for you with Rasmus is one of your most competitive guys probably your most competitive guy but you mentioned the frustration that the team played with and he clearly had some of that what’s the balance for him you know balance in

The competitiv in the you know we’ve seen we’ve seen way worse frustration I think there was frustration but I more concerned about some of the doubt you know that there where uh and it’s not doubt in your ability it’s a fear it’s more of a fear of of losing or failure

Or you know you and that consumed us more than the excitement of okay so what we’re down or we’re down to look look up and down this lineup we can we can score you know we can get after it I mean I don’t know how long ago we we didn’t we

Not score three in a game against Pittsburgh here in the third period to to win so you know you on that night you believe you can do it on this night the challenge is you’re you’re you’re looking at it didn’t feel like that belief was there and the conviction was

There that you can so yes uh doen you could pick out spots where he was frustrated but I think the group that’s more of it you know and that goes what what we say quite often you hear it around the league you know coaches play without fear play Fearless and uh

Aggressive and confident and you know we lost that you know that 100% confidence and conviction that you could come back and in that game and um you know that’s to me that that overrides the frustration and the frustrating part of some of the guys and as as Lance said

There’s some guys just didn’t perform well and we couldn’t carry that you know we had too many guys I thought that didn’t play well to carry and and you know again you know that all that said you give up nine shots in the last two

Periods and it was 2-2 at that point you give up nine the rest of the way um that’s uh it’s frustrating you feel like your fourth line gave you some confidence tonight garson’s went down low you know was creating some some chances Robinson had that chance in

Tight and Krebs drew the the penalty to give you an opportunity there can you just talk about uh what they brought tonight with the energy yeah they they they did provide energy they had good jump um they obviously the other night scored a big goal for us in the same

Realm of energy and and pressure uh zamus is is so good he’s he’s he’s you know is from a from a foreing standpoint from Puck pressure standpoint he’s he’s one of he’s he’s one of our best if not our best at that and he was effective tonight and you’re right Robinson had

Good jump as well and and krey had had moments of of good and um you know I didn’t like our first goal against and uh some of the what happened there but uh but yeah that line as a as a line was was not any issue for me tonight in regard to

Energy thanks everybody

Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato spoke with the media after the team’s 5-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken. He talked about moving Casey Mittelstadt to center Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner, the momentum swings, defensive breakdowns, and more.

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