There’s only 17 games in the NFL and what happens in one can be significant enough to make a global decision. It’s not that way in hockey. Still, in this town, every Sabres loss is an instant lightning rod to discuss why general manager Kevyn Adams – and, by extension, owner Terry Pegula – hasn’t pulled the chute on Don Granato and turned elsewhere.
But now here’s the twist you might be surprised to hear from me: The next 33 games – taken as a whole – absolutely are a referendum on Granato.
Before we enter this discussion at all, let’s remember a key point: Granato has a contract extension through 2026 that doesn’t start until next season. And with Pegula building a football stadium, it stands to reason he doesn’t want to pay a hockey coach not to coach.
At 5 on 5, these next 33 games need to be more of what we’ve seen from the Sabres lately. You’re probably stunned to know they’re seventh in the league in even-strength scoring. And now they’re getting terrific goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
It’s added up to a 9-6-1 mark the last 16 games, which would be a 97-point pace over a full season that’s probably playoff-worthy. Of course, there’s that tiny issue of the 72-point pace Buffalo played at through mid-December.
After returning to practice Sunday afternoon, Granato insisted he was forging ahead in the face of the bleak news that Mattias Samuelsson is out for the season and facing surgery while we had already learned that Jack Quinn had surgery and will miss six to eight weeks.
“You can’t dwell on stuff, you can’t be dragged from behind, from what may have just happened, or didn’t happen,” he said. “And that’s almost a stay in the moment, get in the moment.”
Granato’s faith in this group does not seem shaken. Their play the last month – especially in the wake of the fans’ chanting for a coaching change during the Dec. 19 disaster against Columbus – indicates they still believe in the coach as well.
“We’ve had a lot of funny things this year, different hiccups and really tough games,” Granato said. “… This group is good when we dial in. And I think we’re starting to finally learn how to do that better.”
If you’re not firing Granato in November or December, you’re not doing it now. And it would have been the height of impatience to do it then.
But incredibly, Friday’s turfing of Todd McLellan in Los Angeles leaves Granato No. 7 on the NHL seniority list for head coaches.
At $11 million per with a full no-movement clause in the final seven years of the deal, Rasmus Dahlin will become the most expensive player in Sabres history next season.
Granato was hired on March 17, 2021. That’s not even three years ago – and he’s now a more veteran coach in his current job than 24 of his 31 NHL counterparts.
“I don’t know what to think of that. I can’t process even that stuff,” he said. “We’re different than other organizations in what we had to do two years ago and just move the experienced players out and make room for guys to get experience. Completely different situation.”
Good-Bot_Bad-Bot
Referendum? Unless we go 30-3 and make the playoffs how do you go into next season with Granato? Unbelievable we are even still talking about this. A proven Hockey Operations guy needs to be bought in after the season to help Adams out and find our next coach. I can’t go into the next year with Adams and Granato and the same team next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Okposo is still here next year with another one year contact (because you know he is a nice guy and his teammates like him LOL).
LaruePDX
Take away the results for a second. We’re just talking about effort and compete. If that doesn’t improve. I just don’t see you can justify keeping Granato and the assistant coaching staff.
BuffaloBillsfan04
> Granato has a contract extension through 2026 that doesn’t start until next season. And with Pegula building a football stadium, it stands to reason he doesn’t want to pay a hockey coach not to coach.
His contract is still pretty cheap at 1.9M from 2024-2026. Meanwhile we’ve had guys like Stillman, Jost, Comrie, and Bryson making more than that combined sitting in Rochester.
If a good coach was interested in coming here I don’t think Pegula would refuse to fire Don just because he’d have to pay 1.9M for another 2 years.
tyrannustyrannus
The Buffalo Sabres are not a serious NHL franchise
5 Comments
https://archive.ph/ncBoG
There’s only 17 games in the NFL and what happens in one can be significant enough to make a global decision. It’s not that way in hockey. Still, in this town, every Sabres loss is an instant lightning rod to discuss why general manager Kevyn Adams – and, by extension, owner Terry Pegula – hasn’t pulled the chute on Don Granato and turned elsewhere.
But now here’s the twist you might be surprised to hear from me: The next 33 games – taken as a whole – absolutely are a referendum on Granato.
Before we enter this discussion at all, let’s remember a key point: Granato has a contract extension through 2026 that doesn’t start until next season. And with Pegula building a football stadium, it stands to reason he doesn’t want to pay a hockey coach not to coach.
At 5 on 5, these next 33 games need to be more of what we’ve seen from the Sabres lately. You’re probably stunned to know they’re seventh in the league in even-strength scoring. And now they’re getting terrific goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
It’s added up to a 9-6-1 mark the last 16 games, which would be a 97-point pace over a full season that’s probably playoff-worthy. Of course, there’s that tiny issue of the 72-point pace Buffalo played at through mid-December.
After returning to practice Sunday afternoon, Granato insisted he was forging ahead in the face of the bleak news that Mattias Samuelsson is out for the season and facing surgery while we had already learned that Jack Quinn had surgery and will miss six to eight weeks.
“You can’t dwell on stuff, you can’t be dragged from behind, from what may have just happened, or didn’t happen,” he said. “And that’s almost a stay in the moment, get in the moment.”
Granato’s faith in this group does not seem shaken. Their play the last month – especially in the wake of the fans’ chanting for a coaching change during the Dec. 19 disaster against Columbus – indicates they still believe in the coach as well.
“We’ve had a lot of funny things this year, different hiccups and really tough games,” Granato said. “… This group is good when we dial in. And I think we’re starting to finally learn how to do that better.”
If you’re not firing Granato in November or December, you’re not doing it now. And it would have been the height of impatience to do it then.
But incredibly, Friday’s turfing of Todd McLellan in Los Angeles leaves Granato No. 7 on the NHL seniority list for head coaches.
At $11 million per with a full no-movement clause in the final seven years of the deal, Rasmus Dahlin will become the most expensive player in Sabres history next season.
Granato was hired on March 17, 2021. That’s not even three years ago – and he’s now a more veteran coach in his current job than 24 of his 31 NHL counterparts.
“I don’t know what to think of that. I can’t process even that stuff,” he said. “We’re different than other organizations in what we had to do two years ago and just move the experienced players out and make room for guys to get experience. Completely different situation.”
Referendum? Unless we go 30-3 and make the playoffs how do you go into next season with Granato? Unbelievable we are even still talking about this. A proven Hockey Operations guy needs to be bought in after the season to help Adams out and find our next coach. I can’t go into the next year with Adams and Granato and the same team next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Okposo is still here next year with another one year contact (because you know he is a nice guy and his teammates like him LOL).
Take away the results for a second. We’re just talking about effort and compete. If that doesn’t improve. I just don’t see you can justify keeping Granato and the assistant coaching staff.
> Granato has a contract extension through 2026 that doesn’t start until next season. And with Pegula building a football stadium, it stands to reason he doesn’t want to pay a hockey coach not to coach.
His contract is still pretty cheap at 1.9M from 2024-2026. Meanwhile we’ve had guys like Stillman, Jost, Comrie, and Bryson making more than that combined sitting in Rochester.
If a good coach was interested in coming here I don’t think Pegula would refuse to fire Don just because he’d have to pay 1.9M for another 2 years.
The Buffalo Sabres are not a serious NHL franchise