Just take a look at the state of Pegula’s NHL team to see why he’ll be plenty patient with his NFL operation. He waited until the Sabres were on a 12-game losing streak before he finally fired Ralph Krueger. He’s been lenient with Adams and Granato as the Sabres have failed to meet expectations this season. Granato has the eighth-longest tenure among NHL coaches despite a points percentage below .500, and he’s never made the playoffs. His new contract hasn’t even kicked in yet.
Like McDermott, Granato has done plenty of good in his time with the Sabres. He’s developed some individual players and got the team to within a point of the playoffs last season. But unlike McDermott, he doesn’t have playoff appearances or division titles to his name. This season was his first with real playoff expectations, and the Sabres have fallen flat. Tuesday, after the clunker of a loss to the Ducks, Granato again lamented his team’s lack of “compete level” and “urgency.” The team is desperate for points in the standings but waited until it was down 3-0 to the Ducks to start playing with any energy. The Sabres have given up the most first-period goals in the NHL this season and have allowed two or more goals in the first period in 21 of their 48 games. That speaks to an unprepared team.
Five NHL teams have fired their coach this season, and all but one of those teams is ahead of the Sabres in the standings. The calendar hasn’t even turned to February and an NHL record 13th straight season without the playoffs looks inevitable in Buffalo. That stings even more in hockey, a sport in which teams collect extra revenue for selling playoff tickets. Pegula’s lackluster hockey team is costing him money.
By comparison, Pegula’s NFL franchise is a well-oiled machine. McDermott has taken the Bills much further than Granato has taken the Sabres. That’s a level of success Pegula doesn’t want to risk losing because he’s been staring at the flip side with his hockey team. Pegula likely would have his pick of free-agent coaches in the NFL. Allen makes the Bills a near lock for the playoffs annually and has shown the ability to carry the team to improbable wins. What coach wouldn’t want to tie themselves to one of the best quarterbacks in the league?
Meanwhile, every time the Sabres take the ice it seems like Granato’s seat gets warmer. The team is as healthy as it has been all season and still hasn’t put together a three-game winning streak. It’s been over a month since the team rallied around Granato when the home crowd was chanting, “Fire Donny!” But the buzz of that short-term jolt has worn off. Another season with a talented roster is slipping away. Adams and Granato share the blame, but in that sport, the coach is typically the first to go.
As Pegula strives to bring Buffalo a championship, though, it’s fair to wonder whether change is necessary. Both coaches are among the longest-tenured in their respective leagues. Maybe a fresh voice would be welcome. But Pegula’s money was already backing both coaches. His actions lately have been too. For now, he’s betting on these guys to break through.
themistermango
Here is a bonkers stat.
Before Terry bought the Sabres the franchise had the 4th highest point percentage in the NHL at .553. That’s from a teams inception until 2012.
I since Terry bought the team they have had the worst point percentage from 2012 until today and have plummeted from the 4th most winning franchise to 14th.
If you took the point percentage from Scotty Bowman’s 10 most successful years. Not consecutive years. Just cherry picked his best 10, his point percentage would be .693.
If the Sabres linked the best years from the best hockey coach of all time; Bowman run starting next October would take the team 10 YEARS to get that point percentage back to the pre Pegula era.
It is more or less impossible for Terry to fix this franchise in the time it took him to break it. The Sabres should have to have the greatest run with the greatest coach the league has ever seen.
Good-Bot_Bad-Bot
Taking about moving on from McDermott and Granato in the same breath is ridiculous. I am not saying McDermott is untouchable and could understand a change but obviously Granato needs to go. Pegula is cheap with the Sabres and I am worried Donny will be still here next year because of his contact.
Cool_Raspberry443
They should’ve been fired on the same day like Tim Murray and Doug Whaley.
A_Lone_Macaron
> His new contract hasn’t even kicked in yet
This is your reason why, the same reason why McD wasn’t going to be fired.
Terry is too cheap to pay fired coaches.
Remember: “the sole purpose of this franchise from this day forward is to win a Stanley Cup” and “if I wanted more money, I’d drill another oil well”
sadbuffalosportsfan
Sean is a good coach. The question is he “good enough” to win a SB. The jury is out but it doesn’t look like a sure thing.
4 AFC east championships, a top 10 D every year, 2 seed this year with home field advantage, and winning 6 in a row at the end, make it tough to say he’s NOT a “good” coach.
The risk of firing him and not maintaining what success he’s had makes it tough to be assured you get better. In a way, we need him to win a SB or under perform enough that it makes a change possible. Otherwise we’re in a doom-loop.
DJ-dicknose
It’s not like this is a one off. Or a couple bad years. It’s going to be 13 years. Of course people are impatient. His fixes aren’t fixes. Fans no longer can give him the benefit of the doubt.
TroubleCrazy6190
The only reason the Bills are successful is because they stumbled upon the legendary Josh Allen. The other draft picks, signings, and trades that the Bills have made are the true indicators of incompetence. In today’s league, all that’s needed to have a chance is a great QB. The Bills would be a worse version of the Jets without JA.
the_missing_worker
It’s like people in this town have memory suck.
The Bills had gone 17 (SEVENTEEN) years without a playoff appearance prior to McDermott getting them there. He has a regular season win percentage of .640, four consecutive division wins, and has won five playoff games.
Bills fans need to chill out and remember the nearly two decades of failure. As long as they have Allen, McDermott will always be able to do enough to keep the team competitive, respectable, and near the top of the standings. Even if they never win the Super Bowl they’ll still be one of the best teams in the league year in, year out.
By contrast…
Granato is now one of the most tenured head coaches in the league, has a .485 point percentage, and has not finished higher than 5th in the division.
It’s apples and oranges. One of these guys has earned a little bit of leeway with which to be given additional chances. The other needs to be run out with torches and pitchforks.
idislikehate
It’s not patience. He doesn’t want to keep paying guys to not work for him.
Figran_D
I imagine the lockeroom of the Sabres is good. Meaning , not complacency, but they are holding each other accountable and trying. That’s why he’s still here with the Sabres .
You don’t always need the coach screaming at young players to get them to move. These players are the elite of the elite and have many years of winning behind them. Losing stinks for them, losing stinks for the coach and GM, and no matter what some may think … losing stinks for a guy who won in the business world.
We gave everyone else time to right the ship and they didn’t. Current staff needs time to continue on the culture change and make adjustments to roster.
IMO… it’s the players; we need a few more ingredients to get the recipe right.
glenvillequint
Pegula is a terrible hockey owner yet some people give him a pass because he “kept the team in Buffalo” (this was actually a stipulation of the sale by Golisano) and they built the HarborCenter (ok, cool I guess?)
TroubleCrazy6190
Yea, but that’s the thing. I think that the true measure of a successful organization is where it would be without a top tier QB. Legendary QBs take over mediocre and even bad teams to the upper echelons. So it’s hard to measure.
But I agree, Beane has much better than his predecessors. He’ll forever get credit for picking Josh Allen. Amazing how one person can change a whole franchise. NFL success = who has the best QB, lol
JoeSchmohawk93
In 17 games the Bills had a 3 and a 5 game winning streak.
Whether it’s a good decision to move on from McDermott is a conversation worth having. Granato is not. HC of the Bills is a desirable position; HC of the Sabres is not. Watching Lynch win a SB with Seattle was painful. Watching ROR, Jack, Montour, Reino succeed immediately upon leaving year after year after what we gave up to get them in the first place is excruciating.
harman097
Hot take? I don’t want Terry firing Granato.
That’s Kevyn Adams’ job. Terry fires Kevyn and, otherwise, stays the fuck out of the way.
comicsanscatastrophe
You have one team that is struggling to win a championship and the other can barely stop being an embarrassing basement dweller (they’ve been one for 13 years). Putting the frustration the fans feel in the same breath is fucking laughable, and I say that as a fan of both teams. The Bills at least have a shot at the Super Bowl and are a perrenial playoff team.
16 Comments
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Just take a look at the state of Pegula’s NHL team to see why he’ll be plenty patient with his NFL operation. He waited until the Sabres were on a 12-game losing streak before he finally fired Ralph Krueger. He’s been lenient with Adams and Granato as the Sabres have failed to meet expectations this season. Granato has the eighth-longest tenure among NHL coaches despite a points percentage below .500, and he’s never made the playoffs. His new contract hasn’t even kicked in yet.
Like McDermott, Granato has done plenty of good in his time with the Sabres. He’s developed some individual players and got the team to within a point of the playoffs last season. But unlike McDermott, he doesn’t have playoff appearances or division titles to his name. This season was his first with real playoff expectations, and the Sabres have fallen flat. Tuesday, after the clunker of a loss to the Ducks, Granato again lamented his team’s lack of “compete level” and “urgency.” The team is desperate for points in the standings but waited until it was down 3-0 to the Ducks to start playing with any energy. The Sabres have given up the most first-period goals in the NHL this season and have allowed two or more goals in the first period in 21 of their 48 games. That speaks to an unprepared team.
Five NHL teams have fired their coach this season, and all but one of those teams is ahead of the Sabres in the standings. The calendar hasn’t even turned to February and an NHL record 13th straight season without the playoffs looks inevitable in Buffalo. That stings even more in hockey, a sport in which teams collect extra revenue for selling playoff tickets. Pegula’s lackluster hockey team is costing him money.
By comparison, Pegula’s NFL franchise is a well-oiled machine. McDermott has taken the Bills much further than Granato has taken the Sabres. That’s a level of success Pegula doesn’t want to risk losing because he’s been staring at the flip side with his hockey team. Pegula likely would have his pick of free-agent coaches in the NFL. Allen makes the Bills a near lock for the playoffs annually and has shown the ability to carry the team to improbable wins. What coach wouldn’t want to tie themselves to one of the best quarterbacks in the league?
Meanwhile, every time the Sabres take the ice it seems like Granato’s seat gets warmer. The team is as healthy as it has been all season and still hasn’t put together a three-game winning streak. It’s been over a month since the team rallied around Granato when the home crowd was chanting, “Fire Donny!” But the buzz of that short-term jolt has worn off. Another season with a talented roster is slipping away. Adams and Granato share the blame, but in that sport, the coach is typically the first to go.
As Pegula strives to bring Buffalo a championship, though, it’s fair to wonder whether change is necessary. Both coaches are among the longest-tenured in their respective leagues. Maybe a fresh voice would be welcome. But Pegula’s money was already backing both coaches. His actions lately have been too. For now, he’s betting on these guys to break through.
Here is a bonkers stat.
Before Terry bought the Sabres the franchise had the 4th highest point percentage in the NHL at .553. That’s from a teams inception until 2012.
I since Terry bought the team they have had the worst point percentage from 2012 until today and have plummeted from the 4th most winning franchise to 14th.
If you took the point percentage from Scotty Bowman’s 10 most successful years. Not consecutive years. Just cherry picked his best 10, his point percentage would be .693.
If the Sabres linked the best years from the best hockey coach of all time; Bowman run starting next October would take the team 10 YEARS to get that point percentage back to the pre Pegula era.
It is more or less impossible for Terry to fix this franchise in the time it took him to break it. The Sabres should have to have the greatest run with the greatest coach the league has ever seen.
Taking about moving on from McDermott and Granato in the same breath is ridiculous. I am not saying McDermott is untouchable and could understand a change but obviously Granato needs to go. Pegula is cheap with the Sabres and I am worried Donny will be still here next year because of his contact.
They should’ve been fired on the same day like Tim Murray and Doug Whaley.
> His new contract hasn’t even kicked in yet
This is your reason why, the same reason why McD wasn’t going to be fired.
Terry is too cheap to pay fired coaches.
Remember: “the sole purpose of this franchise from this day forward is to win a Stanley Cup” and “if I wanted more money, I’d drill another oil well”
Sean is a good coach. The question is he “good enough” to win a SB. The jury is out but it doesn’t look like a sure thing.
4 AFC east championships, a top 10 D every year, 2 seed this year with home field advantage, and winning 6 in a row at the end, make it tough to say he’s NOT a “good” coach.
The risk of firing him and not maintaining what success he’s had makes it tough to be assured you get better. In a way, we need him to win a SB or under perform enough that it makes a change possible. Otherwise we’re in a doom-loop.
It’s not like this is a one off. Or a couple bad years. It’s going to be 13 years. Of course people are impatient. His fixes aren’t fixes. Fans no longer can give him the benefit of the doubt.
The only reason the Bills are successful is because they stumbled upon the legendary Josh Allen. The other draft picks, signings, and trades that the Bills have made are the true indicators of incompetence. In today’s league, all that’s needed to have a chance is a great QB. The Bills would be a worse version of the Jets without JA.
It’s like people in this town have memory suck.
The Bills had gone 17 (SEVENTEEN) years without a playoff appearance prior to McDermott getting them there. He has a regular season win percentage of .640, four consecutive division wins, and has won five playoff games.
Bills fans need to chill out and remember the nearly two decades of failure. As long as they have Allen, McDermott will always be able to do enough to keep the team competitive, respectable, and near the top of the standings. Even if they never win the Super Bowl they’ll still be one of the best teams in the league year in, year out.
By contrast…
Granato is now one of the most tenured head coaches in the league, has a .485 point percentage, and has not finished higher than 5th in the division.
It’s apples and oranges. One of these guys has earned a little bit of leeway with which to be given additional chances. The other needs to be run out with torches and pitchforks.
It’s not patience. He doesn’t want to keep paying guys to not work for him.
I imagine the lockeroom of the Sabres is good. Meaning , not complacency, but they are holding each other accountable and trying. That’s why he’s still here with the Sabres .
You don’t always need the coach screaming at young players to get them to move. These players are the elite of the elite and have many years of winning behind them. Losing stinks for them, losing stinks for the coach and GM, and no matter what some may think … losing stinks for a guy who won in the business world.
We gave everyone else time to right the ship and they didn’t. Current staff needs time to continue on the culture change and make adjustments to roster.
IMO… it’s the players; we need a few more ingredients to get the recipe right.
Pegula is a terrible hockey owner yet some people give him a pass because he “kept the team in Buffalo” (this was actually a stipulation of the sale by Golisano) and they built the HarborCenter (ok, cool I guess?)
Yea, but that’s the thing. I think that the true measure of a successful organization is where it would be without a top tier QB. Legendary QBs take over mediocre and even bad teams to the upper echelons. So it’s hard to measure.
But I agree, Beane has much better than his predecessors. He’ll forever get credit for picking Josh Allen. Amazing how one person can change a whole franchise. NFL success = who has the best QB, lol
In 17 games the Bills had a 3 and a 5 game winning streak.
Whether it’s a good decision to move on from McDermott is a conversation worth having. Granato is not. HC of the Bills is a desirable position; HC of the Sabres is not. Watching Lynch win a SB with Seattle was painful. Watching ROR, Jack, Montour, Reino succeed immediately upon leaving year after year after what we gave up to get them in the first place is excruciating.
Hot take? I don’t want Terry firing Granato.
That’s Kevyn Adams’ job. Terry fires Kevyn and, otherwise, stays the fuck out of the way.
You have one team that is struggling to win a championship and the other can barely stop being an embarrassing basement dweller (they’ve been one for 13 years). Putting the frustration the fans feel in the same breath is fucking laughable, and I say that as a fan of both teams. The Bills at least have a shot at the Super Bowl and are a perrenial playoff team.