Podcast (Audio) Don Granato on the Glass and Out podcast

[debaser66]

I would like to point out that while DON did some good work, his assembled staff remains under Lindy. And I didn’t think they were good choices necessarily when he hired them and I still don’t think that they’re good choices now. One of the things about development is, I don’t think any of these people would wind up as an assistant at this level for their next position. Wilford in particular who is dismissed from Anaheim because they didn’t like how their young defense men were developing under him has been given an awful lot of talent and done very little with it.

I’ve made it about 20 minutes into the episode and then my phone messed up so I’m gonna have to restart.

No matter how you turn it Pegula is one of the shittest owners in NHL history. Either way Adams couldn't be that dumb to not replace the whole staff can he?
Pegula deserves all the hate for this failure of a franchise with his constant ill advised hires.
He found the perfect clown in Adams who does his bidding with little resistance because he has no clue how to actually build a NHL team.

Some people still hating on Granato especially with how this season went is beyond ridiculous.

 

[Jim Bob]

I would like to point out that while DON did some good work, his assembled staff remains under Lindy. And I didn’t think they were good choices necessarily when he hired them and I still don’t think that they’re good choices now. One of the things about development is, I don’t think any of these people would wind up as an assistant at this level for their next position. Wilford in particular who is dismissed from Anaheim because they didn’t like how their young defense men were developing under him has been given an awful lot of talent and done very little with it.

I’ve made it about 20 minutes into the episode and then my phone messed up so I’m gonna have to restart.

One interesting thing that Don talked about is how when you have a young, inexperienced roster, you need to teach and coach more. And when you have a veteran laden, experienced roster, you want to coach less to get the most out of the players.

He talked about how Jim Montgomery had issues with having to coach more as the Bruins went from a veteran heavy team to a younger team.

One challenge with the Sabres is that throughout the drought, they have never evolved the roster into one where the players can run things and the coaches are allowed to coach less.

 

[OkimLom]

No matter how you turn it Pegula is one of the shittest owners in NHL history. Either way Adams couldn't be that dumb to not replace the whole staff can he?
Pegula deserves all the hate for this failure of a franchise with his constant ill advised hires.
He found the perfect clown in Adams who does his bidding with little resistance because he has no clue how to actually build a NHL team.

Some people still hating on Granato especially with how this season went is beyond ridiculous.

This is a post about Don. Talking about Don and his impact on the organization whether positive or negative. I don’t think many people even posted about Don outside this thread, let alone hate on the guy

Do we really need another post that focuses on Ownership and management. Can’t we discuss the matter at hand, and not turn this thread into another bash Pegula and/or Adams moment. We have 3-4+ consistently posted areas to do so.

 

[joshjull]

His comments early last year indicated he was promised roster improvements that did not happen.

Yep. He, along with many of us, thought Adams was going to get experienced help after the just missed the playoffs. If the reporting at the time was to be believed. That run made some players more willing to waive their trade protection. But our genius GM decided not to do anything. Now any of that “waive trade protection” sentiment is long gone.

 

[old kummelweck]

Sorry, I liked Granato and he was useful for developing certain players, but we all watched the games. He would regularly get out-coached as the game went along, wasn't very good with in-game adjustments, and would prefer to work with friends rather than bring in the best assistants available. It was over for me when the lack of being able to adjust in-game started getting blamed on the the players for not executing what they did in practice.

 

[jc17]

He talked about how Jim Montgomery had issues with having to coach more as the Bruins went from a veteran heavy team to a younger team.

And then he goes to STL, and they seem to have some improvement, which also makes me doubt that our previous coach did so much damage it should take more than half a season to develop better defensive habits. Teams have learned quicker

One challenge with the Sabres is that throughout the drought, they have never evolved the roster into one where the players can run things and the coaches are allowed to coach less.

I think the 16-18 teams should have been this, the issue was that half our "leaders" were headcases

Sorry, I liked Granato and he was useful for developing certain players, but we all watched the games. He would regularly get out-coached as the game went along, wasn't very good with in-game adjustments, and would prefer to work with friends rather than bring in the best assistants available. It was over for me when the lack of being able to adjust in-game started getting blamed on the the players for not executing what they did in practice.

These statements are also pretty frequent. Can you be more specific about the in-game adjustments you wish you had seen?

 

[OkimLom]

Granato and Ruff both coach like they think their teams are playing in an NHL from 20.years ago. The league has changed and coaching has evolved. These two refuse to adapt and their philosophies no longer have any place in the new NHL.

He was literally a development coach for a collection of todays All-Stars and faces of the game in the league.

There are a lot of things wrong with Don’s coaching that I take issue with, but being out of date is not one of them. If there’s a guy that has shown an ability to adapt to the era of his roster it’s him.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Granato and Ruff both coach like they think their teams are playing in an NHL from 20.years ago. The league has changed and coaching has evolved. These two refuse to adapt and their philosophies no longer have any place in the new NHL.

I don’t think that’s the case with Don whatsoever I just think he’s not a tactician.

 

[toddkaz]

Don Granato - Hey guys I can only teach offense or defense but not not both so which one do you want to play?

 

[Irie]

You definitely didn’t listen to the interview and it shows.

I did listen to the interview and nothing I said is wrong.

Donny is great with the players emotional communication side of the game. I said it when he first came in, and what he did to turn that dressing room from a dysfunctional cesspool into a room of unity was amazing, but I even back then, when everyone was screaming how he is the best coach and the team was bound for glory, I said that I did not believe Granato could get the team to the playoffs. He lacks the attention to details and he was trying to get the team to play the exact same way without the puck that he did with all of his teams from the USHL to ECHL to AHL, and up. His teams are overly aggressive and lack positional discipline. The team lacked on-ice communication and they never actually played as a team without the puck.

Not sure if you watched the US-Canada game yesterday, but if you did, and you paid attention to player movement and not just watching the puck movement, you would have saw the Canadian players pretty much dominate the last two periods on the ice, but if you watched the Americans, you would have saw them all play a very disciplined defensive and team game, where they held their spacing and limited the passing lanes and kept the space in high danger areas for the open Canadian players to a minimum - even while being under siege for sometimes prolonged attacks through nearly entire shifts.

Those players mostly come from programs who are now playing a disciplined system in the NHL, and they prioritize spacing over an aggressive attack. Both Granato and Ruff push for double teaming the puck and pressuring the opponents over positioning and team spacing. Granato was all about trying different transitional breakouts, zone entry strategies, and puck movement strategies in the offensive zone, but his fundamental philosophy on how to dfend in all three zones never waivered, and Ruff runs the same philosophy. This is the area both are failing as coaches at the NHL level. If you didn't watch yesterdays game, go back and watch the second period, then queue up some random period from any Sabres game this season or last, and what I am talking about should become much clearer.

 

[Chainshot]

I don’t think that’s the case with Don whatsoever I just think he’s not a tactician.

And no one on his staff was (is) and that leaves them behind when other teams adapt.

 

[OkimLom]

I did listen to the interview and nothing I said is wrong.

Donny is great with the players emotional communication side of the game. I said it when he first came in, and what he did to turn that dressing room from a dysfunctional cesspool into a room of unity was amazing, but I even back then, when everyone was screaming how he is the best coach and the team was bound for glory, I said that I did not believe Granato could get the team to the playoffs. He lacks the attention to details and he was trying to get the team to play the exact same way without the puck that he did with all of his teams from the USHL to ECHL to AHL, and up. His teams are overly aggressive and lack positional discipline. The team lacked on-ice communication and they never actually played as a team without the puck.

Not sure if you watched the US-Canada game yesterday, but if you did, and you paid attention to player movement and not just watching the puck movement, you would have saw the Canadian players pretty much dominate the last two periods on the ice, but if you watched the Americans, you would have saw them all play a very disciplined defensive and team game, where they held their spacing and limited the passing lanes and kept the space in high danger areas for the open Canadian players to a minimum - even while being under siege for sometimes prolonged attacks through nearly entire shifts.

Those players mostly come from programs who are now playing a disciplined system in the NHL, and they prioritize spacing over an aggressive attack. Both Granato and Ruff push for double teaming the puck and pressuring the opponents over positioning and team spacing. Granato was all about trying different transitional breakouts, zone entry strategies, and puck movement strategies in the offensive zone, but his fundamental philosophy on how to dfend in all three zones never waivered, and Ruff runs the same philosophy. This is the area both are failing as coaches at the NHL level. If you didn't watch yesterdays game, go back and watch the second period, then queue up some random period from any Sabres game this season or last, and what I am talking about should become much clearer.

What you said, about Ruff and Donny coaching like they were coaching 20 years ago, and this summary are two different things. One you are referencing a “type” of game (one from 20 years ago) and the quality of game and level of aggression. If you want to discuss about Donny and Ruff being out date, then using coaching’s structure and philosophy and concepts should’ve been your evidence of your opinion. How we saw Canada and Team USA play, you could find similar qualities going back to even more than 20 years.

 

[Irie]

He was literally a development coach for a collection of todays All-Stars and faces of the game in the league.

There are a lot of things wrong with Don’s coaching that I take issue with, but being out of date is not one of them. If there’s a guy that has shown an ability to adapt to the era of his roster it’s him.

A lot of bad coaches have coached in programs that had some of the greatest players in the world come through their programs. That does not make them great coaches. If you are coaching on the USNTDP, a large contingency of the players you coach are going to make the NHL, and several of them are going to be star players, regardless of what you contribute to their development.

Watching the games from Granato's first game to his last game as head coach in Buffalo, I think it is really hard to argue that Granato changed his three zone team positional strategy at all. The entire league made an adjustment that copied a lot of what Cassidy was doing in Vegas, what Brind'Amore is doing in Carolina, and what Montgomery was doing in Boston, meanwhile, Granto continued to run a system that he was running 12 years ago as an assistant in the USNTDP.

 

[Panthaz89]

weren't we all? Adams did it this off season with Ruff too.


Let me know when Granato coaches a team to the cup finals.


You mean a coach who was only capable of teaching offense? Still don't know what that was all about.

Never heard a coach say he is teaching offense one year and then defense. Never.

I mean we were actually up there in GA last year but we completely tanked offensively last year. So we actually played respectable D last year unless you think UPL carried the team so much last year. This year we are complete disaster at holding on to leads to the point where I think this is the worst Sabres team in history i've ever seen at keeping a lead.

 

[Irie]

What you said, about Ruff and Donny coaching like they were coaching 20 years ago, and this summary are two different things. One you are referencing a “type” of game (one from 20 years ago) and the quality of game and level of aggression. If you want to discuss about Donny and Ruff being out date, then using coaching’s structure and philosophy and concepts should’ve been your evidence of your opinion. How we saw Canada and Team USA play, you could find similar qualities going back to even more than 20 years.

The subject mater is deep. It is very difficult to concisely write up a synopsis explaining the differences in the game and how they affect coaching philosophies, and honestly, no one here wants to read me rambling on for pages on my evaluation on the subject. The TLDR version is that the aggressive, rudimentary gameplan that is more common than not in lower leagues of play did work in the NHL if a team was built correctly in the past. The roster had to be not only fast, but quick to close gaps and maintain pressure, and it had to be loaded with compete, where every player was the type of player who typically won more puck battles than they lost. Guys like Darryl Sutter made the finals multiple times and won cups with the philosophy. Lindy was a foot in the crease call away from maybe making a game seven of the finals. It was feasible.

Today's NHL runs on a different type of setup and puck movement than it did in the past. Bumpers are used for misdirection and expose the over agressive puck chasing. Positioning and puck distribution lends to a lot more offensive movement, and not just in cycling. Running this antiquated system it is absolutely impossible to close the passing lanes and limit the high danger chances when your opponents are executing well. Sometimes ice is bad or a team's timing is just off, and then this system works really well as it disrupts play before opponents can create anything, but when teams are playing well, it fails and when it fails, it fails spectacularly. You just can't play that way and be a consistent team in the NHL in today's game.

 

[mjd1001]

I honestly think we give coaches too much or too little credit blame. They matter yeah, but not all that much. The reason this team is still bad is mostly because of the players on the ice. Blame that on management for poor roster construction if you will.

This team needs a very good veteran Defenseman added to the mix. Sure, the guys they have will 'get there' eventually, but it can take a few years. The team is also hurt by SOMEBODY insisting on playing Dylan Cozens at center when he is suited to be a 3rd line winger. He HURTS the team at 2c and costs them games, but why have multiple coaching staffs played him there? Orders from above? He's "Pegula's boy"?

 

[Djp]

I mean we were actually up there in GA last year but we completely tanked offensively last year. So we actually played respectable D last year unless you think UPL carried the team so much last year. This year we are complete disaster at holding on to leads to the point where I think this is the worst Sabres team in history i've ever seen at keeping a lead.

As was pushed last season buffalo and tampa adv stats were very similar except when it came to PP/PK. Better in the tight games probably puts them in the playoffs