[Lance Lysowski] Don Granato understood why his players were frustrated and, even as their coach, could accept it. What he couldn’t accept, though, was the way the Sabres seemed to not even believe they could comeback. My observations from a deflating 5-2 loss:
January 10, 2024
[Lance Lysowski] Don Granato understood why his players were frustrated and, even as their coach, could accept it. What he couldn’t accept, though, was the way the Sabres seemed to not even believe they could comeback. My observations from a deflating 5-2 loss:
10 comments
Granato has lost the locker room.
Time for a new coach.
My favorite genre of interview is the one where guys complain about things they have control over. It’s like listening to a politician whine about their inability to effect some change in the world that they actually have complete authority and position to effect.
I’d really like to allocate funds to put out the orphanage fire but aw jeez, aw shucks, if only there was someone who had the power to allocate those funds. I dunno I guess the fire just wanted it more. Remember to vote!
I just don’t understand why DG didn’t pull Levi after 5 goals. Nothing against the kid, but it’s a free timeout and a kick in the pants for the rest of the team.
There was still 5 minutes left in the 2nd period, so it might have been the spark they needed.
But as usual, Donny boy just stood there, gobsmacked, hands in pockets… thinking about how he was going to spin another loss as a positive during the post-game presser.
Forgive me for not reading before commenting, but how does this story not boil down to:
“Boy, these guys really don’t seem inspired or equipped to succeed” – man whose job it is to inspire and equip said guys to succeed
(Edit: okay I read and it’s that)
Granato needs to be gone. Team seems like it could also benefit from some retired veterans of the nhl. Like in an advisory role or something.
From an outsiders perspective obviously they should believe they could go at least 3-0 in the 3rd period, they are the 6th worst team in the league after all. But when they don’t even seem believe it.. Real self condemnation of the coach here, that they didn’t believe in his strategy to accomplish that.
Its just sad that we never seem to have any sense of urgency. Sure we could have 100% came back in a lot of these games, but not when we are taking our time to get the puck up the ice then just doing the ole dump and chase like we always do.
Remember Ted Nolan’s team of nobodies that worked their ass off every night, and the support they received from the fans? Yeah, I’d take that team over these low-effort, low-energy players every time. Make a change before it affects the young guys like Benson…
Call me crazy but when the other team changes their defensive strategy mid-game and neutralizes what we were doing that was successful, wouldn’t you think about adjusting our strategy to compensate? we had them on their heels in the first period and it looked like we could have put a few goals in that just didnt get a lucky bounce. It felt like we had all of the momentum in the first period and it was just a matter of time before we started putting goals away. Then suddenly we’re unable to penetrate the o-zone anymore and even Rob Ray calls it out on TV that the Kraken changed their defensive formation in the neutral zone. It all went downhill after that as we continued to push the same strategy of ‘just be faster than them’ in our overly-aggressive style of defense which then resulted in multiple goals against and nothing to show on offense anymore. It wasn’t because we stopped working hard, we straight up got out played by their coaching. Of course our guys are going to be frustrated by that. They’re working with a system that blames them for playing poorly against defensive structures that are built to shut their specific style of play down successfully. It’s 100% on our coaches to manage that frustration and turn it around by changing the way we approach each team in the league just like the Kraken did to us.
I know that the overall strategy that was presented to us early on was that we’re supposed to always play the same style and force other teams to play the way we want to play because we’re going to be too fast and too skilled for them to handle us but it just hasn’t worked out that way and i don’t see how that could change at this point. Every team in the league is well aware of our style and a lot of them have learned how to shut us down. If the owners are forcing this style of play, they need to back the fuck off and let the coach do his job. If Don doesn’t know how to adjust our game, fire him and get a coach with real NHL experience who can take this team to the next level. Just please don’t try to hire another coach from the bargain bin. These kids are too talented to put up with this for long and will start jumping ship if we can’t get them the leadership they need soon
10 comments
Granato has lost the locker room.
Time for a new coach.
My favorite genre of interview is the one where guys complain about things they have control over. It’s like listening to a politician whine about their inability to effect some change in the world that they actually have complete authority and position to effect.
I’d really like to allocate funds to put out the orphanage fire but aw jeez, aw shucks, if only there was someone who had the power to allocate those funds. I dunno I guess the fire just wanted it more. Remember to vote!
I just don’t understand why DG didn’t pull Levi after 5 goals. Nothing against the kid, but it’s a free timeout and a kick in the pants for the rest of the team.
There was still 5 minutes left in the 2nd period, so it might have been the spark they needed.
But as usual, Donny boy just stood there, gobsmacked, hands in pockets… thinking about how he was going to spin another loss as a positive during the post-game presser.
Forgive me for not reading before commenting, but how does this story not boil down to:
“Boy, these guys really don’t seem inspired or equipped to succeed” – man whose job it is to inspire and equip said guys to succeed
(Edit: okay I read and it’s that)
Granato needs to be gone. Team seems like it could also benefit from some retired veterans of the nhl. Like in an advisory role or something.
From an outsiders perspective obviously they should believe they could go at least 3-0 in the 3rd period, they are the 6th worst team in the league after all. But when they don’t even seem believe it.. Real self condemnation of the coach here, that they didn’t believe in his strategy to accomplish that.
Its just sad that we never seem to have any sense of urgency. Sure we could have 100% came back in a lot of these games, but not when we are taking our time to get the puck up the ice then just doing the ole dump and chase like we always do.
Remember Ted Nolan’s team of nobodies that worked their ass off every night, and the support they received from the fans? Yeah, I’d take that team over these low-effort, low-energy players every time. Make a change before it affects the young guys like Benson…
Call me crazy but when the other team changes their defensive strategy mid-game and neutralizes what we were doing that was successful, wouldn’t you think about adjusting our strategy to compensate? we had them on their heels in the first period and it looked like we could have put a few goals in that just didnt get a lucky bounce. It felt like we had all of the momentum in the first period and it was just a matter of time before we started putting goals away. Then suddenly we’re unable to penetrate the o-zone anymore and even Rob Ray calls it out on TV that the Kraken changed their defensive formation in the neutral zone. It all went downhill after that as we continued to push the same strategy of ‘just be faster than them’ in our overly-aggressive style of defense which then resulted in multiple goals against and nothing to show on offense anymore. It wasn’t because we stopped working hard, we straight up got out played by their coaching. Of course our guys are going to be frustrated by that. They’re working with a system that blames them for playing poorly against defensive structures that are built to shut their specific style of play down successfully. It’s 100% on our coaches to manage that frustration and turn it around by changing the way we approach each team in the league just like the Kraken did to us.
I know that the overall strategy that was presented to us early on was that we’re supposed to always play the same style and force other teams to play the way we want to play because we’re going to be too fast and too skilled for them to handle us but it just hasn’t worked out that way and i don’t see how that could change at this point. Every team in the league is well aware of our style and a lot of them have learned how to shut us down. If the owners are forcing this style of play, they need to back the fuck off and let the coach do his job. If Don doesn’t know how to adjust our game, fire him and get a coach with real NHL experience who can take this team to the next level. Just please don’t try to hire another coach from the bargain bin. These kids are too talented to put up with this for long and will start jumping ship if we can’t get them the leadership they need soon