Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Don Granato didn’t get the benefit of a practice, or even a morning skate before he stepped behind the Buffalo Sabres' bench for his first game as a head coach.
It didn’t go well on the ice, a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, but Granato is looking forward to it moving forward.
“It’s a challenge and an opportunity, and I’m excited for it,” the interim head coach said.
A lot has to change, as far as getting players out of here, but before that happens, they must improve on the ice. Despite not having practice and getting his first meeting with the team until two hours before the game, Granato asked for some different things.
“I wanted to give them some tweaks, a vision where we want to get to, but I do feel they’re ready for a next step," Granato said.
“I love the challenge to come in here and make improvements and get things to a more comfortable, confident position.”
The Sabres are horrendous with their execution in practice. It’s something that hasn’t been lost on Granato.
“We will be practicing differently, and there will be quite a difference there, because habits do go from practice to games," he said. “We need to demand more, push harder and practice is another opportunity to do those things.”
I’m sure you’re wondering what it was that Granato tweaked for this game.
“We need more pace, it’s simple," Granato said. "I felt today we established a decent pace and we didn’t sustain it and it might be puck management. We mismanage pucks tonight that cost us more energy in getting them back.”
Eric Staal has not come as advertised. His play has been just as bad as everybody else’s, and he said they need to start listening to their coach.
“There were things that Donnie wanted to see, and clearly we can get better in the areas that he was talking about,” the veteran said after the loss.
Many believe that this is 100% on Ralph Krueger and the players are not at fault in the least. That is crazy talk.
If that’s the case, why is it after almost every game players are talking about not competing hard enough? Why do they not hold each other accountable?
“It’s execution, it’s compete in 1-on-1 puck battles and at the end of the day, [being] prideful to be in the NHL competing and when you get your chance, make it the best you can. Clearly we haven’t done good enough in that area,” Staal said.
Staal also realizes that his play has been subpar.
“I haven’t been good enough," he said. "Clearly in my mind, I had envisioned things differently coming here, and it hasn’t come to fruition and it hasn’t lived up to those thoughts.”
Taylor Hall played for Krueger in Edmonton, and he came to Buffalo because Krueger was here and wanted him. Hall hates that the players put Krueger in the position to be fired.
“It was a feeling of sadness," the veteran winger said before Thursday's game. "I guess a little bit of guilt on a fact that we weren’t able to get a job done for Ralph.
“Me coming here this summer, he was one of the big reasons. He was one of the first to reach out during free agency and it was a tough day. We didn’t get a job done, I didn’t get a job done for him, and unfortunately he’s out of the building now.”
Hall did say he’s not sorry he came to Buffalo, and still would like to stay if it can be worked out.
Granato gets his first practice with his new team on Friday. I’m going to be very interested to see if anything at all changes. There has been no attention to detail with this group for years, and I’ll be interested to see if Granato can get it out of them.
