Sabres Coaching Search Tidbit from Lebrun

[Taro T]

18 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

I'm curious as to who they'd be. Buffalo has many faults but our owners do pay good money and I'd guess Kevyn Adams, perhaps Karmanos, are a friend. 

I'm partially curious if he still holds a grudge against the Flyers franchise over how his career ended there. Arizona would be the closest to a given due to their questionable money and strife with scandals.

Brind'Amour was dissing Lindy Ruff right after he'd won the Stanley Cup.  Pretty sure the Sabres are on his short list of most despised teams.

That said, Thurman Thomas signed with the Fish after he was done in Buffalo.  So, plans do change.

[msw2112]

I know very little about this other than what I have read in this thread.  First, I think the Sabres are likely to hire Granato and do so for the following reasons:

1. The team has greatly improved overall under his coaching
2. He is developing the younger players, many of whom struggled to develop under previous coaching staffs
3. He's a known quantity
4. He is likely to be affordable, as far as NHL head coaching salaries go
5. He's managed to win some games against quality NHL opponents with an AHL goalie and his best player out of the lineup, trade deadline distractions, etc.
6. He makes adjustments that are effective.  Pittsburgh was dominating us, but he made some changes to the game plan and were able to win the last game of that series.  Same with the Boston series.  And he was playing with less talent in both situations.  (Let's see what he does for the next Rangers game.)

And I think that Brind'Amour is not coming to Buffalo, for the following reasons:

1. He has a very good thing going with the Carolina team
2. He has strong ties to the Carolina area (as mentioned above) - his wife, his playing career, 21 years there, etc.
3. Even if the Sabres offered more money than Carolina, other teams could be in the hunt for his services and offer the same money or more
4. The Sabres organization has been a mess for about a decade now.  The last several coaches and GMs have had very short tenures.  Why would someone with options go somewhere that is unstable and risk his reputation?

Despite the issues the Sabres have had under the Pegula's ownership, I do believe they will EVENTUALLY figure out, as they did with the Bills.  It will happen when they have the right people in place, as happened with Beane and McDermott and the Bills.  I don't know if it will be Adams and Granato (or whoever they hire to coach next year), but I don't see Brind'Amour being interested right now.  He'd probably be a great hire if they could get him, but I don't see it happening.  And I think Granato has earned a shot, unless the wheels fall off in the remaining games.  It's possible the Sabres got lucky and Granato will turn out to be a really good NHL head coach.

[Taro T]

19 minutes ago, msw2112 said:

I know very little about this other than what I have read in this thread.  First, I think the Sabres are likely to hire Granato and do so for the following reasons:

1. The team has greatly improved overall under his coaching
2. He is developing the younger players, many of whom struggled to develop under previous coaching staffs
3. He's a known quantity
4. He is likely to be affordable, as far as NHL head coaching salaries go
5. He's managed to win some games against quality NHL opponents with an AHL goalie and his best player out of the lineup, trade deadline distractions, etc.
6. He makes adjustments that are effective.  Pittsburgh was dominating us, but he made some changes to the game plan and were able to win the last game of that series.  Same with the Boston series.  And he was playing with less talent in both situations.  (Let's see what he does for the next Rangers game.)

And I think that Brind'Amour is not coming to Buffalo, for the following reasons:

1. He has a very good thing going with the Carolina team
2. He has strong ties to the Carolina area (as mentioned above) - his wife, his playing career, 21 years there, etc.
3. Even if the Sabres offered more money than Carolina, other teams could be in the hunt for his services and offer the same money or more
4. The Sabres organization has been a mess for about a decade now.  The last several coaches and GMs have had very short tenures.  Why would someone with options go somewhere that is unstable and risk his reputation?

Despite the issues the Sabres have had under the Pegula's ownership, I do believe they will EVENTUALLY figure out, as they did with the Bills.  It will happen when they have the right people in place, as happened with Beane and McDermott and the Bills.  I don't know if it will be Adams and Granato (or whoever they hire to coach next year), but I don't see Brind'Amour being interested right now.  He'd probably be a great hire if they could get him, but I don't see it happening.  And I think Granato has earned a shot, unless the wheels fall off in the remaining games.  It's possible the Sabres got lucky and Granato will turn out to be a really good NHL head coach.

At least 4 of your reasons to hire Granato also applied to the Rolston situation.  How'd that one work out?

If they perform a real search & decide Don is the right guy, then so be it.  But under this ownership, the team has half arsed coaching/GM searches far more often than not.

[PromoTheRobot]

5 minutes ago, Taro T said:

At least 4 of your reasons to hire Granato also applied to the Rolston situation.  How'd that one work out?

If they perform a real search & decide Don is the right guy, then so be it.  But under this ownership, the team has half arsed coaching/GM searches far more often than not.

The last 4 mean bupkis without the first two. That's why they are 1 and 2.

[Drag0nDan]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

At least 4 of your reasons to hire Granato also applied to the Rolston situation.  How'd that one work out?

If they perform a real search & decide Don is the right guy, then so be it.  But under this ownership, the team has half arsed coaching/GM searches far more often than not.

I'm not sure Rolston was entirely to blame there.  I think we can all look back on a team captained by steve ott with a leading scorer of cody hodsgon and say that scotty bowman couldn't have done a thing with that pile of garbage.  

[LabattBlue]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

I hate hearing this all the time

Me too!    

[Taro T]

Just now, Drag0nDan said:

I'm not sure Rolston was entirely to blame there.  I think we can all look back on a team captained by steve ott with a leading scorer of cody hodsgon and say that scotty bowman couldn't have done a thing with that pile of garbage.  

If you can stomach it, try to find some game film of the Sabres in October 2013.  Yes, the team was bad, but it was ridiculously bad.  It was Capitals 6 - Sabres 0 of the recent losing streak bad.

The team competed under Nolan.  It was bad but it was watchable.  The same can't be said for them under Ol' Gardening Gloves that year.  And he'd gotten them to play better after Ruff was fired the previous season than they'd been playing.  They went 15-11-5 after he took over for Ruff.  The next year, before getting canned, they were 4-15-1 with 3 of the wins coming via SO.  (Good thing they had Miller.)  They won 1 game in regulation in 20 tries and that was against the Panthers - one of only 2 teams in the entire league to finish less than 25 points ahead of them.

Just because they're playing better does not mean he's the right guy moving forward.  (Also, please note, haven't said he's the wrong guy either necessarily.)

[Radar]

1 minute ago, Taro T said:

If you can stomach it, try to find some game film of the Sabres in October 2013.  Yes, the team was bad, but it was ridiculously bad.  It was Capitals 6 - Sabres 0 of the recent losing streak bad.

The team competed under Nolan.  It was bad but it was watchable.  The same can't be said for them under Ol' Gardening Gloves that year.  And he'd gotten them to play better after Ruff was fired the previous season than they'd been playing.  They went 15-11-5 after he took over for Ruff.  The next year, before getting canned, they were 4-15-1 with 3 of the wins coming via SO.  (Good thing they had Miller.)  They won 1 game in regulation in 20 tries and that was against the Panthers - one of only 2 teams in the entire league to finish less than 25 points ahead of them.

Just because they're playing better does not mean he's the right guy moving forward.  (Also, please note, haven't said he's the wrong guy either necessarily.)

I agree it doesn't say he's the right guy. Neither does pure NHL experience theand a known name mean someone's the right person. John Cooper was probably a question mark with a lot of fans. 

[kas23]

3 hours ago, msw2112 said:

I know very little about this other than And I think that Brind'Amour is not coming to Buffalo, for the following reasons:

1. He has a very good thing going with the Carolina team
2. He has strong ties to the Carolina area (as mentioned above) - his wife, his playing career, 21 years there, etc.

 

And if I was the owner of the Cane’s, these are the exact reasons I would lowball him. If, as Sabres fans, we are so sure Buffalo couldn’t pry him out of Carolina due to his wife or whatever, I’m pretty sure their owner knows this as well. It’s going to up to Rod whether he wants to swallow his pride or not. 

[Flashsabre]

For anyone with this Brind’Amour fantasy, go read his comments when Skinner was traded.  Guy isn’t coming here to coach Skinner again long term.

[SwampD]

15 hours ago, Taro T said:

If you can stomach it, try to find some game film of the Sabres in October 2013.  Yes, the team was bad, but it was ridiculously bad.  It was Capitals 6 - Sabres 0 of the recent losing streak bad.

The team competed under Nolan.  It was bad but it was watchable.  The same can't be said for them under Ol' Gardening Gloves that year.  And he'd gotten them to play better after Ruff was fired the previous season than they'd been playing.  They went 15-11-5 after he took over for Ruff.  The next year, before getting canned, they were 4-15-1 with 3 of the wins coming via SO.  (Good thing they had Miller.)  They won 1 game in regulation in 20 tries and that was against the Panthers - one of only 2 teams in the entire league to finish less than 25 points ahead of them.

Just because they're playing better does not mean he's the right guy moving forward.  (Also, please note, haven't said he's the wrong guy either necessarily.)

If you can stomach it, you might need go and find some game film of those years to remind yourself that this was not the case.😂 

[nfreeman]

34 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

For anyone with this Brind’Amour fantasy, go read his comments when Skinner was traded.  Guy isn’t coming here to coach Skinner again long term.

A quote or a link sure would help here.

[Taro T]

39 minutes ago, SwampD said:

If you can stomach it, you might need go and find some game film of those years to remind yourself that this was not the case.😂 

Some of us actually attended those debacles in person.  If not for Miller, they'd've been crushed every game.  Not just beat every time, destroyed.

That was the worst hockey this team ever played.  That includes the stretch in '86 before Bowman was canned, 0 for January, & this most recent losing streak.  It was un-####ing watchable.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Taro T

[SwampD]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Some of us actually attended those debacles in person.  If not for Miller, they'd've been crushed every game.  Not just beat every time, destroyed.

That was the worst hockey this team ever played.  That includes the stretch in '86 before Sator was hired, 0 for January, & this most recent losing streak.  It was un-####ing watchable.

I’m going to have to try and look for some of those games. I have never watched a game and yelled at the coach until this year.

[Drag0nDan]

16 hours ago, Taro T said:

If you can stomach it, try to find some game film of the Sabres in October 2013.  Yes, the team was bad, but it was ridiculously bad.  It was Capitals 6 - Sabres 0 of the recent losing streak bad.

The team competed under Nolan.  It was bad but it was watchable.  The same can't be said for them under Ol' Gardening Gloves that year.  And he'd gotten them to play better after Ruff was fired the previous season than they'd been playing.  They went 15-11-5 after he took over for Ruff.  The next year, before getting canned, they were 4-15-1 with 3 of the wins coming via SO.  (Good thing they had Miller.)  They won 1 game in regulation in 20 tries and that was against the Panthers - one of only 2 teams in the entire league to finish less than 25 points ahead of them.

Just because they're playing better does not mean he's the right guy moving forward.  (Also, please note, haven't said he's the wrong guy either necessarily.)

Ugh - don't i get punished enough just watching the current team?  

[PromoTheRobot]

47 minutes ago, Drag0nDan said:

Ugh - don't i get punished enough just watching the current team?  

I like the current team.

[Flashsabre]

1 hour ago, nfreeman said:

A quote or a link sure would help here.

This was one of the quotes. Basically throws Skinner under the bus for not buying into the system or culture he wanted to build in Carolina. He is not coming here to build a culture/system with Skinner here long term.

HC Rod Brind'Amour at media day today on the Jeff Skinner trade and the message it sends to the locker room: "I think it sends a message of what kind of Hurricane we're looking for, what kind of player we want. Everybody's available. You've got to produce; you've got to do the things we're asking you to do, otherwise you're not safe. So it was the right move. I think the guys understand you've got to come ready to play and do what we're asking. Otherwise you're not a Hurricane. We can't have you."

[Marvin]

2 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

This was one of the quotes. Basically throws Skinner under the bus for not buying into the system or culture he wanted to build in Carolina. He is not coming here to build a culture/system with Skinner here long term.

HC Rod Brind'Amour at media day today on the Jeff Skinner trade and the message it sends to the locker room: "I think it sends a message of what kind of Hurricane we're looking for, what kind of player we want. Everybody's available. You've got to produce; you've got to do the things we're asking you to do, otherwise you're not safe. So it was the right move. I think the guys understand you've got to come ready to play and do what we're asking. Otherwise you're not a Hurricane. We can't have you."

I remember the same thing you do.

[LGR4GM]

We're still talking Brind'Amour? The guy is not coming here and I would be shocked if he even got so much as an interview. Both because he won't want one and Adams won't waste time trying to pursue that. 

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

This was one of the quotes. Basically throws Skinner under the bus for not buying into the system or culture he wanted to build in Carolina. He is not coming here to build a culture/system with Skinner here long term.

HC Rod Brind'Amour at media day today on the Jeff Skinner trade and the message it sends to the locker room: "I think it sends a message of what kind of Hurricane we're looking for, what kind of player we want. Everybody's available. You've got to produce; you've got to do the things we're asking you to do, otherwise you're not safe. So it was the right move. I think the guys understand you've got to come ready to play and do what we're asking. Otherwise you're not a Hurricane. We can't have you."

and he was 100% right.