Buffalo should fire Granato

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Really,  with Adam’s and Pegula ?  
 

You will be here next year and in the thick of the conversation.  

Pegula has nothing to do with it.

Anyway.  No.  No playoffs means no Granato AND no Adams, as far as I'm concerned.

Edited March 22, 2023 by Eleven

[Derrico]

2 hours ago, matter2003 said:

He tried to address it with Comrie who played extremely well last year and was 2nd in the NHL at goals allowed under expected only behind Sheshterkin. 

He played great his first game, then got hurt long term came back briefly and got hurt again long term and never really found his form all year.

There was no reason to believe that Comrie would go from really really good to abysmal, so I can't really fault him for that one.

Other than the past 2 games, Anderson has played very very well. He was 7th in the NHL in save percentage before those.

Outside of a 5-6 game stretch with UPL and a couple games with Comrie those two have been abysmal.

Didn’t we learn from the Hutton experiment that a backup having good numbers does not necessarily translate to them transitioning to be a good starter?  Comrie was a bottom of the barrel signing and nothing more than a thought and a prayer. 

[SwampD]

4 hours ago, Buffalonill said:

 Maybe me and you were the ones that said they would suck.

 

But everyone else had them pegged for 85 to 90 + points plus playoffs

 

 

Actually, this is what everyone else pegged them for.

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

Just now, Derrico said:

Comrie was a bottom of the barrel signing and nothing more than a thought and a prayer. 

Every move by Adams on the goaltending front has been awful except trading for Levi and until he is the starter here the jury is still out.

Keeping Hutton year 1. - Mistake.

Letting Ullmark walk with the lame excuse of not blocking UPL and wanting to create "real" competition. - Mistake. After all how do you get real competition if you don't have real players at the position?

Failure to have a plan B when Ullmark walked (as he should have). - Mistake.

Scrapping the bottom of the goalie barrel for the last two seasons to find goaltending because UPL stinks.  Hiring Anderson, Comrie, Dell, Tokarski, and Subban.  All mistakes.

Believing that UPL was ready to compete for real minutes in the NHL. - Mistake.

Not willing to trade any quality assets to get help at the most vital position. -  Mistake.

Trying to acquire cap dump goalies with NTCs. - Mistakes.

Drafted a goaltender in the 2nd round who doesn't even have a .900 save % in Finland's juniors. - Mistake.

Honestly, if UPL and Comrie are in camp next fall, Adams should be fired immediately.

 

 

[Claude274]

That's the typical answer but no. They should surround him with more experienced coach and a def specialist. Look how they proceed in other sports. For too many times, hockey answer has been to fire the coach like he is responsible for everything. I'm a teacher and even though I did that for a long time, I still don't have all the clues. People around me still help me. 

[JohninMinn.]

No. 

Levi was the missing piece. 

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

Of course they shoud not fire him.

They need to do something abut the goaltending and Dman depth.

If I had a vote for the Jack Adams Granato would get it.  It's nothing short of a miracle the Sabres are around NHL 500 and within pissing range of Deluca 500.

I'm with you on the goaltending and Dman depth but you lost me on the Jack Adams for Granato. Miracle you're around .500 when you have that much goal scoring talent on a team??? Miracles are how Philly isn't dead last or how Boston is so freaking far ahead. There's a long list of coaches ahead of Granato

On other things, I often wonder about his line matching decisions, D combos, and most of all that not pulling the goalie thing. I guess he knows the goalies all suck idk, it's weird. He even said "you can't pull the goalie at that point" after like goal 5 or 6 the other night in the 3rd and I just scratch my head over that and wonder. 

But, most of all the team still lacks structure and discipline and that's on the coaching. I know a lot of people around here hate Torts, but can you imagine how many Sabres he'd have in his doghouse the way they are playing right now? He'd have almost no one to play. Point being Granato never benches top players when they are crap. There is no accountability on this team. I guess he's too nice, but that's not how you build a winning culture. 

[PerreaultForever]

18 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Honestly, if UPL and Comrie are in camp next fall, Adams should be fired immediately.

I hope I am wrong, but my guess is next year's goalies will be UPL, Comrie and Levi. They might sign a scrub for Rochester, but that's about it.

I really really really hope I'm wrong. 

[pi2000]

23 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Every move by Adams on the goaltending front has been awful except trading for Levi and until he is the starter here the jury is still out.

Keeping Hutton year 1. - Mistake.

Letting Ullmark walk with the lame excuse of not blocking UPL and wanting to create "real" competition. - Mistake. After all how do you get real competition if you don't have real players at the position?

Failure to have a plan B when Ullmark walked (as he should have). - Mistake.

Scrapping the bottom of the goalie barrel for the last two seasons to find goaltending because UPL stinks.  Hiring Anderson, Comrie, Dell, Tokarski, and Subban.  All mistakes.

Believing that UPL was ready to compete for real minutes in the NHL. - Mistake.

Not willing to trade any quality assets to get help at the most vital position. -  Mistake.

Trying to acquire cap dump goalies with NTCs. - Mistakes.

Drafted a goaltender in the 2nd round who doesn't even have a .900 save % in Finland's juniors. - Mistake.

Honestly, if UPL and Comrie are in camp next fall, Adams should be fired immediately.

 

 

Letting KO decide not to send UPL down when he wanted to.  Mistake. 

[Buffalonill]

40 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Actually, this is what everyone else pegged them for.

 

You do know it says 80-90 points and playoffs ..

 

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

5 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

Letting KO decide not to send UPL down when he wanted to.  Mistake. 

Another reason to let KO move on this summer.

 

The following is what I wrote in the thread quoted above.

Quote

 

Out with JAGS - Butcher, Hagg, Pysyk, Bjork, Eakin, Hayden, Dell, and Tokarski

In with Quinn, JJP, Power, Lyubushkin, Comrie and full seasons of Samuelsson, Tuch and Krebs.

This is a younger, deeper and more talented team.  They will score more than they did last year and if they can stop of puck, they should jump in the standings.

Goaltending is still a big a question mark and the 3rd D pairing is suspect.  Those factors could keep this team from playoff contention.

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by GASabresIUFAN

[Buffalonill]

3 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

No way people were saying playoffs 

27 people did and that won the vote 

And 23 people  said 80-90 points. 

 

Maybe Y'all forgot 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Buffalonill

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

Pegula has nothing to do with it.

Anyway.  No.  No playoffs means no Granato AND no Adams, as far as I'm concerned.

Wow!   You replace both at once?  That has been the past  norm, and look at the results.  

[Weave]

You have to give Granato a season where the directive from above is to win games.  All we can determine currently is he is successful at developing hockey players.  But the only tools he’s been given to date are development tools, not winning tools.

Of course the GM has to do his part to demonstrate that the directive is to win games.

[Buffalonill]

4 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Just hang in there 2 more years 🙂

 I'll be in a nursing home eating jello

[Randall Flagg]

I don't really like the high-level "well they're going to finish where you expected them to"

No team at any level of a rebuild should escape serious criticism and questioning for performances like the Sabres have put up at home in general, and during the last 3 weeks overall. Play like this has no place in any serious professional sports "plan" or "build" or "rebuild." 

[Eleven]

9 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Wow!   You replace both at once?  That has been the past  norm, and look at the results.  

For different reasons, and yes.

Granato:  He's a development coach.  The team won't need that past year three; they won't be youngsters anymore.  (Yes, there always will be rookies on any team, and that is not the point.)  If he's not leading the team to the playoffs, and if his decision-making and roster selection remains as poor as it has been in recent weeks, out and get a coach who knows how to lead teams of players who are established NHLers.  Again, by next season, the Sabres will have plenty of those.

Adyms:  If the Sabres don't make the playoffs next season, then there still is a problem in net, because the forwards are looking good for the future, the defense needs about one more guy (I know some of you dream of a defense where everyone is top-4 quality but that's not realistic), and that's it.  I've been frustrated with him since 2020.

Who cares whether it's in the same year?  Why should it matter?  If they're both insufficient, they're both susceptible to firing.

Edited March 22, 2023 by Eleven

[GASabresIUFAN]

18 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

I hope I am wrong, but my guess is next year's goalies will be UPL, Comrie and Levi. They might sign a scrub for Rochester, but that's about it.

I really really really hope I'm wrong. 

Pray.  If they are, this team can’t make the playoffs unless they magically become good goalies.

[Sidc3000]

8 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

So maybe the person who should be on the hot seat is the guy who keeps hiring bad goalies?

If he doesn’t get real goaltending this summer he should lose his job.  I don’t care if Levi comes in and plays great in his 3-4 starts.  Asking a 21 year old goalie just out of college to carry a playoff caliber team is wrong.  

What is “real goaltending”. Who should Adams court? 

[Thorny]

3 hours ago, matter2003 said:

He tried to address it with Comrie who played extremely well last year and was 2nd in the NHL at goals allowed under expected only behind Sheshterkin. 

He played great his first game, then got hurt long term came back briefly and got hurt again long term and never really found his form all year.

There was no reason to believe that Comrie would go from really really good to abysmal, so I can't really fault him for that one.

Other than the past 2 games, Anderson has played very very well. He was 7th in the NHL in save percentage before those.

Outside of a 5-6 game stretch with UPL and a couple games with Comrie those two have been abysmal.

There was absolutely reason to believe Comrie wouldnt establish as a starter, though, because he had *never done it*. I posted about this exact fact all offseason. Being “not terrible” wasn’t what we were attempting to do by signing Comrie. So, sure, play *that* poor may have been hard to predict, but actual GOOD or even average play, over the amount of games we needed it for - KA certainly bears responsibility for a swing and miss with Comrie

KA and his advanced stats team gambled that Comrie could extrapolate those earlier numbers over a sample size he had never come close to doing, and it absolutely blew up in his face.

Thats not unpredictable at all. It’s exactly why people say sample size matters. Comrie struggling wasn’t unpredictable. I predicted it. 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Thorny

[PerreaultForever]

Just now, GASabresIUFAN said:

Pray.  If they are, this team can’t make the playoffs unless they magically become good goalies.

Ya, I think Levi (if he even plays) will do what rookies do. He'll have streaks and after a good one he will have a bad one and how he gets in and out of those streaks will determine his immediate value. I wouldn't be surprised if he started the year and was incredible and won several games and Sabrespace would be all second coming of Miller or Hasek and then later he'll crack and bust and the losing streak will be on. 

Teams have figured UPL out and his rebound control is abysmal so combined with this D he has no chance to be a good NHL starter unless he improves a lot. he should be in Rochester working every day with his goalie coach.

Comrie is what he's always been. Marginal NHLer career back up and apparently injury prone. 

If this team plans to make Levi their #1 next year they are all insane. 

[Thorny]

1 hour ago, Derrico said:

Didn’t we learn from the Hutton experiment that a backup having good numbers does not necessarily translate to them transitioning to be a good starter?  Comrie was a bottom of the barrel signing and nothing more than a thought and a prayer. 

Better said than me

[Eleven]

5 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

What is “real goaltending”. Who should Adams court? 

Which year?  Signing his own, in Ullmark, would have been a start.  There have been goalies available every year since 2020.  There still are.

[Thorny]

59 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Actually, this is what everyone else pegged them for.

 

90 point average, ya. Just did this in another thread 

Its gonna depend on how we finish. Just the way it is. Look at the numbers in the poll, read the thread. People aren’t saying “around .500” and low 80s. The talk is playoff bubble / high 80s low 90s

Edited March 22, 2023 by Thorny

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, Derrico said:

Didn’t we learn from the Hutton experiment that a backup having good numbers does not necessarily translate to them transitioning to be a good starter?  Comrie was a bottom of the barrel signing and nothing more than a thought and a prayer. 

I'm one of the people who wanted to give Comrie a chance--a CHANCE--at being a decent KA signing--and you're right.