Tuch, Greenway Don’t Skate, Dahlin To All-Star And More | Buffalo Sabres Coach Don Granato

Tuch, Greenway Don’t Skate, Dahlin To All-Star And More | Buffalo Sabres Coach Don Granato

How important is that to get a little good feeling like you got last night you know when you’re not uh performing well in something like that it’s all about a feeling you lose your mojo and and you know I used used that word quite a bit

But uh um you do you you press you do some silly crazy things and uh so having a couple goals last night should help uh but that said this penalty kill you go up against tomorrow night is extremely aggressive um obviously lots of experience and a whole another different

Challenge so um you know it it’s a good feeling yesterday but it’ll be a totally different uh setup tomorrow that will have to make some adjustments too how much will it help open things up to get to down low Power Play Goals like that get that on tape and do teams now

They’ll have to worry about that does that help your power play a little bit it should uh you know anytime you can score uh and score different looks obviously the traditional with us would be Thompson as a threat or olison as a threat so when you uh are you know

Scoring other ways obviously teams pre- Scout you and they see that you have are using other options effectively so um you know we we we need to score goals down low it’s been available to us obviously it will be available to us when you have a threat like Thompson uh

Or olivon Shooters uh even Jack Quinn you’re going to have uh more uh availability in other areas and you need to take advantage of them and it’s something we haven’t done uh well enough you look at the go ahead look at just even strength production Casey middle

Stats statistics are comparable to a lot of the game’s elite players what about his game allows him to be in that company you think uh a lot um competitive guy determined guy every single night so you know we we’ve talked a lot about willingness to compete and

And competitive guys are are are never not in it through 82 games they don’t take nights off uh in case he does not take a night off he is intense every night um so he’s looking for every inch of ice that he can exploit uh with a

Level of determination uh and a and a skill level that that matches and if guys around him get open and are available he’s usually pretty effective so uh that’s made him very consistent for us uh in that man Pittsburgh went a month without a power play goal and now

They’re at like 22% in the last nine games probably a little bit of a matter of time with their talent but just how not difficult but just how weird is it to see a team with that amount of Talent go that long and now start to find it

Again yeah it’s just indicative of pro sports isn’t it it just teams and you guys get in their head and it’s problem the problem you have and is is there’s no time to step back you’re you can’t get out of the fire and just breathe you’re you’re it’s in your face you you

You went 0 for three 24 hours later 48 hours later you’re playing again you know there’s no breathing room so you you get in that Nega negative Rhythm and and you know that’s uh it’s just the way our schedule is in this sport so when

You when you get in a funk uh it can last games because you don’t have any breathing room it’s just one to the next to the next so uh I get it you understand it I think it was Tampa Bay a year or two ago was the same same thing

It was it was 40 some power plays in a row or uh just some crazy statistic about it and um it happens and like I say you you our jobs are try to shorten that that’s what our jobs are you’re going to get in those funks you just got

To do your best uh technically tactically anything you can think of to shorten them how much did you like the five on five game last night in terms of you got some Power Play Chances other than the Boston game you really haven’t had a lot of chances there have been a

Lot of one time in a game and you got a bunch of power plays last night yeah and it makes you wonder you know are are are we do you get you certainly get more power plays when you work harder when you’re engaged in Puck battles in your second effort you’re you’re you’re

Drawing penalties you know you’re drawing some and I think you know the effort we had and intent we had last night was probably a a reason why we you know uh had penalties I would say we drew penalties by effort and uh you know that’s something that um you know we

Should we should take uh account of and and uh work for that to a greater level what did you like from your three new defensive pairs last night it’s nice to have something different uh um you know I think we had righties lefties last night uh Eric

Johnson back in the lineup was physical and a presence um that was nice um yeah I I mean I I liked it I liked uh you know sometimes I feel Sammy Sammy with dolls kind of defers to dolls sometimes we need him to rise a little bit more um

Um you know dolls is obviously a very dominating guy uh in in a game and and I think sometimes you get into a a funk in your Rhythm and you just kind of slide into a roll and uh you know to me samuelson’s too good to just kind of

Slide in a conservative role we need him to step up and that was a little bit of a challenge in regard um for him and so I like the response Tu and Greenway I know they’re both sick how concerned are you for tomorrow well I was very concerned about noon yesterday or

Yesterday morning and I I I mentioned uh you know they gutted it through a game last night which was really important for us uh obviously with the the number of Man games we’ve had missed um to to uh to into that game last night and potentially miss those two guys would

Not have been fun so so they did one hell of a job for us and uh you know hope is you’re getting better and stronger but you know this stuff goes through teams throughout the league you know you don’t really know about it and right now it’s going through us a little

Bit so um we obviously just got to deal with it as best we can it’s a little bit of why I stayed away obviously being contagious um because you don’t want it to uh it can it can disrupt and and Destroy teams uh you know um this time

Of year here so we try to do our best to make certain that doesn’t happen both your goalies are coming off very good games are you going to stay with the rotation or you going to go back with de or what are your thoughts yeah to me a

Rotation makes sense uh they’re both obviously young guys and I think you know where they’re at in their careers how do you put one ahead of another in the margin of of how they play is both good and you know that uh you know fresher is better and um you know hope

He’s had some time to prepare um so the inclination would would be to to to go that way and and keep a rotation um but um you know that said the decision isn’t final yet but U but but that’s the thought process anyway I’ll ask you the obvious question did you

Like Lucan his game against Columbus and the New York Rangers oh you know what Paul I can’t remember details too much but um you know what I like is the direction um you know that that he’s taking and um trust that because of it he’s getting better every night so

Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato spoke with the media after practice in Pittsburgh on January 5, 2024.

Subscribe to the Buffalo Sabres YT Channel: https://bit.ly/2G1G8eT
For More Sabres Action: https://bufsabres.co/2XAYg5m

#BuffaloSabres #Sabres #NHL

For more Sabres action: Sabres.com
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/BuffaloSabres
Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/buffalosabres
Follow us on Instagram: Instagram.com/buffalosabres
Follow us on TikTok: https://bufsabres.co/TikTok