BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sabres coach Don Granato has spoken numerous times about how, at this point in his team’s development, he just can’t get consumed with wins and losses.
He’s talked about how development, learning and experimenting with different things on the ice have to be front and center.
I don’t disagree that this is a development season for players like Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, Dylan Cozens, Tage Thompson and others, but the part about wins and losses is where Granato lost me.
As I watch night after night after night, this team doesn’t know how to get a game into the garage for a win. It’s the same thing over and over and over again. It’s not getting better and it’s not being learned.
In my mind, by not stressing the importance of winning and doing the things necessary late in games to win, losing seems to become second nature and OK.
For me, winning is an attitude. Players have to learn how to win, but the lessons that should’ve been learned in the nine games they lost when leading coming into the third period are not being learned.
The same mistakes are being made, the players seem to almost panic at times and forget how to handle the puck in tight situations.
In St. Louis on Friday, the Sabres played a very good game. They worked extremely hard to tie the game midway through the third period, but they don’t know how to finish, especially against good teams.
After all that work, a veteran player in Casey Mittelstadt has an awful turnover that sends the Blues away on a 2-on-1 and just 1:23 after tying the game, the Sabres give up the game-winning goal.
Buffalo wasn’t giving away outnumbered situations before that, they were driving play with their speed and causing complications for the Blues.
It’s happened so many times that it’s so predictable, Buffalo scores to tie or take the lead and within minutes or even seconds, they give the goal back. Earlier this week, it took 10 seconds.
Granato is a very good teacher and I think a good coach and has done a great job with many of the players in this lineup. How he’s helped Thompson, Dahlin and Jokiharju grow and become much better players is there to see on a nightly basis.
If you talk to the players, they believe in him and love playing for him. I think recently his message has been falling on deaf ears more than it should. There have been too many games in the past month or so where effort, compete and willingness to do what’s necessary have openly been questioned by players and Granato, but efforts like the ones against St. Louis and the Colorado Avalanche have shown that they can get past that.
The biggest mistake I think that’s being made is results are not being valued as much as they should be, and it very much shows on the ice as they get no better at finishing games.
