The Buffalo Sabres have relieved head coach Don Granato of his duties after the franchise missed the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season. The Sabres have also fired assistant coach Jason Christie as well as video coordinator Matt Smith. The team will now be looking for their eighth coach since last making the playoffs in 2010-11 and have had Lindy Ruff, Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan, Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger and now Granato behind the bench.
Buffalo came into this season with playoff expectations after narrowly missing the postseason last year finishing 10th in the Eastern Conference with 91 points. However, this year they took a step back to just 84 points and were eliminated from postseason contention last week. Many factors led to Buffalo’s ultimate demise, but one of the key contributors was that many of the Sabres top scorers took a big step back this season offensively. Alex Tuch dropped from 79 points to 59, Tage Thompson missed time and went from 94 points to 56, and Rasmus Dahlin fell from 73 points to 59. The biggest falloff was Jeff Skinner who had 83 points last year but tumbled to 46 this season. Unfortunately for Granato, he wasn’t able to get more offense from the Sabres's depth players and it ultimately cost him his job.
The 56-year-old was hired by the Sabres midway through the 2020-21 season and went on to coach an additional three years in Buffalo, finishing with a record of 121-125-27 which equates to a .512 points percentage. He began his NHL coaching career as an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks back in 2017 and could very well end up as an assistant once again after a tumultuous time with the Sabres.
As for Buffalo, they will once again be looking for a new bench boss as they look to end the second-longest playoff drought in all of North American professional sports.
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