Don Granato should be a front runner for full-time Sabres head coach

It is easy to see how much better the Buffalo Sabres are under interim head coach Don Granato than when Ralph Krueger was still in Buffalo. The team looks completely different. They are much more confident and are playing a much more competitive style of hockey. The Sabres would be wise to take at least a serious look at keeping Granato as the head coach long term.

When Krueger got fired, the Sabres were 6-18-4 and on a 12-game winless streak. Since Granato took over, Buffalo has a record of 5-7-3. This still isn’t an excellent record, obviously, but considering Granato has almost as many wins in a month as Krueger had all season, it definitely shows who the better coaching option of the two is.

Granato has done more with a lesser roster. Granato barely ever had Taylor Hall active, he has not coached a game where Jack Eichel is playing, he has had constant starting goalie rotation, and has a roster with a hand full of rookies. Despite all of this, he has the Sabres playing competitive hockey and has at least gotten a point in eight of his 15 games coached.

The offense specifically has looked much better since the coaching change. In the 15 games that the Sabres have played under Granato, the Sabres have only been shutout one time, and that was against a very good Penguins team in Don’s fourth game. In the 28 games that the Sabres played under Krueger this season, they were shutout six times. That is just over 20% of the games that Krueger coached this season.

Buffalo will open up the head coaching job search this offseason once again. This is something that is starting to feel like an every-year occurrence in Buffalo. But Granato seems to have already proven that he is up to the task of taking on the head coaching duties past this season. Someone who has experience coaching the team and had success should be a top candidate to become the next head coach of the Buffalo Sabres.