Buffalo Sabres: 3 reasons Don Granato breaks Curse of the Pegulas
Matthew Morris of The Hockey Writers has speculated whether Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato will face a specific sports curse.
Terry and Kim Pegula bought the Buffalo Sabres in February 2011, and I am not going to spend much time rehashing the hash: They have been among the NHL’s least relevant franchises. Since the Pegulas purchased the franchise, the Sabres have gone through the following coaches:
- Lindy Ruff (2011-13) – started stint with the Sabres in 1997.
- Ron Rolston (2013)
- Ted Nolan (2013-15)
- Dan Bylsma (2015-17)
- Phil Housley (2017-19)
- Ralph Krueger (2019-21)
- Don Granato (2021-Pres)
That’s seven coaches, none of whom have lasted over two years with the club. Enter Don Granato, who has the opportunity to break the Curse of the Pegulas. Perhaps a better opportunity than any other coach on this list.
And if you want my bold prediction, it is that Granato is going to break the curse. Why? Let’s talk about it.
3 reasons Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato is in the perfect position to break the Curse of the Pegulas in 2022-23. Reason #1: Late-season performances
So far, Granato has a record of 41-55-14 in 110 games. If he lasts until his 165th game, he will have set a new record for games coached during the Pegula era. And so far, Granato’s Buffalo Sabres have gone nowhere but up, even if they missed out on the playoffs for the 11th straight season.
But let’s go back to March 2021, when the Sabres fired Ralph Krueger amidst a 17-game losing streak. It’s safe to say the franchise was teetering on collapse and yet another complete rebuild for what was literally the seventh time over the past 10 seasons. The streak ended on March 31st and Granato led the Sabres to an 8-11-2 (18 points) finish in April and May. Not bad, considering the team was 7-23-5 (19 points) from January to March 31st.
Then last season happened, when a healthy Sabres team jumped out to a 5-2-1 start before injuries and COVID reared their ugly heads. But once again, the Sabres bounced back to a 16-9-3 record in March and April 2022.
And they didn’t just bounce back, but players like Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, and Jeff Skinner became household names. Skinner really had a bounce back season. Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, and Rasmus Ristolainen were in other cities, and the likes of Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs became regular forces on the Sabres roster.
Granato took his experience and knack for developing players, applied what he learned, and turned the Sabres into a team worth watching in 2021-22. At least when the team was healthy, like in October, March, and April – combined record 21-11-4 (46 points).
Terry Pegula (probably) learned his lessons
In his article, Matthew Morris stated just how much firing Terry Pegula has done. Well, now that Pegula, Adams, and Granato have and are finally sticking to a long-term build, his two-and-out mentality is probably also changing. In the past, Pegula fell into the same trap you see most owners in professional sports fall into: They want a championship-caliber team….NOW!
Well, unfortunately this is not how things work in professional sports. Have you ever wondered why it seems like the same teams are sometimes in a neverending cycle of either losing or constant mediocrity? There are outliers, but you get the gist. It’s because there is always too much regime change. Too much turnover.
New coaches and general managers arrive and bring in new systems. They push to sign as many free agents as they can based on past performances and clump them together, believing they will emulate the same results in a different city, even at times in a different system. It can work, but it rarely does.
It’s something Pegula ironically learned early shortly after he bought the Buffalo Bills, with 2015 serving as the first full season that he was in charge. Rex Ryan was fired after just two years at the helm, before Sean McDermott stepped in, who regressed in his second season to just 6-10. Instead of firing McDermott, Pegula stayed the course and the Bills have since become one of the AFC’s elite.
That said, don’t expect Don Granato to go anywhere even if the Buffalo Sabres regress. Look for them to continue building the program under general manager Kevyn Adams, with Granato firmly entrenched as the head coach. This gives the Sabres much-needed stability for the future. One that would see them most likely contend in 2023-24.
The Buffalo Sabres have come too far
In the first section, we talked about the Buffalo Sabres late-season performances, which was one of the league’s best in March and April 2022. But this is only half of the story, split by the fact Terry Pegula seems to have finally learned the fact that Rome was not built overnight, or even in two years, for that matter.
Under Granato, the Sabres have just come too far in what was really a short time. They were one of the worst teams in the league offensively for most of last season. Especially during those lean months. Then, they ended up scoring a respectable 3.14 goals per game to close out the season.
Besides that, their power play and penalty kill unit increased dramatically. Last season, the Sabres finished 16th in the power play, at 21.2 percent. But before that, they were struggling mightily, if you remember correctly. Before the break, they converted below 20 percent.
Also before the All-Star break, the Sabres penalty kill ranked 26th, at 75.2 percent. They managed to bring that number up to 76.4 for the entire season, finishing 23rd. They scored an average of 2.53 goals per game from October 2021 to February 2022, and 3.14 per game afterward.
light. More. Sabres will not add new names to the roster
And these are just a few examples of how far Granato has taken this team. I can write an entire article on the subject, but this at least covers the key points. In short, Granato has just coached this team too well for anyone to even remotely think that the Pegulas will let him go. If they do, someone will pick up this diamond in the rough.
Article Source: Sabres’ Coach Granato Facing the “Curse of the Pegulas” by Matthew Morris
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)