The Buffalo Sabres fired head coach Don Granato of Downers Grove, Illinois on Tuesday. He spent the last four National Hockey League regular seasons coaching the Sabres.
Granato’s NHL coaching record
In 274 games, Granato had a record of 122 wins, 125 regulation losses and 27 losses in extra time. He had a winning percentage of .495. A major reason for the firing was the fact that the Sabres were unable to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in any of the four seasons that Granato was the Sabres bench boss. This past season the Sabres had a regular season record of 39 wins, 37 regulation losses and six losses in extra time for 84 points. However it was still seven points less than the Sabres’s 91 points from the year before.
Drop in Goal Scoring
One reason why the Sabres might have fired Granato was the lack of goal scoring in 2023-24. The Sabres only scored 246 goals as a team this season. That was a 50 goal drop from the 296 goals they scored from a year before.
Other Sabres Coaches Fired
In addition to Granato, the Sabres also fired assistant coach Jason Christie and video coordinator Matt Smith. Christie of Gibbons, Alberta, only spent one season as an assistant coach with the Sabres. Smith had spent the last two seasons as the Sabres’s video coordinator.
Completed their regular season
The Sabres are one of four teams that have completed their 2023-24 National Hockey League regular season. They are joined by the New York Rangers, Nashville Predators and New Jersey Devils. Like the Sabres, the Devils have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. While the Predators and Rangers are headed to the postseason. Nashville finished the year with 99 points. Meanwhile, the New York Rangers set a franchise record on Monday with 114 points after beating the Ottawa Senators 4-0 in a shutout at Madison Square Garden.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
