You Say Granaito, I Say Granato

If they didn’t know, fine – I’m 100% okay with speculation. But by not mentioning Granato – the guy who’s name has come up among fans and bloggers any time the word “fire” and “Quenneville” were used in the same sentence – it made it seem like they had some additional information there. Obviously, in retrospect, they didn’t.

and I’m coming to terms with it. Oh well, we’ll just have to see how it pans out.

just a pissed off one right now. Maybe Granato will shock the hockey world.

About the only possible plus that I can hope for is that FG sought player input before this decision was made, and guys like Sakic, Stats, etc. gave TG a sterling recommendation. Then maybe most of their problems this past season were Q’s fault and TG was at odds with Q? Maybe he’ll be better with young guys like Wolski? Maybe there will be peace in the middle east soon?

I wonder how much Q and Granato were at odds. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it sounds like Granato didn’t like Q’s decisions/coaching much…

“Every coach, no matter who you are, has different ideas on how to run different plays, how you run different systems, who you put on the ice at different times,” said Granato, 43, who remains friendly with Quenneville. “So maybe that’s where philosophical differences come into play.

“But the structure that we have and our identity always has been to put a product on the ice that is exciting and allows our skill players to play. I don’t think there’ll be a whole lot of changes that way.

So both FG and Granato had interviews on the FAN this morning.

FG was really close to the vest on all his comments as usual. The only noticeable slip was that he thought Granato was really good with the young guys and had spent a lot of time with them. He commented that Granato was a good compliment to him as a GM because his personality is upbeat, energetic and outgoing. He considers himself reserved (no kidding?) and pretty melo. He said with both him and Granato running the organization that they could complement each other to make the whole organization better. That’s a lot of managerial shop talk but the biggest insite was Granato’s ability with young players. Oh, one last big piece of information was that FG said Sakic’s input did not effect his selection. He said that when he spoke to Sakic, Sakic had said the coaching decision wouldn’t effect his decision to retire or not.

Granato mentioned that he had interviewed for the King job before Crawford took it but took himself out of the running because he wanted to keep his family here and didn’t want to leave the Avs. They talked a little bit about instinct as a coach like when he moved Forsberg from wing to center Hejduk and Tangauy in ‘02. How that carried the team when Sakic was out for a good portion of the year with the broken foot. Frei brought up this instinct thing btw, Granato just commented on how he came to the decision. They didn’t ask who his assistant would be unfortunately. That was about it with Granato, just a lot of congratulations talk and not a whole lot of grilling.

I know that guys like Doc and BiB are pretty upset about the Granato selection. BUT, look at it this way. Granato in 2002 was as green as an NHL coach could be. He basically was an assistant coach for a handful of games before PL threw him to the fire. As a green coach he got to face Jacque Lemair in the clutch and grab era prior to the lockout.

If you want to use Mike Babcock as a litmus test for how to establish a top tier coach then let’s be honest about where he has been and what he has done. First, he did 8 years of coaching in the WHL where he never won a championship. He then did two years in the AHL were he never got to the cup. His first year in Anaheim he got to the finals and lost, the very next year he missed the playoffs totally and was let go. In the ‘05-’06 season Detroit blew the doors off the entire NHL with 124 points and the President’s Trophy. He then led them to a six game loss to Edmonton in the very first round. Talk about a stacked team blowing it, just look at the 2006 Detroit Red Wings.

I don’t know if Granato is going to be a great coach. I think he will be a better coach than the first two years. I also think that getting a good coach out of the AHL isn’t an instant panacea for success. Coaches have growing pains and I think Granato has paid some dues over the last five years.

I don’t think the sky is falling. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Tony Granato just might be the greatest Avalanche coach ever BiB. You don’t really want Doc to have this much ammunition against you in a few years do you? You got like no wiggle room here.

Anyway, greatest….ever.

The fact that the MSM had no idea this was coming is the big story. Shows how very little the MSM guys know/care about enterprising stories. If this was the Broncos or the Rockies they would have been all over it. I wonder if they’re even the slightest bit embarrassed about this?

why did they wait this long to announce, why not announce when they let Quenneville go

Here I sit in Northern Indiana looking at a new page layout and news of an ‘new’ Avs layout. WTF FG. I leave Colorado and this happens the NEXT day? Maybe moving to a place the Avs aren’t on TV is a good thing. At least I won’t get as depressed watching the Avs wallow in low level mediocrity as I hear the South Bend weather will be bad enough by itself.