As a Blues fan, I’ve always kept tabs on him - liked him when he was in St. Louis.

Overall I don’t know what to think of this move by FG, there is definitely better coaches out there…but I’m not ready to jump off a bridge.

Watch Joe Sacco promoted or Eric Lacroix hired as the assistant coach.

You are a cruel, cruel woman.

For whatever reason, coaching is subject to a serious “grass is greener on the other side” mentality.

I hope TG shows us all and motivates the guys, coaches the hell out of the team, and wins the cup. But I doubt it.

Some of my observations from five years ago:

1.-Granato is the worst of cliche’d coaches in interviews we’ve ever had. Crawford and Hartley kept things pretty close to the vest but gave you something insightful or funny from time to time. Granato was the Peter McNabb of hockey coaches.
Examples:

“Our expectations here every year are to win the Stanley Cup. So if you don’t, you don’t feel like you’ve fulfilled that. It was disappointing, but being able to sit back now and give our guys a whole summer to heal and rest and get ready for next season, that’s a positive that comes out of it. Yeah, it hurt bad losing to them, but it’s something you have to deal with when it happens, and then you move on and try to become better because of it.”

2.-Granato mixed his lines to distraction. If the team got behind or played poorly in the first period he would mix up forwards like crazy.

3.-Granato had a doghouse. He had certain players who he buried. See Selanne.

4.-Granato’s powerplay at times featured four forwards at times. Some wondered why Blake and Liles didn’t manage the powerplay instead of the forwards.

5.-Granato coached in the the clutch and hook era prior to the lockout yet the Avalanche played as one of the more dynamic offensively up-tempo’d teams.

6.-He was/is well respected for his passion of the Bertuzzi incedent by his players and most fans.

7.-Tocchet left with little reason or explanation for a latteral position in Phoenix. It never did pass the smell test.

8.-The “stacked team” season with Selanne and Kariya was undercut by injuries like this year. It was also the year that Abby was under severe pressure and he was exceptionally good for Abby who in retrospect was a pretty average goalie.

9.-During Granato’s tenure he did get the big free agent signings of Kariya and Selanne. But he also had to deal with some pretty heavy chemestry changes when Morris/Ballard was delt for Gratton and Vannanen. PL brought in Salo for a playoff run (no pressure Abby, you’re still the starter for the playoffs just don’t look over your shoulder). In retrospect those deals really hurt the Avalanche back end which was a total mess for a while.

10.-Granato managed his forward matchups well in so far as he was able shift his defensive forwards well against the top lines. He did well to get his top lines out in advantagous shifts. Unlike Q, Granato got a lot of shifts out on the fly with possession of the puck rather than dump ins and losing possession. For whatever reason his defensive shifts weren’t so great. That could be blamed on Cloutier I suppose.

All in all there are a lot of simularities with Q. Most if not all of them being negative ones like line juggling, powerplay inconsistancies and the doghouse policy. The silver linings are that Granato is much, much better on goaltenders. He coached a more transition-styled offense with puck possession and speed through the neutral zone during an era where defensemen got away with a lot more. But, he also let Jeff Shantz play 72 games. Say what you will about how top heavy the Avalanche were in ‘02-’03 and ‘03-’04 but the bottom was horrendous with no depth in the system to call up. He played Hendrickson, Worrell, Aubin, Cummins and Larsen significant minutes. Consequently he shifted his first three lines for heavy minutes.

The Avs were 6th in the PP for ‘03 and 3rd in ‘02. Those trends pretty much held up for the post season as well.

Who will the assistant coach in charge of the PP be? Will the Avs stick with Cloutier as the defenseman coach or is it time for a change there?

I think goaltending will be better. I think the offensive will be more prolific but I don’t know if the Avalanche can ever be great under Granato. I do think he will be a better coach than he was in his first two years.

All of this great regular season record stuff is crap. He took a loaded team and failed miserably in the playoffs twice. Then he was an assistant coach in charge of one of the worst PPs in the history of hockey. Quite a resume there. Sure, he deserves a promotion. No, really.

The only one I can come up with is camaraderie with the vets. But that’s even speculation - I don’t know if they like him or not.

I agree with everyone else tho - I’m absolutely disgusted. Our last year with Foote, Sakic, and possibly Forsberg is going to be ruled by this guy.

I remember sitting in the stands in ‘03 knowing that the glory years were going to be gone soon - the salary cap was coming, and management acquired Teemu and Kariya for a last hurrah. All of us were so excited - until we realized the coach had isolated these guys to the third and fourth lines of the team and letting them essentially rot away. That season was a disaster.

I see this season possibly being the same. One last hurrah. I definitely don’t see Foppa, Sakic, and Foote coming back for 2009-2010. This is his second chance not to blunder it away. And call me crazy, but I don’t think a couple years of assisting Q is going to make all that much of a difference from the first implosion.

This is the worst of all possible scenarios for me. I would have rather they kept Q and dumped Granato’s arse. This is horrible, imo. Absolutely horrible.

Agreed