The Buffalo Sabres were one of the teams that were expected to take the next step in their rebuilding process this season, especially after enjoying their first 90 point season since 2011.
But nothing of the sort has happened so far in 2023-24, as the Sabres find themselves once again at the bottom of the standings after their latest embarrassing setback, this time in the form of a 9-4 loss at KeyBank Centre against the equally bad Columbus Blue Jackets.
And while there were thousands of empty seats in the venue, some of the fans who still remained behind as the Jackets continued to pile on goals made their wishes clear, as multiple clearly audible chants of "Fire Donn-y" broke out. Sabres fans are fed up with head coach Don Granato, and began demanding for his firing:
The Sabres players were in no mood to throw their coach under the bus afterward, however.
"We can say all the things we want to say in the locker room, we got to go out and do it," said Sabres center Tage Thompson. "It's as simple as that."
"We gotta find it," said captain Kyle Okposo. "It’s not an easy road that we’ve made for ourselves. It just seems that collectively we’re in the middle of a sophomore slump."
"I'm not gonna stand here and bash the coaches," I'm not gonna talk about us quitting. I'm not gonna talk about Donnie and us not listening. That's not right. Donnie has our full support. We are gonna play hard for Donnie and that's it."
Meanwhile, Granato voiced his "respect" for the fans.
“I have a lot of respect for our fans, lots of respect,” Granato said. “We go to work hard for them, and we’ll continue to work hard.”
Just how much more rope does Granato have in Buffalo if the Sabres aren't able to turn things around?
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