The situation felt eerily familiar as the Sabres left the ice for the second intermission at KeyBank Center on Wednesday. For the second time in three nights, they walked into the dressing room with a three-goal lead after 40 minutes. The first occasion ended in an overtime loss.
Don Granato could have used the intermission to remind players of the mistakes that led to what transpired Monday. He could have avoided the subject entirely and used the 15 minutes to reinforce the positives from the first two periods.
Instead, he did neither. Granato, in year 28 of a career that has spanned 13 stops at virtually every level, earned his first victory as an NHL head coach by simply getting out of the way.
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