DETROIT — The Avalanche front office couldn’t wait for the Stanley Cup Finals to end.
It should have.
The rehiring of Tony Granato as Colorado’s head coach is far more defensible than the timing.
I alluded to this the other day, when the choice was announced, but the criticisms of Granato’s work during his first term as head coach often crossed the line to ridiculousness.
That said, general manager Francois Giguere should have waited until after the Red Wings-Penguins series, attempted to interview Detroit assistant Todd McLellan and anyone else who wanted to throw their hats in the ring following the completion of the NHL and AHL playoffs, and then made the decision.
In fact, the process — and the Avs’ refusal to get in the running for McLellan, the league’s brightest young coaching prospect — undercuts Granato from the start. It adds to the perception that this organization is somewhat of a restricted shop, considering coaching candidates who are grateful to or have ties to the organization and understand the coach-as-company-man ground rules.
It’s not fair to hold all of that against Granato.
At 43, and nearly six years after beginning his first tenure as head coach, he is more removed from his playing days and is coaching fewer former opponents who remember an elbow in the corner than before.
When Joel Quenneville was fired at St. Louis, his successor was his longtime assistant and one of his best friends, Mike Kitchen. That relationship survived, and Granato hopes the same thing will happen this time with Quenneville, who has interviewed for the San Jose Sharks’ vacant job and will be behind another bench — somewhere — next season.
“I talked to Joel about that right away,” Granato said. “I mentioned to him that if I get a chance at this position, I’m going to do it for obvious reasons. I love Colorado. I love the organization. My family is pretty involved in the community and in the schools. This is the place I want to be.
“Joel’s whole thing was, ‘Good luck, there are six positions available and hopefully me and you get two of them and we can go head-to-head.’ So he’s been great. We’ve talked a lot. We play tennis and golf. I thought we had a great rapport. I wish him well. And I look forward to coaching against him.”
It has been four years since Granato has been a head coach.
“I don’t think I can just say I’ll be different,” Granato said. “I think I have to be myself. I think I have to rely on the strengths I have. You gain more experience the longer you’re in the game. You try and get better every single day and learn more about how you can be better. I think we’ve got great leadership here and great players, and we’ve got everything you’d want. I’m going to trust my instincts.
“I’m going to sit down with the rest of our coaches and see which system and what type of team we’ll have, so when we get to training camp, we’re ready to go.”
Granato’s rehiring was one of the topics of discussion at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday morning, at the Wings’ and Penguins’ game-day skates, and I asked Ed Olczyk about it.
Olczyk, 41, is working the series as a television analyst and has a unique perspective on the rehiring because of his similarities with Granato. They’re both Chicago-area natives, both had long NHL careers and both were NHL head coaches at young ages. Olczyk was the Penguins’ head coach for a season and a half when the organization was in turmoil and then for the first 31 games of Sidney Crosby’s rookie season, and somebody should give him a second chance — and soon.
“I’m happy for Tony,” Olczyk said. “He’s had a great tutor in Joel, who I think a lot of. For Tony, a second time around, it’s like anything else — a little more comfortable, a little bit more familiar, and a different team then Tony had the last time. I just think that you’re more prepared and understand what exactly is going on.
“I was hoping he would get another chance, whether it was tomorrow or five years from now. . . . I think the experience you gain and the relationships that you have with your players is important. It’s all communication. It’s handling the situations and earning and gaining the trust of your players, and being able to keep everybody on a stable ship.”
