Granato: Looking at the positives from the schedule

Buffalo N.Y. (WGR 550) - After a successful road trip for the Buffalo Sabres where they took seven out of eight points. They now are at a much needed break with one game left to play against the Carolina Hurricanes, then a 10 day break for the All Star game.

If the Sabres win their game on Wednesday against the Hurricanes, they will be in a playoff spot. They are currently one point back of the Pittsburgh Penguins who hold the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Sabres head coach Don Granato on the “Howard and Jeremy Show” knows that they won’t be in a playoff spot till the 82nd game is played. Granato wants the players and the team to stay in the moment, but is happy to see fans are now beginning to scoreboard watch for the playoffs.

As the Sabres have gone on this road trip the young talent has been showing, with Owen Power scoring his first, second and third goals of the season. Granato wants to make sure he has not too many older players, but the right older players.

“I’ve said from day one. I’m interested in winning mostly to win more” Granto said during his weekly appearance on WGR. “To win more down the future is the goal.”

With the Sabres now ending their grueling stretch of games playing 13 games in 21 days. Granato has been impressed with the level of play for the players finishing the stretch going 5-0-1 in their last six games.

Now that the Sabres will be heading into the All Star break, Granato looks at the schedule and tries to look at it in a positive way.

“You try to make everything good, so ‘13 games in 20 days ok how can we make this good?’ it's going to help us in area ABCD and you get excited about it,” Granato said.

The Sabres have dealt with some injuries down the stretch with Dylan Cozens missing the game against the Minnesota Wild, and Mattias Samuelsson missing the last two games of the road trip. Center Tage Thompson was out of practice on Monday, Granato wants to take a cautious approach based on the schedule.

“I expect him on the ice today and that's the hope, but we’ll see how comfortable I am with that based on how he presents this morning.” Granato said on the health status of Thompson.

The Sabres are back in action against the Carolina Hurricanes before a 10-day break for the All Star Game in South Florida.

Hear more of Granato’s appearance during the “Howard and Jeremy Show” available in the player below: