The excited chatter started as soon as Jason Christie and Marty Wilford reached the Sabres’ coaches office. The wintry December morning had them feeling like kids again, and the assistants were eager to talk about the long-forgotten chore they’d just enjoyed.
They brushed snow off their cars.
That may not sound like fun, especially to native Buffalonians, but neither coach had scraped ice off his windshield in years. Wilford’s last two jobs were in San Diego and Anaheim. Christie spent the previous four years in Jacksonville, Fla.
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“It’s nice with the seasons,” Christie said in KeyBank Center. “Just to be able to see snowfall and stuff like that, it’s actually really good.”
The 52-year-old Alberta native is loving his first year back up north, but Christie didn’t come to Buffalo just to shovel and scrape. He and Wilford joined Don Granato’s staff to rebuild the Sabres.
“We’re going to keep getting better, and that’s the best part of it,” Christie said.
When Granato transitioned from interim to full-time coach during the offseason, he went to his past to help Buffalo’s future. Christie was a player/assistant coach under Granato with Peoria of the ECHL in 1999-2000, and they were ECHL teammates with the Columbus Chill for two seasons in the early ’90s. Granato coached Wilford in Columbus in 1997-98 during the defenseman’s first professional season.
This is hardly cronyism, though. The guys had been just casual acquaintances through the years, saying hello when their paths crossed but not meeting for weekly brunches or Parcheesi nights. Wilford and Christie impressed Granato during the summer interview process, so they joined fellow newcomer Matt Ellis on a coaching staff that already included assistant Mike Bales, a goalie specialist hired under Ralph Krueger.
Wilford was the only new arrival with significant NHL experience. The 44-year-old Ontario native spent the previous three years in Anaheim working for Dallas Eakins, who also used Wilford as his right-hand man with the Ducks’ AHL affiliate in San Diego for three seasons. Eakins credits Wilford for helping develop Hampus Lindholm and Shea Theodore into go-to defensemen.
“Marty’s an incredible coach,” Eakins said when the Sabres visited Anaheim this season. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a harder-working guy. He watches every minute of every game, and I still can’t understand how he finally gets it done.
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“I have the luxury and privilege to have a (video) staff underneath me that I kind of get to see what I need to see. Marty watches every minute of every game. He coaches 82, then he watches 82 again, and then he’s also doing pre-scouting, so this guy’s a tireless worker.”
Eakins said the Ducks’ decision to move on from Wilford was more about change for the sake of change, not because of coaching deficiencies. After Wilford got over the shock, he immediately found excitement in Buffalo.
“I’d spent 10 years in the Anaheim organization,” said Wilford, who also worked for the Ducks’ AHL teams when they called Syracuse and Norfolk home, “but when you look at what this has to offer, obviously it’s a new team and has exciting young pieces to work with. It was intriguing.”
One of Wilford’s specialties is relating to players. He had a 14-year pro career, including seven years in the AHL, and incorporates what he learned from coaches in his mentoring.
“In order to earn trust from players, you’ve got to show them how hard you work and how much you care for them,” Wilford said. “How you relay that message of getting them to buy into what you want or your staff wants is the next piece of it, too. You’ve got to really get to know players nowadays and learn what makes each guy tick.”
Wilford gets plenty of help in that area from Ellis. The former Sabres forward transitioned from director of player development to interim assistant coach when Granato took over in March, so Ellis is familiar with Buffalo’s young players and prospects. The 40-year-old has always wanted to coach, and last season’s taste cemented his outlook.
“I remember preparing for the first game here against Boston,” Ellis said. “The day was a bit of a whirlwind, just trying to figure out the process and expectations. But the one thing that really jumped out was when the puck dropped and you got behind the bench, all the anxiety and everything else leading up to that point went away. You feel the game, you see the game and you kind of live the game the same way you did as a player.”
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As overseer of the taxi squad last season, Ellis worked extensively with Casey Mittelstadt and Rasmus Asplund. It’s no coincidence they blossomed upon elevation to the NHL roster.
“He wants you to get better,” Asplund said. “He is paying attention to small, small details that you maybe don’t think about all the time.”
Christie helps Granato with small details away from the game. Christie holds the ECHL record for coaching victories with 667, leading his teams to 11 playoff appearances in 18 seasons. He was also the director of hockey operations for the Ontario Reign and the vice president of hockey ops in Jacksonville, giving him experience in putting out the small fires that Granato may not have time to worry about.
“The crisis management that you have at the ECHL level in being a head coach is amazing,” Granato said. “You’re dealing with not only agents and players; it’s the entire staff: training, medical, immigration, all that stuff. You do everything.
“So, for Jason, he’s like having another head coach right there every time that can help manage things.”
Granato has made sure the players hear from all his assistants. One day, Wilford may be running practice. The next day could feature Christie drawing drills on the board. Ellis is continually chatting with players while Bales talks with the goalies.
“Obviously, Donny’s a hammer,” Wilford said. “This is his first chance, too, and he wants things a certain way. But it’s very collaborative with all of us. He lets all of us take turns running our areas. Even if it’s not in your area, you can show something that might help the entire group.
“There’s no egos in here. As a group, it’s, ‘How are we going to get better today?’”
They’re all convinced the right guy is in charge. Fans have embraced Granato’s public persona, and his assistants see more in the back rooms.
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“It’s genuine, it’s authentic, it’s real,” Ellis said. “He treats people right. He has the passion that we as an organization want to gravitate toward. He’s got an incredible hockey mind.
“We have a real collaborative approach, and Donny is unique in that sense. He has a real sense of self, a real sense of objective as to how we’re trying to build and what we want to achieve as a group.”
Although they’re striving for immediate improvement, the coaches are aware Buffalo’s turnaround will be a process.
“We kind of use the mentality of ‘now and next,’” Ellis said. “We’re looking at, ‘What can we do right now and what can we do moving forward?’ For us, we’re looking to stack small victories on top of each other, whether it’s one rep, one drill, one period, one game, one shift — all of the above.
“That’s the mentality. We’re trying to create some positive traction. We’re trying to do this thing together.”
The newcomers are excited by the challenge. The weather is just an added bonus.
“When I come into work, it’s awesome,” Christie said. “You have to take some lumps in order to learn, and you’ve got to make sure that you learned from them. I think that’s what Grats strives to every day with all of us is how can we get better?
“We’ve got to own it. We’ve got to move forward. I know what we’re going through is going to make us better.”
(Top photo of Matt Ellis, Don Granato and Marty Wilford behind the players on the Sabres bench: Bill Wippert / NHLI via Getty Images)
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