When Power Loses to Force... Players Lose
Don Granato's Infinite Game and Buffalo's Finite Mistake
Don Granato is the embodiment of coaching In-Powered.
Calibration Level = Above 540 (unconditional love)
The energy field of someone at this level has transcended their ego, coaches ‘for’ the players, and creates a powerful pull just by ‘being who they are’.
They also leave the place better than they found it because that was their only goal coming in.
Don is an infinite player. And he’s been doing it for years.
The first difference between Power and Force is who you are doing it for.
Day 1 many coaches bask in the congratulations and adulation of getting a really cool position in hockey. Day 1 as the ‘interim’ guy, you might be thrown into ‘survival mode’ because you want to keep the job.
Not Don… Day 1 he is looking to be ‘for’ the organization.
Not ‘how can I keep this job’?
But ‘how can I serve here’?
Force is selfish. Power is selfless.
Force is short-term. Power is long game.
Longest View in Green Bay
In 2021, I wrote this piece not knowing someone named Don Granato had already ran my theoretical thought experiment if I ever became a junior coach again:
In a few junior leagues in North America, there is no limit on the number of 20-year-olds a team can have. In theory, you could have an entire team of players who are in their last year of eligibility.
You could have an entire team of 17-year-olds too if you wanted.
With the right owner, GM, and head coach you could keep most of your team together in those leagues for 4 years. Before you say anything, yes some of them will develop and advance to tier 1 junior hockey… I get that… Stay with me.
But what if you could keep 80% or more of those players together for 3 or 4 years?
If you could get an owner on board with going 2-54 in the first year of the experiment without firing the coach, trading all the players, etc… You could play a long-term developmental game and a long-term “winning” game.
You might not even need to go 2-54.
Nobody in junior hockey is trying to win a championship 3 or 4 years in the future. Just like no team in the NBA was trying to do what Sam Hinkie was trying to do. If everyone’s trying to win now, play a different game.
Turns out Don ran the experiment in Green Bay during his time in the USHL…
Source: Tweets quoted from Athletic article
Power has the longest view in the room and needs time for the process to play out.
Force gets tired of Buffalo improving over 3 years under Granato and firing him because it ‘didn’t happen fast enough’.
How to Invert Success: Do What Buffalo is Doing
For 3 years the Buffalo Sabres decided to pick a direction and run. Let’s call that direction east. If you run east for 3 years, you can get pretty far.
This is compounding with intentionality. This is the infinite game building to a crescendo.
But when you get here like the Sabres did… Knocking on the door to the playoffs, one of two things happens.
Force folds and does a 180 right before they strike treasure.
Power gives in another swing.
When the voices get loud, you learn what organizations stand for and the integrity (or lack of it) that they stand on.
The voices got loud and the Sabres folded on everything they built.
And now the players have the unfortunate task of dealing with a serious gap in energy between the old coach and the new one:
Imagine your favorite coach you’ve ever had in your life getting fired and the team bringing in the least favorite coach you’ve ever had.
That’s what Owen Power and the gang have to look forward to dealing with.
Someone who loves for someone who shames.
Someone who forgives for someone who condemns.
Someone who allows freedom and creativity for someone who restricts.
Someone In-Power for someone in Force.
When Power loses to an organization that devolves back to Force, the players lose in the end.