Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato revealed Tuesday he's had a lot on his mind over the last 3-4 weeks other than his team's schedule.
That's how long Granato said the process has played out to learn his older brother, Tony, has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and will be starting treatment. Don Granato went through similar treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2005 and took a leave of absence as coach of the AHL's Worcester IceCats.
Tony Granato, the brother of Sabres coach Don Granato, announced Sunday night on social media that he has been diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and will begin treatment this week.
"Lots of thoughts," Don Granato said after practice in KeyBank Center. "Obviously, having gone through that myself, it's been a real challenging I guess 3-4 weeks for me and for him. When I went through my chemo treatment, it was extensive and he was there every single day for me in the in the chemo lab. I was even telling him you've got to go home to your family. He was in Colorado at the time (during the NHL lockout)."
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Tony Granato, 59, played 774 NHL games from 1987-2001 and was a key member of the 1993 Los Angeles Kings that lost in the Stanley Cup final to Montreal. He had two stints as a head coach of the Colorado Avalanche and was an assistant for Pittsburgh and Detroit before taking over as head coach at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, in 2016.
Don Granato worked as an assistant under his brother at Wisconsin for the 2016-17 season before taking a spot on Joel Quenneville's staff with the Chicago Blackhawks. Tony Granato was fired by Wisconsin in March after seven seasons and was working this year as a television analyst on Blackhawks games but has now taken a leave of absence.
"Tony and I are extremely close," Don Granato said. "I can tell you there's not a day that I've gone through in my life that I haven't been grateful in some way and reflected personally on what it's been like to have a brother three years older than you that's paved a way for you and taken care of you. He had 30 years in the NHL just about and I was able to live all those experiences, all those ups and downs."
"We know what a team checked out on its coach looks like. We saw it with Ralph Krueger and Phil Housley. That's not going on here," writes Mike Harrington.
Tony Granato was among the family members who gathered in Buffalo in 2019 when Don Granato endured a near-fatal blood disorder after the onset of pneumonia.
Don Granato said doctors at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo have assisted Tony Granato in referring treatment physicians in the Midwest.
"You don't know diagnosis, prognosis plan. It's a lot to take in," Don Granato said. "Doctors here at Roswell have been amazing to help us connect to the right people around the country to help. It feels good to have a plan and to know he has a plan moving forward. It's tough to be apart, but the ability to communicate is nice and I'm grateful for all the support that's come in really for him."
Granato said he's also particularly appreciative for the support of General Manager Kevyn Adams and multiple layers of the Sabres organization.
"Teams talk about family and they throw family around very, very generically I've found through my experience in sports," Granato said. "And then when one thing goes bad, it's 'whoa.' But not here. There's a lot of people that stand up. People stand up for people here and back people here through bad times as well as good times. So I think the support here is amazing."