Confirmed with Link: Sabres have promoted Seth Appert to assistant coach/Amir Gulati to video coordinator/Girardi let go

[rams]

I thought Prospal was coaching the PP in Roch? It was Appert?

 

[Beerz]

Sure, I’ll happily take the last word if you’re offering it, and the start will be directed to everyone on the board, rather than just you:

Stop stroking yourself over being mad about something. It’s never, ever that serious, much less impressive, and it sucks to read no matter who jerks along with you.

Returning to a personal point, I’m glad that we both don’t consider likes truly relevant to quality because the canes board demonstrated how pointless they were right after launch. It’s a buzz feature to draw engagement and if anything I think it spurs the sort of posting you don’t care for. I’d can it if I was king, but I’m not.

General again: This board isn’t a zoo but it’s not an academic conference either, and the beauty of the Internet forum lies in its limitless capacity. I don’t advocate using ignore functions in all but personal harassment cases, because it really is that easy to just not pay any mind to the things we don’t like. We know the posters we don’t agree with, and we know how they post, so why does the next post have any power over us? Don’t give anyone else here control over how you think and feel and you’ve won hfboards. It’s there for the taking, and we’re posting about posting instead of grabbing for it.

I wish I could like this more than once

 

[Chainshot]

His gorgon stare will turn the oppositions PP into stone or the opposite

Pegula will be installing some sort of experimental laser for Ellis is use? This has taken a Bond supervillain turn.

 

[Chainshot]

7 Billion people on Earth and Ruff just happens to choose Seth Appert

Great, now I have this song stuck in my head:

 

[oldgoalie]

Meh.
Not sure I like how this whole coaching structure is shaping up.

 

[Chainshot]

Regarding the powerplay, I did like that Rochester came to function using a three shooter option for the mid-row and a heavy net front and back post option as well. If they can adapt what they were running with Murray or Mersch as the net front and off post guys, and Jobst as the bumper, it is a lot more capable than just point man to flanker one-timers that Buffalo ran.

I wish I had spent more time working down New Jersey power-play to see what Ruff had them running there.

 

[Chainshot]

Regarding Girardi, I wonder if he and Marty were coaching different things resulting in confusion. They’ve got to defend the blue line better on entries and some of that can come from having forwards committed to coming back defensively.

Positionally, the top four all had issues with losing their man in space and not being able to turn to cover at the net. Too often they get too high on the flank and are of no help at the crease.

 

[Dingo44]

I wish I had spent more time working down New Jersey power-play to see what Ruff had them running there.

 

[joshjull]

17th in xGA on the PK isn't good. It's bottom half of the league. We were 19th in 2022-23 and 12th in 2021-22.

edit:
xGA on the PK
17th 2023-24
19th 2022-23
12th 2021-22

GA on the PK:
14th 2023-24
25th 2022-23
18th 2021-22

Teams don’t go on the PK the same amount each season. It’s why % is used to rank them. It makes no sense to use total goals against to do so.

Team A -> On PK 100x and gives up 20 goals (80% kill rate)
Team B -> On Pk 50x and gives up 18 goals (64% kill rate)

By your logic team B would be ranked higher and viewed as the better PKing team.


The Sabres PK the last 3 seasons

21-22 -> 23rd (76.4% kill rate)
22-23 -> 28th (73% kill rate)
23-24 -> 13th (79.8% kill rate)


The margins are also tight in the league with these rankings outside of the top and bottom.

For example this season the Sabres (13th 79.8%) were only 1% better than the 20th team (Seattle 78.8%) and only 1% worse than the 9th team (Flames 80.8%). Thats 12 teams in a 2% spread.

 

[joshjull]

I thought Prospal was coaching the PP in Roch? It was Appert?

Prospal had the similar role with the Amerks as Appert will have with Sabres.

From the Amerks website………Vinny Prospal enters first season as Assistant Coach in 2023-24 and will primarily will oversee the forwards and the power play units.


Not sure what it tells us about how much Appert can help the PP.

 

[Fjordy]

Not sure what it tells us about how much Appert can help the PP.

Then it is not clear why he is Lindy, except perhaps for youth development, but I expected a better candidate for an assistant. Appert is like poor Granato.

 

[Jim Bob]

Then it is not clear why he is Lindy, except perhaps for youth development, but I expected a better candidate for an assistant. Appert is like poor Granato.

I think he was bumped up to Buffalo for a few reasons:

1) He has coached a lot of the guys on the roster and guys that will be coming up from Rochester and can be a go between for Lindy.
2) Given that Lindy only signed a two year deal, Appert might be the head coach-in-waiting if things go according to Adams's plan.
3) They like Appert and were worried about losing him to another NHL club and this move was one that keeps Appert in the organization.

Also, on the PP thing, Lindy talked about working with Appert on the PP. Listening to ATW about the coaching staff, they pointed out that Lindy is one of the best Xs and Os coaches they had been around. And his work as an assistant in Florida before he got the Sabres job the first time and then his work as an assistant with the Rangers between his stints in Dallas and NJ speak to that.

So, I think that Lindy will have a lot of influence on the PP. It might be like in the NFL where you have an OC, but it is the head coach that really runs the offense and calls the plays.

 

[Jim Bob]

x.com

twitter.com

LIVE: Buffalo Sabres Assistant Coach Seth Appert | May 14, 2024

 

[Chainshot]

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Complete? More like complete shit!

Booooom, got ‘em! I.. wanna cry.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

I don't mind Appert getting the promotion, but I do wish we had more outside voices. There's still a whole lot of stink left on this staff. Which is frustrating, because there were multiple times last year when the entire coaching staff should've been canned.

But, as others have mentioned, the HC is by far the most important. Also, if Adams is aggressive with his roster additions AND adds players for defined roles, then all will be forgotten. I'm not confident that's going to play out, though.

That’s my issue as well. Had they hired Appert but gotten rid of Ellis and/or Wilford to allow Lindy to bring in fresh voices I wouldn’t be upset about Appert at all.

I just hate that he wasn’t allowed to bring in a single outside hire.

I also worry about how effective Ellis and Wilford are going to be preaching a new message to the same players… (and how effective they are at their jobs in general. lol)

 

[SundherDome]

Apparently Johnson looked pretty bad in the playoffs, so not sure how well he's developing.

He is 22 and in his first year of being a pro....

 

[BFLO]

Teams don’t go on the PK the same amount each season. It’s why % is used to rank them. It makes no sense to use total goals against to do so.

Team A -> On PK 100x and gives up 20 goals (80% kill rate)
Team B -> On Pk 50x and gives up 18 goals (64% kill rate)

By your logic team B would be ranked higher and viewed as the better PKing team.


The Sabres PK the last 3 seasons

21-22 -> 23rd (76.4% kill rate)
22-23 -> 28th (73% kill rate)
23-24 -> 13th (79.8% kill rate)


The margins are also tight in the league with these rankings outside of the top and bottom.

For example this season the Sabres (13th 79.8%) were only 1% better than the 20th team (Seattle 78.8%) and only 1% worse than the 9th team (Flames 80.8%). Thats 12 teams in a 2% spread.

I didn't bother with per/60 because the rankings were the same in 23-24 vs total and I'm feeling pretty low effort on my give a crap about the Sabres based on these hires.

But now that you brought it up...

PK
ga/60
21-22: 23rd
22-23: 29th
23-24: 14th

xga/60
21-22: 18th
22-23: 29th
23-24: 17th

ga/60 includes the play of the skaters and goalie, xga/60 only looks at the skaters.

Large year over year improvement from the skaters this season compared to last, but basically the same as they were 21-22. Still bottom half of the league. if just barely.

Large improvement in goaltending this year compared to either of the last 2 seasons. Which dragged us just barely into the top half of the league in overall PK.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

People who watched more Amerks games than me sure didn't sound like they thought Appert's team had much of a net-front presence on a consistent basis.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Meh.
Not sure I like how this whole coaching structure is shaping up.

agreed, Rolston deja vu vibes here

 

[sabremike]

Returning to a personal point, I’m glad that we both don’t consider likes truly relevant to quality because the canes board demonstrated how pointless they were right after launch. It’s a buzz feature to draw engagement and if anything I think it spurs the sort of posting you don’t care for. I’d can it if I was king, but I’m not.

Seriously, HF Canes is the most fun place on this entire site.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Watching the Devils' power play, it looks like a classic 1-3-1 with a bumper and net front.

What was different from the Sabres:

- The umbrella players crossed a lot. Like more in one game than the Sabres did all season. Hamilton ended up on the half wall a lot, which helped him get free when he rotated back to the top of the power play.

- The bumper crashes low immediately on the shot.

- They had some power plays where the bumper went and created a double net front, and one of them stay backside at times.

- The backside half wall umbrella forward went to back post on the shot. That meant that they gave up possession in the zone if the shooter went high (as the puck went around the glass and out). But that can be fixed by coaching the shooters to get the puck on net.

- On the shot, the Devil routinely had the net front on top of the goalie, bumper just off the goalie for a front side rebound, and back side half wall forward dropping low for a backside rebound.

Overall it looked pretty effective though I didn't look at the stats.

 

[Beerz]

He is 22 and in his first year of being a pro....

I didn't think he played poorly tbh.. the whole team was getting caved in most of the time but nothing stood out as bad in RJs game.

 

[Chainshot]

People who watched more Amerks games than me sure didn't sound like they thought Appert's team had much of a net-front presence on a consistent basis.

Mersch or Murray would go there and stay. When one was out, the second unit didn’t really have an option until Wahlberg arrived. Jobst was actually interesting as a bumper shot option who could also pass to either flanker. Rosen was usually on the left flank, Kulich on the right. It was weird with a fifth forward in Biro as the high hub.