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

[Chainshot]

They do still have a singular spot open on the bench for another new guy; perhaps Lindy has interests in another specific coach that may still be in the playoffs in some capacity.

While I would like to believe that happens, the team just announced their staff is complete.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

They do still have a singular spot open on the bench for another new guy; perhaps Lindy has interests in another specific coach that may still be in the playoffs in some capacity.

The team released a statement saying that the coaching team is fully in place, so that's clearly not their intention.

 

[Chainshot]

I don't see the big deal with Appert. I think he has been a "meh" coach in rochester, but his familiarity with our core players probably elevates his value to the bench.

Having watched most of the Amerks games the last three seasons, I don’t see someone who schemed or out coaches anyone. His rep at Union was of poor tactical coaching and that held up in multiple viewings over different personnel in Rochester.

The same posters that declared Ellis better be moved to player development or up in the press box are super mad that he is an assistant coach that will be.....up in the press box.

People wanted him not part of the team staff. He was “being reassigned” per the original Granato firing. The expectation was he wouldn’t be around and would go back to where he came - namely the dev coaching and Academy of Hockey stuff.

A lot of us need to step back from the ledge. We aren't even to the draft yet and the feuds are heated.

 

[Chainshot]

The team is on record saying the staff is complete.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

The team is on record saying the staff is complete.

A group of guys who Lindy never met until May, 2024.

 

[Chainshot]

A group of guys who Lindy never met until May, 2024.

Yeah, I’m not enjoying this as Rayzor would say, atoll.

 

[Duddy]

A bunch of meh in a giant pile of meh. Hoping for the best, expecting not a lot.

 

[Beerz]

The team is on record saying the staff is complete.

I need to know the difference between a video coach and video coordinator

 

[SundherDome]

I'm not sure our young D developed well under Wilford. There is no question for Bales, he should have stayed. I was expecting 1-2 assistants with NHL experience. Appert and Rochester haven't been as good this season as they were last season. Yes, he seems to know how to work with young forwards, but we are not in a development season and will have to fight for a place in the playoffs, I don’t know how they will cope, all hope is for Ruff and for Adams to make 2-3 good trades.

I think the young d developed nicely this year.

Dahlin hit 20 goals and still had a boatload of points while not being a tire fire defensively.

Power had basically the same season as his Calder finalist season. I think we all hoped he would take another step but that isn't the norm for young dmen.

Jokiharju became serviceable.

Bryson wasn't an absolute liability.

Samuelsson had his normal injury riddled season.

Clifton was up and down.

R. Johnson looked good in his time up here.

I think Marty did a fine job and a lot of the frustrations come from the offense not being able to do anything. My hope would be for an overall structure to be out into place that helps them on zone exits (stop blowing the zone early) and allows the back end to support the offense without it looking like street hockey.

 

[old kummelweck]

I don't think you understand the meaning of the term "hot take" if you think I was talking about the understandable skepticism of some posters on retaining a few assistants and promoting Appert.

Just googled 'hot take', and wow you're right! All these years...

 

[Sabre the Win]

Yeah, I’m not enjoying this as Rayzor would say, atoll.

Only person I don't mind is Wilford. Bales has failed with too many goaltenders, UPL's late seasons heroics doesn't change that.

 

[SundherDome]

I need to know the difference between a video coach and video coordinator

What is a Video Coach?
It is exactly as it sounds, a member of the coaching staff that is there to use technology and video footage to help the players and the team succeed. With the improvement in technology and the digitization of footage, players and coaches can quite literally ask for any play from any game in the NHL. The Video Coach has full access to the NHL games database and is able to pull footage to cut and edit each game for specific plays and series that may need to be reviewed.

You generally will not see the Video Coach on the bench with the other members of the coaching staff though. They are usually holed up in an office or different part of the arena where they have access to multiple computers and monitors to constantly review and prepare footage for intermissions and post-game reviews. Before, it was mostly after or between games when coaches and players would want to re-watch game film, but now, it can be at any time, even streaming footage for coaches to review on the bench in real-time. Talk about utilizing technology during the game!


Video Coordinator seems to be their assistant to help out and assigned tasks i.e., cut up the 3 second period Power plays by unit and get it to the coach by intermission while the coach grabs the PK and 5v5 tape.

 

[Chainshot]

Only person I don't mind is Wilford. Bales has failed with too many goaltenders, UPL's late seasons heroics doesn't change that.

I wasn’t a Bales fan until this the year. Still not but I find the goalie emergence and Comrie reworking his technique notable.

I loathe how their defensemen play rush defense, how they defend at the net, their positioning and some of their stick details, so Wilford gone wouldn’t bother me a bit.

 

[Sabre the Win]

I wasn’t a Bales fan until this the year. Still not but I find the goalie emergence and Comrie reworking his technique notable.

I loathe how their defensemen play rush defense, how they defend at the net, their positioning and some of their stick details, so Wilford gone wouldn’t bother me a bit.

The PK has been good tho

 

[Jim Bob]

She’s a trainer with the Amerks.

 

[Chainshot]

The PK has been good tho

The PK was also bad with him the year prior. What changed? The couple of things I noticed were removing Okposo from the PK, going with pressure killers at forward instead. And they took Jokiharju completely off the unit until around the trade deadline. Dahlin’s PK minutes also took a dip until late in the year, they kept him away from the grind of it. I didn’t see the defensemen who were here the year prior doing much differently. EJ and Clifton though did.

 

[Chainshot]

The two hires do seem like culture driven moves. I don’t like Appert’s in game management and some of his d-zone coverage EVERY year can be viewed with clown music running.

But he does seem to get the importance of what they do and how they prepare. I think he gets to be the “nice“ assistant the guys can talk to some of them already know from him that having been around the team for so long now. That he’s been running dev camp and part of training camps does give him some familiarity with more than just Quinn or Peterka.

This also makes me wonder just how hard they’re going to lean into being even younger next year. Rousek, Rosen, Kulich, RJohnson, Levi could all see significant time next season depending on what happens this summer.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I think the young d developed nicely this year.

Dahlin hit 20 goals and still had a boatload of points while not being a tire fire defensively.

Power had basically the same season as his Calder finalist season. I think we all hoped he would take another step but that isn't the norm for young dmen.

Jokiharju became serviceable.

Bryson wasn't an absolute liability.

Samuelsson had his normal injury riddled season.

Clifton was up and down.

R. Johnson looked good in his time up here.

I think Marty did a fine job and a lot of the frustrations come from the offense not being able to do anything. My hope would be for an overall structure to be out into place that helps them on zone exits (stop blowing the zone early) and allows the back end to support the offense without it looking like street hockey.

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

 

[Chainshot]

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

I would say very few if any of the Rochester defense looked good. They were missing the ability to exit the cleanly. None of their vet defense could do that, let alone the three rookies.

 

[BFLO]

I mean this simply isn’t true. Our head scout was in tears last year because he was “finally under a GM who let them do their job.” His words.

I thought the real reason our head scout was in tears was because he was so happy that he was one of the like 6 people not fired by Kevyn the day he became GM.

Gotta brown nose to keep your job in this circus.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Biggest apprehension with the Apperts hire is the clearly disappointing series he just had against the Crunch.

He was out coached and outmatched and our forwards for that series were mostly rendered ineffective against career AHLers.

Levi bailed that team out or it was done by Game 4 actually it might have been a sweep if not for Levi.

Yeah. Same thing happened last year when they met Hershey in the playoffs. It's the same issue the Sabres have- good defensive teams that play physical hockey outclass them.

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.

 

[BFLO]

The PK has been good tho

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

 

[Dubi Doo]

The two hires do seem like culture driven moves. I don’t like Appert’s in game management and some of his d-zone coverage EVERY year can be viewed with clown music running.

But he does seem to get the importance of what they do and how they prepare. I think he gets to be the “nice“ assistant the guys can talk to some of them already know from him that having been around the team for so long now. That he’s been running dev camp and part of training camps does give him some familiarity with more than just Quinn or Peterka.

This also makes me wonder just how hard they’re going to lean into being even younger next year. Rousek, Rosen, Kulich, RJohnson, Levi could all see significant time next season depending on what happens this summer.

If that's the plan, then it'll be another year full of growing pains leading to a playoff birth coming down to the wire (if at all). Let's hope they don't throw the young players to the fire like that. Im growing tired of seeing the Cozens of the world having to answer the bell when teams start bullying us. We desperately need some sandpaper in the LU

 

[billsandsabres]

i'll just park this here again. let's go red.

 

[BFLO]

These assistants are as uninspiring as the head coaching hire.

I'm not surprised at all.

I'll be shocked if Kevyn does more than the bare minimum with roster additions this offseason.

I expect us to be >$5mil under the cap.

Drought year 14, we're coming for ya! *chugs bud light*