Updated Seth Appert Hired as Amerks HC/Adam Mair and Mike Weber Named Asst Coaches

[In The Buff]

4 hours ago, Drag0nDan said:

I don't get why everyone loves the guy so much tbh.  He was fine - but I don't know that winning at the AHL level has a correlation with young 19-21 year old AHL players becoming good NHL players.  The only player who really graduated in his tenure was olofsson who spent several years in sweden before he came here.  So he didn't exactly help a 19 year old navigate professional hockey.  Nylander, Guhle, Fasching, Baptiste, Bailey - none turned into players and all have been traded. 

There are going to be a fair amount of new faces in the AHL this season.  Perhaps it was the right time for a change for that reason, and maybe they believe this guy can help them become more effective pro's.  

This is the last im gonna speak on this topic, so forgive me for the length of my post. Its not that i "love Taylor that much", as you said yourself he was "fine".  I guess thats probably the question I & others had, with so many problems this franchise has, why fire someone who appeared was actually doing fine? If we could just get that with our Sabres, i think we'd be happy with that at first, as we haven't had fine in a long long time. So why was he let go? Having a clean slate makes sense, saving money makes sense (if there were any savings), upgrading makes sense. Up until his termination we hadn't once heard anyone say anything negative about him at all. I also don't think we can look at Taylors firing in a vacuum, as it was one of many terminations that day. If it was just him being let go, you could read other things into it. But with this, who knows what to think. Clean slate makes the most sense to me.

As for winning in the AHL, i think theres something to be said that when you're trying to change the culture at the NHL level, you'd like to see your AHL team have success as well. When you look at when Rochester was sniffing the Calder Cup regularly, it coincided with the Sabres doing well. Is there a correlation? Idk but it would seem there is. Also seems the majority of minor league teams that have been in the Calder Cup recently have parent teams that are successful too. Correlation? Who knows, but there seems there is to some degree. Maybe it means those franchises just have their act together more so than others. Maybe they have better prospects & players who are pushing to be in the NHL. Or maybe in our case they augmented the lack of promising NHL ready prospects with AHL vets in order to have success there.

"As for Nylander, Guhle, Fasching, Baptiste, Bailey - none turned into players and all have been traded"... they still haven't turned into players with the exception of Nylander really, & even then he's a question mark. You could add many more names of disappointing players, its one thing we have succeeded with in this organization, a stockpile of disappointing players. Really too many to mention, but add Mittlestadt, Tage, Rodriguez, Pilut, Fedun, Tennyson, Nelson, Asplund, Oglevie. Not a lot there to speak of other than fringe NHL players. CaseyM stands out, but can we honestly blame Taylor for him? I had hope for Pilut but u know how that worked out. Asplund could be a Larsson, Tage might be something one day, but look at the prospects we've had over the years. Pull up those rosters online & look at em. We're not gonna get an all star from any of them, yet alone a top 6, top 4. Who do u blame for their lack of development? Could be coaching, but is it the coaches fault for everyone or are these players just who they are? Maybe most of them just suck? Oloffson didn't develop until he was 24. He rose to the top. Was it Taylor that helped propel him or is Victor just a cut above everyone else? Did lightning strike & we just happened to get lucky with drafting him? Maybe it's just gonna take 5 years for Casey to mature, coach be damned. But by then he probably won't be with us anymore either.

For the past 10 years our Sabres have sucked, where now they're the punchline to random people's jokes on the internet chatting during the NHL Playoffs. Most of the players we've brought in have sucked. All the GM's we've hired, the coaches we hired, have all sucked. Those names you mentioned, they sucked here, they're with new teams & they suck there too. The biggest issue i see that affects both the Sabres & Amerks is that our managing of assets & drafting has sucked & its been spoken here ad nauseum for many years on this board. Fire Taylor, replace him with some other guy, i don't care. Our problems are bigger than him & have been for a very long time. Since the Pegs fired just about everyone, it seems they agree. But they also fired the 1 guy who seemed to be doing fine. Thats it.

[Thorny]

I'm not sure if the term petty ridiculousness is fair considering the author admitted it was poorly worded, leading to the confusion, but thanks for the clarification. 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Thorny

[IKnowPhysics]

14 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I'm not sure if the term petty ridiculousness is fair

No?

On 8/17/2020 at 8:22 PM, SwampD said:

This is a rudderless f***ing s**tshow.

 

On 8/17/2020 at 9:05 PM, SwampD said:

****ing ***tshow.

 

On 8/18/2020 at 1:19 PM, Thorny said:

This is exactly the type of news we were supposed to be getting away from. I just don’t want all that speak to be bullsh*t.

 

On 8/18/2020 at 2:03 PM, Weave said:

Just sticking with plain old professionalism, this seems like a bad look to me.

 

3 hours ago, Curt said:

They will never publicly admit that it’s true, let alone give an explanation for it, and rightfully so.  

Disagree.

[SwampD]

9 minutes ago, IKnowPhysics said:

 

Disagree.

With what?

[shrader]

13 hours ago, IKnowPhysics said:

 

 

That "poorly-worded" part at the end is absolutely hilarious.  It goes so well with that first sentence, which I have absolutely no idea what it means.  The double negative is messing with my mind.

Edited August 20, 2020 by shrader

[LTS]

On 8/18/2020 at 6:24 PM, Curt said:

How many more changes can there possibly be???  What prominent position in the hockey department hasn’t changed?

I would expect a change with RK himself frankly.

15 hours ago, kas23 said:

But, this is part of the problem. If this is true, the firing of Taylor never properly addressed this problem. It takes 2 people to stop talking to each other. And, if this is allowed to continue to fester, the problem worsens. What I would like Kruger (or even KA, if Kruger doesn’t have the stones) to publicly explain is why this occurred and what did he do to attempt to solve it (he obviously failed to resolved it, outside of fairing the guy after the fact). 

I think you overplay it.  It really does not take two people to stop talking to each other.  If one person is not listening then the other person is only talking at someone.  Semantics perhaps. As we know, there was communication, it was just not from RK to Taylor, and to a certain degree that makes sense.  The GMs should be the go between as the coaches are busy working on their teams.  

I think what's happening now is people are attributing more influence to RK and along with that is the expectation that he should have done more.  I would disagree. I think his job was to evaluate from his position and still perform the HC duties, which he did.  It was Adams who was obviously tasked with a deeper level of information gathering.

All in all, it is what it is.  I don't think Taylor was unsuccessful, but neither was he successful.  He may have objected to the other changes going on and as such could have been construed as a potential ongoing problem in the organization.

[Taro T]

7 hours ago, LTS said:

I would expect a change with RK himself frankly.

I think you overplay it.  It really does not take two people to stop talking to each other.  If one person is not listening then the other person is only talking at someone.  Semantics perhaps. As we know, there was communication, it was just not from RK to Taylor, and to a certain degree that makes sense.  The GMs should be the go between as the coaches are busy working on their teams. 

I think what's happening now is people are attributing more influence to RK and along with that is the expectation that he should have done more.  I would disagree. I think his job was to evaluate from his position and still perform the HC duties, which he did.  It was Adams who was obviously tasked with a deeper level of information gathering.

All in all, it is what it is.  I don't think Taylor was unsuccessful, but neither was he successful.  He may have objected to the other changes going on and as such could have been construed as a potential ongoing problem in the organization.

With all due respect, disagree with the bolded portion of the take.  The GMs are building the teams, but the coach is setting the philosophy of the system to use with the players he has and how to implement it.  The farm team coach should be on the same page with the other head coach and IMHO the best way to ensure that is to have them talking regularly (say every couple of weeks at least, again IMHO).  The guys getting called up have enough to worry about knowing everybody they'll face now has NHL wheels rather than just some of them.  Having to worry about figuring out generally what he should be doing in addition to the nuances of his new linemates is a tall order.

[kas23]

39 minutes ago, Taro T said:

With all due respect, disagree with the bolded portion of the take.  The GMs are building the teams, but the coach is setting the philosophy of the system to use with the players he has and how to implement it.  The farm team coach should be on the same page with the other head coach and IMHO the best way to ensure that is to have them talking regularly (say every couple of weeks at least, again IMHO).  The guys getting called up have enough to worry about knowing everybody they'll face now has NHL wheels rather than just some of them.  Having to worry about figuring out generally what he should be doing in addition to the nuances of his new linemates is a tall order.

It’s almost like giving someone (a player in this instance) a promotion and not bothering to speak to their supervisor to see what their strengths are and what they need to continue to improve.
 

And, as you suggest, the Sabres organization should play a uniform system. There should be a single vision on how they want their players to behave on the ice and it should be evident at both levels. I honestly thought they had this with Taylor and PH, and thought they were going to make a change once Ralph was hired because he teaches a much different game. Did Taylor adapt his team to this at all? Whose responsibility should it have been to make this happen?

Edited August 21, 2020 by kas23

[LTS]

12 hours ago, Taro T said:

With all due respect, disagree with the bolded portion of the take.  The GMs are building the teams, but the coach is setting the philosophy of the system to use with the players he has and how to implement it.  The farm team coach should be on the same page with the other head coach and IMHO the best way to ensure that is to have them talking regularly (say every couple of weeks at least, again IMHO).  The guys getting called up have enough to worry about knowing everybody they'll face now has NHL wheels rather than just some of them.  Having to worry about figuring out generally what he should be doing in addition to the nuances of his new linemates is a tall order.

Doesn't the GM usually hire a coach that will implement and focus on a system that the GM believes should be played?  I realize it's not that black and white, but the GM doesn't usually go out and find a coach that is not in line with some level of the philosophy of the GM on how to win in the NHL.

The GMs of the two organizations are the ones who set the vision, acquire the players, etc.  They take input, but the coaches don't run the show.

But, frankly, I think after experiencing Taylor for the beginning of the season my guess is that they knew they were going to get rid of him.  Last season was a throwaway season. (yes, another one).  It was acceptable from the owner standpoint to allow them to assess their organization.  I am sure they don't love being criticized, but in the long run if they do what is right and build a winner in a few years then no one will care enough to worry about 2020.  If they don't?  Well, they get to try again or sell the team... 

People like to think that businesses don't intentionally lose money, but that's simply not true.  Of course it might be more accurate to say that a business owner is okay with not maximizing revenue for a period of time to allow for foundational initiatives to take hold.  It's the same as intentionally losing money, but it provides a reason.  I'm involved in a project right now that is losing money for the company, a lot of money, and they are willing to let it go because of the promise of the better tomorrow.  I think the Pegulas are at that point, or were at that point, with the Sabres. 

[dudacek]

Decent listen here: Appert on the Instigators.

https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/08-21-amerks-head-coach-seth-appert-0

He really seems cut from the same cloth as Adams, Krueger, Beane and McDermott: comfortable, articulate, confident, relatable; the Pegulas have definitely gravitated to a type.

[Brawndo]

Adam Mair and Mike Weber named Asst Coaches 

[LGR4GM]

Mike Weber is back!?!?!?!? Oh hell yes. 

[dudacek]

No idea what he learned or how good he was in this two years of being an assistant in the OHL.

But I have all the time in the world for Mike Weber.

Or really, any other Frolunda alum.

[nfreeman]

Mairsie and Webby!

Things are starting to look up around here...

[PASabreFan]

Oh absotutely! Future Sabres head coaches, no doat!

 

[LTS]

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Adam Mair and Mike Weber named Asst Coaches 

Can the fans in Rochester boo the team?  Asking for a friend.

[That Aud Smell]

Is Weber one of those guys on whom Terry Pegula man-crushed? Or was that just Gaustad?

[Drag0nDan]

My friend used to call weber "not butler".