Former Amerks Assistant Vinny Prospal joining St Louis Coaching Staff

[Brawndo]

 

[steveoath]

I thought he was going to be up with the big team here 😞

[Amerks8796]

If there is such a thing, my favorite assistant ever on the Amerks. A great power play and brutal honesty in every interview. 

[sabremike]

While we keep the most incompetent assistant coach in the entire league Seth Appert. Can't wait for Leone to bail so Rochester ends up a Bridgeport level flaming pile of horseshit on the ice.

5 minutes ago, Amerks8796 said:

If there is such a thing, my favorite assistant ever on the Amerks. A great power play and brutal honesty in every interview. 

THIS ***** ORGANIZATION MAN...

[dudacek]

Loved Prospal's interviews almost as much as I love Seth Appert's effect on Sabrespace 🤣

[LGR4GM]

*****

[Scottysabres]

39 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Loved Prospal's interviews almost as much as I love Seth Appert's effect on Sabrespace 🤣

Seth does get dumped on with regularity, hell I myself am a Fire Appert!!! regular.

But, he’s earned every Fire Appert!!! he’s received this season in my view anyways. 🤪

[DarthEbriate]

It would’ve been nice to keep Prospal in some capacity. But if you’re not ready to promote him, gotta let him go find his way. Maybe he learns and improves and returns. 

[Huckleberry]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

*****

He should have been our next I think

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

It would’ve been nice to keep Prospal in some capacity. But if you’re not ready to promote him, gotta let him go find his way. Maybe he learns and improves and returns. 

This happens a lot and if the Sabres/Amerks were an enjoyable experience for him then he could cycle back someday. He sure has earned a lot of respect from the avid Amerk followers    

[French Collection]

Good luck Vinny, too bad they are all in on their current staff.
 

Surely he could have run a PP at the NHL level, he played on a pretty good one with Lecavalier and St Louis.

Appert the NCAA goalie must have faced some incredible PPs back in his day to have his wealth of knowledge.

[Mr. MVP]

I still want Peca to come back.  

[Archie Lee]

I don't recall any announcements on a replacement for Mair on the development side.  I am still holding out some hope that perhaps Ellis will move back to development and we will add a new voice from the outside to the coaching room. It isn't anything against Ellis that makes me want such a change (I think fan criticisms of our assistants are largely superficial and lacking any real knowledge of what the real work of an assistant entails), but rather just a general, I think logical, view that it is unlikely that the best assistant coaches just happened to already be under contract to the Sabres when Ruff came back. An organization can't really claim that they are doing everything they can to win, while also concluding that there are no better assistant coaches than the ones inherited from the prior regime.  

[tom webster]

16 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Seth does get dumped on with regularity, hell I myself am a Fire Appert!!! regular.

But, he’s earned every Fire Appert!!! he’s received this season in my view anyways. 🤪

He does if you accept the following;

1) Coaching is the main problem with the PP.

2) His only role is the PP.

I would argue #1 and know #2 is wrong but some of my most respected friends argue with me daily about #1, so who really knows.

[inkman]

48 minutes ago, tom webster said:

He does if you accept the following;

1) Coaching is the main problem with the PP.

2) His only role is the PP.

I would argue #1 and know #2 is wrong but some of my most respected friends argue with me daily about #1, so who really knows.

I've long thought the PP is a function of the players on the ice rather than the coaching provided.  Show me a good PP, I'll point to the 3-4 elite extra man performers.  

[tom webster]

3 minutes ago, inkman said:

I've long thought the PP is a function of the players on the ice rather than the coaching provided.  Show me a good PP, I'll point to the 3-4 elite extra man performers.  

And even that is no guarantee. Look at Colorado, all that talent and one of the leagues worst power plays. Same thing with Vegas in the playoffs.

Power plays are almost as weird as goaltending.

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, inkman said:

I've long thought the PP is a function of the players on the ice rather than the coaching provided.  Show me a good PP, I'll point to the 3-4 elite extra man performers.  

Coaching can stiffle a PP.  Look at how the Sabres PP ran with Bob Woods and then how it ran after he left.  Towards the end of that 1st season without him, the players convinced the coaches to let them do what they knew worked, and it worked.  (Fortunately, in that one instance, Housley was true to what he is.  Good ol' Whimpley.)

 

[GoPuckYourself]

How does Appert still have a job here? What does this staff see in him? How can he possibly be the next HC in line if he can't even run an effective power play? This is so disappointing.

[pi2000]

47 minutes ago, GoPuckYourself said:

How does Appert still have a job here? What does this staff see in him? How can he possibly be the next HC in line if he can't even run an effective power play? This is so disappointing.

It's not Apperts' powerplay.

Lindy is the guy scheming up the special teams with input from his assistants.

Appert is just the guy we see drawing up Lindy's powerplay on the whiteboard.

Besides, the struggles on the power play are not due to scheme, it's due to boneheaded mental mistakes on zone entries by Tage or Dahlin.   

To be honest, Dahlin (and Tage) hockey IQ is below average...  Dahlin is effective because of his physical talent, he rarely makes next level IQ plays, more often than not he gets away with low IQ plays because of his physical ability.      For a guy who's been in the league as long as he has, he makes way too many mental errors.

Back to the topic...   I like Appert and the energy he brings.    He was successful in Rochester and played a large part in the development of guys like Kulich, Quinn, Peterka, Samuelsson, etc..  

This team was one goal away from the ECF, Lindy won't be making any changes to his staff.  

[Scottysabres]

6 hours ago, tom webster said:

He does if you accept the following;

1) Coaching is the main problem with the PP.

2) His only role is the PP.

I would argue #1 and know #2 is wrong but some of my most respected friends argue with me daily about #1, so who really knows.

I don’t know Tom, he’s in charge of a portion of the projected offensive expectations systems within the organization and it performed wholly inadequately for a team with this much offensive fire power.

Yes the players need to be held to account for on ice decisions as well, I don’t disagree.

But it is the coaching strategy that adjusts, emphasizes and generally holds those players to account for said poor decisions. That didn’t happen here in Buffalo to any degree of success.

My view from the seats is all.

[thewookie1]

3 hours ago, pi2000 said:

It's not Apperts' powerplay.

Lindy is the guy scheming up the special teams with input from his assistants.

Appert is just the guy we see drawing up Lindy's powerplay on the whiteboard.

Besides, the struggles on the power play are not due to scheme, it's due to boneheaded mental mistakes on zone entries by Tage or Dahlin.   

To be honest, Dahlin (and Tage) hockey IQ is below average...  Dahlin is effective because of his physical talent, he rarely makes next level IQ plays, more often than not he gets away with low IQ plays because of his physical ability.      For a guy who's been in the league as long as he has, he makes way too many mental errors.

Back to the topic...   I like Appert and the energy he brings.    He was successful in Rochester and played a large part in the development of guys like Kulich, Quinn, Peterka, Samuelsson, etc..  

This team was one goal away from the ECF, Lindy won't be making any changes to his staff.  

Dahlin does not have a low Hockey IQ, a bit to much of a risk taker at time but not a low IQ. I know you just like to hate on him but this team isn't a playoff team without him.

Thompson is average IQ but with a penchant for brain farts.

 

[tom webster]

2 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

I don’t know Tom, he’s in charge of a portion of the projected offensive expectations systems within the organization and it performed wholly inadequately for a team with this much offensive fire power.

Yes the players need to be held to account for on ice decisions as well, I don’t disagree.

But it is the coaching strategy that adjusts, emphasizes and generally holds those players to account for said poor decisions. That didn’t happen here in Buffalo to any degree of success.

My view from the seats is all.

Like I said, power plays are quirky and don’t always correlate to offensive abilities of the players.

Whenever my friends make the same argument, I ask one question. On a franchise that spent the better part of two years trying to change the culture and make their sole focus on winning, do you really think they would let a coach remain that was doing his part to hinder the winning? 

[Taro T]

4 minutes ago, tom webster said:

Like I said, power plays are quirky and don’t always correlate to offensive abilities of the players.

Whenever my friends make the same argument, I ask one question. On a franchise that spent the better part of two years trying to change the culture and make their sole focus on winning, do you really think they would let a coach remain that was doing his part to hinder the winning? 

100%.  Particularly if the guy is well liked (we all know people that have positions they don't belong in because the bigger boss likes them), well spoken, and there are other aspects of the job that he actually does do well.

[Scottysabres]

1 minute ago, tom webster said:

Like I said, power plays are quirky and don’t always correlate to offensive abilities of the players.

Whenever my friends make the same argument, I ask one question. On a franchise that spent the better part of two years trying to change the culture and make their sole focus on winning, do you really think they would let a coach remain that was doing his part to hinder the winning? 

No, I do not believe an organization would allow a staff member to remain that is an actual negative impact on the goals set.

However, given the stated objective and the results of one of the tools to achieve that objective, it is not unreasonable to see change as a way forward as opposed to trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results that do not materialize. This does not constitute, in any way, shape or form, an emotional reaction from those who want the change, it is merely logic at this point given the plethora of data gathered on the Sabres power play over a full season.
 

 

[tom webster]

17 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

No, I do not believe an organization would allow a staff member to remain that is an actual negative impact on the goals set.

However, given the stated objective and the results of one of the tools to achieve that objective, it is not unreasonable to see change as a way forward as opposed to trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results that do not materialize. This does not constitute, in any way, shape or form, an emotional reaction from those who want the change, it is merely logic at this point given the plethora of data gathered on the Sabres power play over a full season.
 

 

It’s logical only if you believe that he’s the problem.