Seth Appert Post Skate | 12.29.23
So you just coming out about going down to Jacksonville is this kind of a necessary step for him to just if nothing else get in games yeah uh nads has done a really good job he came um and you know had to kind of increase the daily habits and the work ethic and
And the fitness and how to practice and all those things that he’s young you know I I talked to him like I If he was a college player instead of a junior player he’d be a junior in college tearing it up right now and everybody would be thrilled about and but
Sometimes you know the guys that play Junior they have turned Pro very young and it’s a hard League to play in as a 20-year-old and he was making some really good progress he had a couple real good games and then he had the high ankle sprain high ankle sprains are one
Of the worst injuries you can have as a hockey player um and and it’s been tough coming back out of that and now our numbers that was also a time we were pretty decimated with injuries and he was going to get a 10 15 game Run of of
15 minutes a night playing in the top three lines and um so now we have a deeper number of forwards um and he’s coming back off that injury and we he needs to play games and um we had a good meeting with him we really like him he’s
Very smart hockey player he’s a great kid and he just needs to go play games right now uh he’s going to be back here uh when that is you know TBD but but he’s he’s a he’s going to be a really good player in this league but at this
Point he just needs to play hockey games I’m sure you love coaching but those conversations probably have to be the worst part about the job talk to a guy have to set them down um I don’t know how much you can give in terms of insight there but how do you kind of
Massage those conversations um by not massaging him you know I think that’s the best way to massage him is is to be honest um that that’s always been my theory in coaching uh I I don’t play mind games with players um the only times guys are
Usually dislike me is is if you know I’m being honest with them and they don’t like what they’re hearing for whether they’re out of lineup for certain reasons or whatever that is um so I I think you just be honest um the situation is what it is we have 15 16
Forwards right now we’re healthy he’s coming off the injury he needs to play and and he knows he knows that um and it’s no different than why it’s good for Jacob Bryson to be here with us right now you know Jacob Bryson’s been in the
NHL most of the last three years um but it’s better for him to be in the American League right now because he’s playing 20 to 22 minutes a night same in nads nads is going to be a really good American League player but right now the
Best thing for him is to be in these Coast League playing minutes uh and then an injury update on a couple of guys I think R still classifies as week to we right sound like were more of on the other side of the new year is there on N
Day today Nets is day to day um that was his first practice with the team yesterday like first full practice you know coming out a holiday break and he’s had reab skates and he’s had morning skates and stuff but um so he’s he’s very close could even be in tomorrow um
Prow is looking well like we like how he’s looking for next week and then just the results of late and I feel like we talked about this after a lot of games his team on paper is getting losses but you on the ice are seeing development right they’re playing
The right way um yeah for the most part I I I like I feel the best about our team right now from a team defensive play standpoint as I have all year um and until you get your team defense in order uh the rest is just masking
Problems right so we were scoring our way out of problems early in the season I think some of that was early in the season you it’s easier to score teams are less structured um teams are less organized I think some of the goalies we played early in the season weren’t at
The elite American League caliber as we’ve played in the last 10 so I think there’s a lot of factors that go into that um now it gets to this point of the season and games become way more often 3 to2 4 to3 2 to one we weren’t capable of
Winning those games five weeks ago now we are now now the difference is now how to win those games um our team defense has improved a ton the offense is still there it’s just a little dormant lately um we need to score more dirty goals now because this time of year especially
When you play we’ve had a steady diet of heavy older defensive teams you know the Providence wils Springfield Hartford uh Hershey Now Syracuse that’s been most of our games of late and they’re old teams they’re they’re not young young Prospect oriented teams they’re older heavier teams with Elite American League goal
Tend goalies that are NHL caliber goalies the only way you get to four against those teams is you got to get two or three dirty ones because they’re not going to give you four line Rush goals they’re just not um and so we need to pay a little higher price offensively
Right now can you talk about I guess both of shooting the puck because it feels like the last week to week and a half the shot suppression has been really good and you guys are also getting a lot more up on is that by designed um well shot suppression yeah I
Think that um that’s we certainly needed to start limiting the number of quality chances against and I think in the last seven or eight games we’ve done a really good job of that um in terms of shots for um it’s a balance I I I believe in shooting
Especially from the point um with traffic because I think shooting creates chaos and then when you get your opponent in chaos you have the opportunity to then take advantage of things um but I also believe in not just shooting to shoot um you know we’re
We’re a team and that we want to find you know taking a shot from the top of the circle with no traffic is is really not a great play um if you can find another play that challenges the opponents or challenges the opponent’s goalie that is higher likelihood of
Resulting in a scoring chance a goal a rebound right so there’s a balance to that uh we work on both but I do believe and we have we need more point shots and traffic to start with then we get our opponent in chaos and then we can find
Some of the nicer plays to take advantage of the chaos do you have a planning uh coie will play tonight and then I guess things I mean is this a date I the whole proverbial Circle a date on your calendar I mean I think hockey so day to day you try to
Forget the game you just played focus on the next one I think there a lot of the guys in that lock room yourself included like you remember the last time you played these guys yeah you certainly do um but but I hadn’t thought about it until Wednesday at 11:30 at night right
That’s the first time I thought about Hershey um but now that it’s here you know yeah um you know they ended our season uh a great series um you know watching Clips we showed pres Scout this morning and we showed some of the things from the Playoff Series last year you
Know and you know Mason yaps was saying to me after the meeting you know how you know it’s kind of it was fun to see that you know there’s 10,000 people in the crowd and and the the level of play on both both teams is just so high and uh
It gets excited reminds you of how much fun it is to earn the right to be in those big moments obviously it wasn’t fun to lose um but how much fun it is to earn the right to play in May and June um and how much work it takes to get to
That spot can you talk about I guess the present day team I feel like it’s probably a lot easier to quantify their strengths because it looks like they have so few weaknesses yeah they don’t really have any weaknesses they’re the best team in the American League right
Now um you know they’ve they’ve got a great coaching staff number one Nelly’s a phenomenal coach um and their assistants are awesome really good staff and and uh and then they have a really good roster right I mean they you know they they have a lot of uh veterans that
Are Elite uh AHL experience highend AHL producing players um they have a good balance on their team they have a big physical mean Decor uh with a first three lines of forwards that are really talented than a than a fourth line forward group that is mean and heavy and
Nasty to play against so uh they’re they pose many different challenges um one of the best defensive teams in the league and and one of the best special teams groups in the league as well
