Seth Appert Post Game | 12.27.23

Seth Appert Post Game | 12.27.23

That game like you guys were playing really short the first Peri beginning the second then does it kind of just disappear in that stretch yeah yeah yeah it was you know you you made a few big mistakes uh that you know the the turnover on the short-handed the penal

Their power play goal I don’t know if it was called the power play goal or not because we might have been out of the box but we had a great kill we had all the momentum in the building uh and you know we just we just made a bad play with the

Puck and then we gave him a free uh free two-on-one you know and and and they executed so then it was in the net so you know we created enough we got to score more I don’t think our D did a good enough job delivering pucks I

Thought our Fords paid a price to get to good areas tonight I don’t think Rd did a good enough job getting enough bucks there um credit Syracuse played good defensively I thought Tomkins played really good net um and you know we limited them obviously I don’t know how

Many shots there were but there wasn’t many um so we did a lot of good things but you know we just didn’t get the result is this similar to these last what we got half dozen is the effort is performance consist that yeah I think it’s similar I mean there’s a few big

Mistakes you know that that led to goals but you’re going to make mistakes like the position of golender wouldn’t exist if there was never a mistake made in the game so um you know they’re I think they you know we probably had 12 to 14 High you know let’s say we had

12 pretty high chances give or take uh off of their mistakes that we forced them into and we just didn’t do a good enough job capitalizing and they probably only had six or seven and and unfortunately three of them they they they’ve they capitalized on and that was

The difference when you look at the shot suppression I they had fewer than 20 shots on does that lead into the confidence ining to ging obviously you need two at that point but with 435 left that’s a lot of time you guys surr um I’ve never been

I’ve I guess I’ve always probably been willing to be go a pull the goalie very early even before that probably became a trend um and some of it’s timing Face Off is the best time to pull the goalie because everybody’s fresh you’re organized and where sometimes if you try

To pull them in the middle of the place some guys are changing cuz they’re tired it just it’s more chaotic plus they had iced it so they had tired bodies on the so we had fresh bodies on the ice they had tired bodies on the ice it felt like

The proper time to do it um and we had plenty of Zone time we just didn’t just didn’t finish I ask you about Rus is SPS he said this morning he was talking with Vinnie CR a lot lately who’s encouraging him to shoot the puck more I’m not sure

Ever apply on the wall for those conversations but what is meant to a guy like that who’s trying to become a little bit more aggressive on his shot yeah I mean uh Russy I mean we’ve laughed about it over the years a little bit that that you know he’s never seen

An empty net he doesn’t want to pass his way out of um you know It’s Tricky um he needs to shoot more but you also don’t want to take a player’s greatest strength away from him which is his creativity and his vision so there’s always a balance in that um

Um you know Vinnie’s an offensive player uh just like Michael Pekka was you know and so they have good conversations about the balance of those things um but but I think more importantly with rusek is just how hard he’s playing his tenacity on the puck right now is this

Seven game stretch is probably the best seven game stretch of his career in terms of his tenacity on the puck um and you know some nights it’s leading to goals and and other nights maybe not but his is play um away from the puck to hunt and

Work to get it back uh is is that really probably an all-time high right now which is great to see why why is it so tough to score well you’re playing one of the best defensive teams in the league so um so that’s part of it um I think lately

Um you know some of it is uh you go through that stretch starting on the road you know we went um suban deing hellberg um you know Jack Greaves who’s had having a great year D’s having a great year then Tomkins Tomkins you know I think six of you know six of those

Seven of guys have played in the NHL and played well in the NHL um so that that’s part of it um you know I think it’s that time of year we’re also we’re giving up less goals as well right now um teams start playing better defense this time

Of year points start mattering more gets a little bit more tedious to create um you know and and I think we’ve played big heavy older teams quite a bit um all three of those Atlantic teams are kind of big heavy older teams um C Providence is that way and and

Certainly Syracuse twice is certainly that way so I think that plays into it as well it’s is something different in rosanne’s game or just since he’s come back he hasn’t been as good since he’s been back yeah is that a and sometimes that’s a natural they get a taste and oh

This is great uh I don’t think with him it’s it’s that it’s great I think there’s probably probably putting too much pressure on himself to come down here and dominate to try to get back there um but you know it’s hard to evaluate sometimes this game in particular coming back off three days

Break with with no practice um but he has not um he hasn’t been as good uh since he’s been back but I have full faith that he will get his game back in order yeah just trying to find some chemistry you know with with Kik gone um Kik and him obviously have great

Chemistry um um you know beersy and rusek have great chemistry you know there’s been times no’s neev has played well with beersy and rusek but for whatever reason it hasn’t ended up in the net you know were chances T that he created it just he’s been arounded a lot

In the last six seven games noev has um but not a lot of it’s turned into goals yet um he’s doing a lot of good things which is a good sign um obviously that’s a big heavy team for a young uh you know 19-year-old to to be playing

Against obiously that 37 stret rough but overall Excuse Me overall how do you feel Car I mean he didn’t have a lot of work so he wasn’t poor um the game was not on him none of the goals were you know the third goal he probably would like to have I don’t think that was a great shot I think that was probably middle than that

Um but you know those are big mistakes and and credit Syracuse they capitalized on him um the hard thing as a goalie when your team plays that good at defensive front is you you don’t have you don’t have the shots to make up the body of work right and so it just is

What it is so um he he wasn’t he he didn’t have a bad game but he didn’t have enough shots to play his way out of the goals that they scored I guess going up on Friday is there a little bit of extra motivation or fire over the team I

Know it’s early after this game because of what happened W yeah I’m sure that um you know come tomorrow and and then Friday morning there’ll be a little bit of talk about that um probably more importantly those they’re the best team in the league by a mile right now and

And uh so it’s a it’s a good measuring stick um for where you’re at uh we’re not where we need to be at we know that we’re work in progress I think we’re getting better at a lot of things right now uh we’re much much better defensive

Team we’re much better away from the puck we’re much better at for checking and and breaking the puck out um offensively we need to keep improving to get back to our offensive game and then um but this will be a good measuring stick game yes you had last year losing

To them in the Conference Finals that’s motivation enough but uh it’s also a good measuring stick because right now they’re the best team in the league by a mile is it a good time for them to come in kind of I think it’s always a good time to play great teams

Um you know I think adversity and and having adverse situations leads to a lot of growth in you as a player individually but also in your team collectively um you know and we’ve had some adversity over the last couple weeks and and we’re going to have adverse situations come Friday because

Because the best team of leagues come into the building we’ll have we’ll have our hands full so one know today’s game games you how the defense team starting like team really pH prob the most games you saw the defense and probably this season what did you kind talk the guys going

Into this game just try adjust you made that allow your defense to really take Syracuse out of the first period I think that our team defense has become more physically engaged in the last month um I don’t think it was a one night thing um I think that they’re starting to become

More trust in the D and the forwards like the D can be more aggressive if they trust that the forwards are going to back check and cover for them when they’re aggressive um the the the worry I always as a defenseman whether to jump offensively or to try to be very

Physical is that what happens off of my back if I do that and and the only way you can do that is to have immense trust in our forward group that they’re going to back check their rear ends off um to cover so I think there’re starting to be

More activity in our defensive game uh which is a good thing um and and we need to keep going with that and one last question for you so I or so game strongly what do he brought especially for like some of the guys hav really had much experience in NHL he the

Table for those guys poters he gives out he sa yeah Bryson’s been great he’s a great teammate uh he’s played you know over 150 I think games in the NHL um he’s a calming influence he can break the puck out efficiently he can play against other team’s top players um you

Know and a lot of teams in the American League have guys that have played two three four 500 games in the NHL Riley Nash those types of guys we’re we’re a younger based team um so to have a few guys that have some of that experience

Um is helps be a calming influence in hard situations uh who prow is skating um I think he’ll join the team tomorrow non- contact so he’s getting close I’d say still you know one one to two weeks out Met’s metah will practice with the team tomorrow as well um he’s getting close

He’s very close he’s probably closer than prow um is that it Cedar Chris is healthy yeah I think that’s it than