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Sabre rattling: Buffalo overhauls Nolan’s coaching staff

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Ted Nolan was retained to guide the Sabres through their ongoing rebuild, but the same can’t be said for the rest of his coaching staff.

From Sabres PR:

The Buffalo Sabres today announced several changes to the team’s coaching staff, effective immediately: Assistant coaches Joe Sacco and Jerry Forton have been offered reassignment within the organization’s hockey department; the contract of assistant coach Teppo Numminen will not be renewed; goaltending coach Jim Corsi will not return as part of the team’s staff next season.

Forton’s removal isn’t a huge surprise -- he was part of the Ron Rolston regime, hired out of the collegiate ranks last August. Forton was an assistant coach at Harvard, the same place Rolston coached from 1999-2002.

Like Forton, Sacco was a relatively new hire and has ties to Rolston, as both served as assistants under Scott Gordon for Team USA’s entry at the 2010 World Hockey Championships. Sacco joined the Sabres last July, shortly after being fired as the head coach in Colorado.

Numinen’s departure marks the end of a tenure in which he displayed remarkable survival skills. He was the lone coaching holdover from the Lindy Ruff regime -- Numminen was hired as an assistant for the 2012-13 campaign -- and worked under both Rolston and Nolan last season.

Corsi, the team’s goalie coach, is the longest-tenured of all the aforementioned staff members, having served as goalie coach since 2001. He’s perhaps best known as the guy responsible for creating the Corsi Rating, and advanced possession statistic that measures shot attempts.