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Posts tagged 'Benoit Groulx'

Posts Tagged ‘Benoit Groulx’

Amerks Goalie Drew MacIntyre Signed to Play for a Winner

October 5, 2011 - By
Amerks Goalie Drew MacIntyre Signed to Play for a Winner

The first of many free agents signed during the offseason by the Buffalo Sabres were three players who will have a big impact on the Rochester Americans.

They signed goaltender Drew MacIntyre as well as forwards Derek Whitmore and Colin Stuart.

MacIntyre was one of the top AHL free agent goaltenders available so it was a surprise (based on previous years) to see a top player signed for an important position.

He’s played in 261 regular season and 53 playoff games in the AHL, 46 regular season and six playoff games in the ECHL, but only 2 NHL appearances.  He knows the game.  The only season he had more losses than wins was in 2004/2005 with the Grand Rapids Griffins, his first stint in the AHL.

Last February the Atlanta Thrashers traded MacIntyre to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Brett Festerling, a move that had MacIntyre playing for his fifth American Hockey League team in seven seasons. MacIntyre has played in the AHL Western Conference his entire career playing with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Manitoba Moose, Milwaukee Admirals, Chicago Wolves and Hamilton Bulldogs.

“I’ve been in the West the whole time,” he said. “I see all the same buildings, [...]Read More

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A Few Things from a Groulx Interview in Ottawa

June 4, 2010 - By
A Few Things from a Groulx Interview in Ottawa

There’s an eight minute interview with Benoit Groulx on Team 1200 Radio in Ottawa where he talks a little bit about what made him leave and go back to his former job.  It’s almost time to move on from this story, but this gives us a little more insight.  Groulx is obviously very focused on his new job as Coach and GM and would rather talk about that but he shares a few things.

You can listen to the interview here, I couldn’t find a way to embed it.  You do not need to be signed in to Facebook to listen.

A few of the points:

* Jacques Martin hired him and was “very good” and Randy Sexton supported him “very well.”

* He mentions the continued changes in management in Florida and even changes in Rochester and he said he felt his place wasn’t in Rochester anymore.  The only change in Rochester management was Ted Nolan.  hmmm.. should we read into that?

* One of the big things that made him want to leave as well was to be closer to his family, especially his 10 year old son.

* He said that there’s a price to pay [...]Read More

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Three Awesome Words: Benoit Groulx Resigns

June 1, 2010 - By

The news broke on Monday that Benoit Groulx had resigned as Rochester Americans head coach and returned to his prior position, coach of the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.  From the QMJHL press release, “Under his reign, the Olympics won three championships in six seasons. Groulx led the team to three appearances at the MasterCard Memorial Cup where the Olympics reached the final on two occasions in 2003 and 2004.”

There’s no hiding the fact that Groulx was not very liked as the coach of the Amerks so this news was a perfect way to get the summer started.  The players disliked playing for him, the teams management did not understand him at times, everyone questioned his decisions during games and all of that led to the fans chanting for him to leave at the last game of the year.

A bigger issue at hand could be that the Amerks management found out about this through the media, not from the Florida Panthers directly.  Groulx’s resignation would have been approved by the Panthers so he could officially take on the new job, but no phone call was made to anyone with the Amerks.  Interesting.  Just [...]Read More

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The Groulx Debate Rages On; from Hockey O-Zone

May 8, 2010 - By

The Rochester Americans season has been over for almost two weeks now and it’s pretty obvious that people are still surprised by the first round loss.  A Hershey Bears fan recently read a Hockey News article about Graham Mink being scratched for game 7 and was amazed.  The debate about the fate of Benoit Groulx also continues, I was at my sons baseball game last week when someone brought it up out of nowhere.

It’s interesting that the team had what many consider a wasted season and there’s only one person that everyone seems to point the finger to.  Typically when a sports team makes an early exit from the playoffs the media and fans start pointing fingers at players who did not perform up to expectations.

Kevin Oklobzija wrote a blog entry today about the Groulx debate and brought up some more points and also had a few quotes from Randy Sexton as well.  Here’s one that stands out:

Sexton said he’s well aware of complaints. He heard the fans (who didn’t). He also heard and/or read what some players had to say about Groulx.

But player complaints not made directly to Sexton have little credibility, [...]Read More

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Randy Sexton on Amerks Coach Benoit Groulx

May 5, 2010 - By

A week after the game 7 loss to the Abbotsford Heat the hot topic amongst Amerks fans is the fate of Amerks head coach Benoit Groulx who has one year left on his contract.  The issues most have with the coach were decisions made during the playoffs, perceived lack of strategies during the season and also an issue of respect between the players and coach.

No one should expect that someone from either the Florida Panthers or Rochester Americans organization would say anything bad about the guy or that his job is in jeopardy.

I asked Randy Sexton about the thoughts players have given to the press and also the response from the crowd he heard in game 7 to which he responded, “I think Ben did a very good job for us.”

“We came in 29th place last year, this year we came  in 10th.  Granted we had more talent but at times this year we had up to 14 guys out of the lineup and we continued to enjoy success.”

An NHL General Manager is expected to give those types of answers.  The same types of answers that Ted Nolan and Lewis Staats gave.  We’d all love to [...]Read More

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Grading the 2009-2010 Amerks Player by Player

May 4, 2010 - By

One week ago today we were mentally preparing for game 7 against the Abbotsford Heat and hoping for a legendary game.  It certainly turned out to be a legendary game, unfortunately not in favor of the Amerks.  As sports fans, it’s the type of loss that will live with us forever until another Calder Cup is won.  Until that happens next season, there’s still a number of things to discuss about the one that just ended and I’ll start by grading each of the players.

Thanks to Eric Bourgeois (frequent reader, supporter and die hard Amerks fan) who contributed to this.  There’s a couple things I disagreed with him on and noted.  You may agree or disagree yourself on a lot of things said and I’d love to hear your thoughts.  These grades are based on a lot more than just a stat sheet.

Starting with highest grade to lowest:

Jason Garrison: A-
– He’ll have a full time job in the NHL soon enough.  Eric had him listed as a B+ but I gave him an upgrade.  The Amerks defense had issues all season and without Garrison in the lineup for the post season (2g+7a) things may have [...]Read More

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Players Talk About A Wasted Season, Only One Change is Needed

April 28, 2010 - By

There was one player not afraid to make his feelings known and that was Jamie Johnson.  He shared his displeasure with the lack of acknowlegdment that the Florida Panthers gave to him as well as what seemed like a lack of respect from the head coach (no problems with Jason Cipolla).  During the tough times in the season when other players were injured or called up he was one player on the ice every game playing through his own injuries and contributing night in and night out.  How was he repayed?  By technically playing a role on the third line in the playoffs.

Johnson said that it was a wasted season.  The franchise turned things around from worst to second place but this season they should still be playing for the Calder Cup.

Jeff Taffe, Graham Mink, Mike York and Jamie Johnson all talked about the decisions made in the playoffs and said they’re not really sure how they came to be, whether it was Groulx or someone higher but what happened happened.

One player not going to the arena today for exit meetings was Rory Fitzpatrick.  On Tuesday night he said he was not going to be there for [...]Read More

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Game 2: Stay Out of the Box and Play Physical Near the Net

April 17, 2010 - By

It’s only game two of a seven game series tonight between the Amerks and Heat but it’s possibly one of the most important games.  If the Heat win and return home for three games everything is in their favor.  If the Amerks win the series starts over as a best of five with three straight in Abbotsford and the Heat are not as good on home ice.  I’m heading down to the arena shortly for the morning skate and hopefully it’s not the last.

The game plan should be pretty simple, stay out of the penalty box, create some battles in front of David Shantz and do not let Keith Seabrook shoot the puck from the blue line.  Seabrook had two goals on Thursday night, the first and the game winner.

Attendance should be better tonight for game two at 7:05pm at Blue Cross Arena.  The Red Wings are scheduled to open their season today at home but the weather does not look to be very baseball like.  Pass the word, get some fans in the building to cheer on the hometown team.  The Sabres play at 1pm so keep the day going with more WNY playoff hockey!

A few [...]Read More

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Regular Season Mistakes Sink the Amerks in Game 1

April 16, 2010 - By

Benoit Groulx made the decision to start rookie goaltender Alexander Salak in the first game of the 2010 playoffs for the Rochester Americans and the decision back fired on him.  The Heat scored three first period goals against Salak and that was enough for him, he was pulled after the first period and replaced by Tyler Plante who had a two period shutout.

Tyler Plante was the hot goalie down the stretch and will get the start on Saturday night for game 2.  Just about everyone in attendance was wondering why that did not happen in the first place.

The Heat had 11 power play opportunities, the Amerks had eight.  Both teams scored two power play goals.  The penalties were an issue but both teams had plenty of chances, the difference was playing at even strength and the Heat had that advantage scoring a goal only 35 seconds into the game.  Rochester was not able to recover from that at all.

Chris Taylor could have wrote this article in one sentence with his comment saying, “One bad period really cost us the game.”

The Abbotsford Heat also deserve credit for a well played and well coached game.  They got [...]Read More

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Example of Horrible Officiating by Koharski

April 16, 2010 - By

Jamie Koharski is one the worst ref’s in hockey and proved it again on Thursday night during the Amerks and Heat playoff game.  There was a total of 19 power plays.  That’s right, 19.  Has anyone ever seen so many penalties in a playoff game?  Now, a lot of them were valid penalties like the high stick video below but you’ll also notice in the video that Mike Duco takes a high stick to the face but somehow it’s not seen.

The Amerks lost the game for a lot of different reasons, penalties was one of the reasons but that’s something they can control going forward.  I doubt that the Amerks players chirping Koharski early helped to get him on their side, how come Benoit Groulx or Jason Cipolla never had a word with the guy?  Jim Playfair gave Koharski a mouthful recently, I imagine they just think there’s no point.

How did he miss the high stick on Mike Duco in this video?  It’s not as if it happened on the other side of the ice, they were practically next to each other.  We’ll never know.  The officiating in this league seems to get worst, not better (or maybe [...]Read More

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Gameday: Rory Out, Observartions, Matthias has the Experience

April 15, 2010 - By

The Rochester Americans and Abbotsford Heat face off tonight for Game 1 of their Calder Cup playoff series.  The Amerks missed the playoffs the last two seasons after having two of the worst teams in franchise history.  A pretty remarkable turnaround, big thanks to the wallet of Amerks Owner Curt Styres.

A few quick things before the part about Matthias:

** Rory Fitzpatrick is a healthy scratch, that’s the biggest news.  Mathieu Roy is in.  Roy has only played in one game for the Amerks and is coming off of an ankle injury. Sucks for Fitzpatrick, but a healthy Roy is probably better.  Is game #1 of the playoffs the time to really take a gamble and expect 20 minutes out of the guy?  Groulx is taking a gamble, hopefully it pays off.

Has the Captain of a team ever been forced to sit in game 1 like this? Rory didn’t sound too happy in his comments to Kevin O at Hockey O-Zone.  It’s part of the game, but… why make him the captain if you don’t think you can count on him?

** Rob Tallas, the Panthers goalie coach has already left town.  At least Salak and Plante got [...]Read More

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Round 1 Preview of the Amerks vs Heat

April 14, 2010 - By

The Amerks begin their run for the Calder Cup on Thursday night against the Abbotsford Heat in I’m guaranteeing will be a great round of hockey.  The two teams met four times during the regular season with the Heat winning three of those games but the teams that played each other during the regular season are not the same teams playing now in the playoffs.

Only one of the four games was a “blowout” where the Heat were the clear winners and that was on December 5th when the Amerks had Chris Beckford-Tseu in net.  Chris Taylor had also been kicked out of that game half way through the first period.  The defense was also without Rory Fitzpatrick at the time.

In other words, the four previous games do not really mean anything heading into the first round.

“They play hard, a lot of fast little forwards that finish their checks,” Jeff Taffe said talking about the Heat this past Friday.  “It’s something we have to battle through and expect.”

Speed has not been a redeeming quality of the Amerks this season so slowing down the Heat will be one of many keys to the Amerks winning some games.

Every [...]Read More

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