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Posts tagged 'Jack Birch'

Posts Tagged ‘Jack Birch’

Jack Birch No Longer Works for the Florida Panthers

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June 25, 2010 - By

Updated July 2nd… Birch’s contract expired June 30th and was not renewed.

As I’m reading up on the NHL Draft and the changes on the horizon for the Florida Panthers, one thing I noticed was that Jack Birch’s name is no longer listed as a member of the Florida Panthers staff. I used the term fired in the subject because that’s a little more catchy, but it could just be that His contract expired and was not renewed.

I was given the idea to look when I read on George Richard’s blog that Dale Tallon was going to be working on hiring a new director of player personnel.  Chances are no one outside of Rochester really cares all that much or would even notice the guy was gone.

Prior to being named as Director of Player personnel for the Panthers, he was involved in the scouting department for the team.

When Birch was given the position which was essentially the general manager of the Amerks, it was thought that he would bring some good decisions.  Turned out to be the opposite.  The only great move he pulled off was finding Mike Brodeur and getting him signed [...]Read More

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Chris Beckford-Tseu has a Clean Slate

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September 26, 2009 - By

Mention the name Chris Beckford-Tseu around the fans that closely followed the Amerks last season and they’ll quickly ask, “he’s not coming back is he?”

Chris Beckford-Tseu was signed by the Florida Panthers during the summer of 2008 to be the #1 goaltender for the Rochester Americans.  Jack Birch had talked about Beckford-Tseu being the #1 depth goalie available at the AHL level and that he was pursued by seven other teams.  Things did not turn out that way.  Beckford-Tseu struggled early and struggled often.

The Panthers signed him to a two year contract hoping he would be a “diamond in the rough.”

Chris Beckford-Tseu during practice October 27, 2008

He played in 22 games for the Amerks and finished with a 3-14-1 record, 3.94 GAA, and .868 save percentage.  He was sent to the ECHL and played with the Florida Everblades and Phoenix Roadrunners.

“Last year things did not start well, nothing really went right for us, it was one you have to forget about, put behind you, move on and use as a learning experience,” is what Chris had to say about last season.

During a live chat with the D&C Amerks [...]Read More

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Amerks Coach Benoit Groulx Answers a Few Questions

September 25, 2009 - By

Benoit Groulx was off the ice at the first day of training camp to observe the players taking part in the first scrimmage.  He was there to observe and see what players had to offer.  He was observing with Jack Birch, Jody Gage, and Ted Nolan.  How’s that for a jury deciding your future?  Players have a very short period of time to show what they can offer to a team with a limited number of available roster spots.

Here’s a few questions I asked Benoit after practice on Thursday morning.

Scrimmage instead of a typical practice?

– We already have a good idea of what our lines are going to be.  This weekend it’s important for many of them to show us what they can bring to this team.  Training camp is about knowing them (the players) better, many guys here we didn’t know before this morning.  The first two games, especially Saturday, it’s going to be an important game for guys to prove themselves.  It’ll be the team we don’t know too much of.

What’s different about this year?  What was learned from last year?

– It’s not about what we have learned from last year, it’s about [...]Read More

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Florida Panthers Article: Optimism In Rochester

September 16, 2009 - By

The article below appeared on the Florida Panthers site this past Sunday about the optimism surrounding the upcoming Rochester Americans season, something that has been missing in recent years.

One thing that’s exciting is the interest in the Amerks that a lot of Panther fans have taken.  These fans view the Rochester Americans as the Rochester Americans, not just the prospects of the Florida Panthers.  They recognize the history of this team and seem to understand the importance of the Amerks winning and how that can positively impact the big club.  These are the same thoughts that have been shared by Florida management as well.

With the Amerks front office getting back to making the Amerks relevant in Rochester again and the teams NHL parent recognizing the same thing it really does give a sense of optimism.

To bring ourselves back down to earth for a moment, I do agree with those that are saying it all sounds great in writing but we won’t know anything until the roster is assembled for opening night and the puck drops.

Training camp opens in nine days, maybe there will be more than 10 of us there to watch?

[...]Read More

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Florida Panthers Rookie Camp Opens Today

September 7, 2009 - By

The Florida Panthers open their rookie camp on this morning down in Florida at Incredible ICE, but I prefer to call it the warm up to Amerks training camp on September 24th!

A number of players were in Rochester this past week prior to heading down to Florida including David Brine who tossed out the first pitch at the Rochester Red Wings baseball game on Friday night.  With camp starting the season now even closer.

“The rookie camp provides our coaching staff the opportunity to work with our prospects in an environment that enhances skill development and accelerates the process to play in the NHL,” Florida Panthers Assistant General Manger Randy Sexton said. “This camp focuses on high-tempo on-ice and off-ice workouts that will prepare our prospects to compete in pre-season competition.”

Here’s a list of players that will be at the camp and their positions:

Defense: Keaton Ellerby, Dmitry Kulikov, Colby Robak, Jason Garrison, Adam Comrie, Michael Caruso

Right Wing: Michal Repik, Brady Calla, James DeLory, Evgeny Dadonov

Left Wing: Garrett Wilson, Kenndal McArdle, Mike Duco, Andrew Sweetland

Center: Shawn Matthias, David Brine, A.J. Jenks, Scott Timmins

Goalie: Tyler Plante, Alexander Salak

A few players not on the rookie [...]Read More

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Amerks Summer News Stories, Getting Caught Up

August 12, 2009 - By

It has been a busy summer for the Rochester Americans with a lot of great news and a couple of stories that have generated some bad press.  Looking at the bigger picture it has been a positive summer.  Here’s the start of “round up” type posts I’ll be doing once the season gets started.  There’s always a lot of news but not always enough to make an individual post for.  They’re also a great way for people to get caught up that may not read this site or the news all that often.

Here’s what has happened so far this summer:

** Training camp for the Amerks has not even been announced yet but the doesn’t mean some Amerks aren’t back on the ice already.  The Rochester Americans Summer Hockey Camps are underway at ESL being led by Amerks assistant coach Jason Cipolla.  It’s great to see so many kids sporting the Amerks logo playing hockey, a sign that the season is close.

** Matt Duffy is still an unsigned draft pick of the Florida Panthers.  He was drafted in the fourth round and #104 overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.  When his season ended with the University of [...]Read More

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Updated: Dadonov Contract Approved by NHL

July 13, 2009 - By

It was recently mentioned that Russian prospect Evgeni Dadonov of the Florida Panthers had signed a deal and would be a part of the Rochester Americans in the upcoming season, but Dadonovs coach thinks differently.

Earlier in the Spring of 2009 it was announced that Dadonov had signed a 2yr deal with Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL, so the idea of him suddenly signing a deal to comeover to North America to play seemed odd.

Nothing official announced by the Panthers, the only mention of Dadonov to North America seems to be from a conversation that occured between Jack Birch (Florida Panthers director of player personnel) and Kevin Oklobzija of the Democrat and Chronicle.

Kevin Oklobzija followed up with Jack Birch who said:

“We’ve heard no issue with it; his entry-level contract was accepted and approved by the league last week,” Birch said. “If there was a problem, they wouldn’t have approved the contract.”

The web site RussianProspects.com had posted the following:

As reported by North American sources, Evgeni Dadonov  (Florida Panthers) might have signed an entry-level contract with the Panthers. But the situation is tricky because not more than two months ago Dadonov signed a two-years deal [...]Read More

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Archive of Kevin O's live blog with Jack Birch

November 25, 2008 - By

Originally on the Democrat and Chronicle, Kevin Oklobzija had conducted a live chat with the director of player personal for the Florida Panthers, Jack Birch.  These things typically disappear over time on the D&C’s web site, so here is the transcript from that chat:

Conversation with Jack Birch (11/25/2008) 11:59 Scott Norris:  Welcome to our live blog. For the next hour, Jack Birch, director of player personnel for the Florida Panthers, will join reporter Kevin Oklobzija to talk about the state of the Amerks.    To participate, type your name and hometown in the appropriate field below (“Joe from Penfield,” for example) and then type your question. Once you submit your question, it will be reviewed by the hosts and they will select questions to include in their live blog. 11:59 [Comment From Guest]
Mr Birch. How do you and Jacques Martin justify paying Frolik 1.275 Million dollars to play in the NHL when he truly hasn’t developed yet. He was handed the 1st line status a few weeks ago, did nothing with it, and is still in the NHL. I hear rumors of Florida being in payroll trouble, so why would you not put that 1.275M [...]Read More

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Audio from Jack Birch and Jody Gage Press Conference

November 24, 2008 - By

I’ve finally had the chance to encode the full audio from the press conference that Jack Birch and Jody Gage held last Thursday at Blue Cross Arena regarding the troubles the Amerks’ have had on the ice this season.

Rather than write an article about what was said, we’ve uploaded the audio from both of them for you to listen to.  Things have been moving fast for us this season, in the future we’ll have things like this up much sooner.  Take a listen and share your thoughts!

In a nutshell, what you see is what you get.

To the players who read our site, you may not want to listen!

Jack Birch 11-20-2008.mp3 (right click / save target as)

Jody Gage 11-20-2008.mp3 (right click / save target as)

I hope everyone enjoys things like this, content you won’t find anywhere else!

Tags: ι ι ι Categories: Amerks

This is What $2 Million in Scouting Gets You

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November 20, 2008 - By

So, the Rochester Americans lost to the Toronto Marlies tonight at Blue Cross Arena by the final score of 5-2 in front of one of the smallest crowds that anyone could remember.

After the teams were done warming up I was able to count just over 200 people in seats around the arena.  On my way to spend money on concessions I asked a few ushers as well as some old timers if they had ever seen the arena like this, everyone either shook their head in disbelief and a couple said, “at least not in the new building.”

I feel sorry for all of the players, and while a few of them have made bad mistakes, I’m not going to blame them for this season.  During the post game show, Stefan Meyer made a comment about the coaching staff being terrific and if they all continue to work hard like they have been eventually something has to happen.

The players had been giving a solid effort, trying really hard, doing their best, until last night.  Against the Marlies they just could not seem to get it all together.  The Marlies are a team that isn’t doing too [...]Read More

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Looking back at the first 20% of the Season

November 17, 2008 - By

The Amerks loss to the Hamilton Bulldogs on Sunday evening ended the first 20% of the season.  The team has won two games, at this pace they’ll win eight more through the rest of the season.

So, anyone have anything positive to look back on?

While the Amerks have only won two games and are in the basement, some other teams are in similar positions.  The Albany River Rats, Manchester Monarchs have each won three games, and the San Antonio Rampage have only won two as well.

Unless you haven’t been following the team, they’re basically last in every stats category.  If you want more stats, check out theahl.com and amerks.com, talking about them in detail is pointless.

The one thing that has been positive is that the players on the team are working hard.  Even though the team is in the basement statistically, they haven’t quit the season (yet).

They have lost confidence at times during some games, but they’ve continued to put forth an effort.

They’re a young team put into a bad situation.  During the 07/08 season the Amerks team was one that seemed to stop caring completely and rarely put in a solid effort.

Typically in [...]Read More

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Help! I Need Somebody…Not Just Anybody…

November 11, 2008 - By

During last night’s game, a familiar Beatles’ tune was played after one of the Moose’ goals.  As “Help!” was playing I was laughing a little to myself, thinking about how badly we really need some help.  And no, it can’t just be from anybody…we need huge changes.

This topic has already been discussed a million times this season (and in the pre-season when the lineup was first looked at).  Any fan of hockey could tell that the team we were being handed wasn’t going to go very far.  But, we all hoped for the best.  We all thought we must be getting some veterans to spice up our lineup and teach our team, that is basically made out of rookies, how to play professional hockey.

But, no.  Here we are, more than a month into the season, and we have only won two games.  So, what do the Panthers do to help us?  Send Tyler Plante to the ECHL and call up David Shantz.  That is the answer we have all been looking for!  Who needs vets when you can trade a goalie for another goalie of the same caliber?

And the next big move by the Panthers and Amerks?  Send Doug O’Brien down [...]Read More

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