By CRAIG POTTER
Bringing back a winning culture was the main topic of discussion with the media.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Americans opened their training camp on Monday afternoon at the Blue Cross Arena.
The American Hockey League regular season begins Oct. 6 at the BCA against the Syracuse Crunch as the Amerks will begin their 62nd season in the AHL.
Amerks new head coach Chris Taylor, along with new Rochester General Manager Randy Sexton, met with members of the media following practice, along with several players.
The main theme of the interviews was returning to a winning culture that the team enjoyed when Taylor was playing on the last team that won Calder Cup in 1996.
The hard part for me is that I have to be patient as well,” Taylor said. “Everybody wants to win right away…I know there are going to be some trying times here but I believe that we brought in the right people to help change it around…We have a lot of new players. I think the second and third-year players are going to grow from the veteran players we did bring in.”
In talking about changing the culture, Taylor said, “First and foremost you have to want to win yourself when coming in here…I think that who we brought in with Nathan Paetsch and Kevin Porter, first and foremost, are going to help change the culture in the dressing room. Then it’s up to the players to actually do it, and it’s up to us as a staff to see that they’re motivated every day to come in and work hard.”
New GM Sexton added, “Our job is to return this franchise to the one it used to be, the successful one that had a lot of respect in the community. We spent a lot of time focused on getting the right kind of people, the right kind of professionals, the right kind of players in that room, and that also was a message we sent today. You’re here because we hand-picked you so I do believe that they are committed. I do believe that they are going to work hard every day to play the way that we want them to play.”
Along that line, the Sabres signed Spencerport resident and defenseman Nathan Paetsch, who will be starting his third stint with the Amerks this season, along with veteran forward Kevin Porter. Paetsch won a Calder Cup with Grand Rapids and Porter a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“Those guys will help out and teach (the younger players) how to be pros,” Taylor said.
Brian Gionta speaks with management
Greece native and former Buffalo Sabres, and Montreal Canadiens, team captain Brian Gionta was at the BCA as he spoke with Amerks GM Randy Sexton and coach Chris Taylor.
Gionta’s 3-year contract with the Sabres ended this past season and as of this day he is unsigned by any NHL team. Some teams have expressed an interest but Gionta desires to play with the Sabres, if at all possible.
“Chris and I spoke to him just to understand what his goals were,” Sexton said. “What did he want to do. We thought while he’s here let’s have a chat and understand what his goals and focus are for the next while. Let’s talk about what are vision is for the Amerks. We had a nice 20-minute chat about hockey in general. It was good.”
Should he remain unsigned to an NHL contract, Gionta would be eligible to play for Team USA in the Winter Olympics in February in South Korea.
“Brian would like to continue to play and I think will be a very serious candidate for the US Olympic team,” said Sexton.” As a Rochester native and Buffalo captain and a very talented American player, we just wanted to get together to see if there is anything we can help you do to prepare for this. I don’t know or can’t say where that will go.”