The New York Rangers will likely change their AHL affiliation from the Hartford Wolfpack to the Rochester Americans beginning in the 2011-’12 season, a source close to the situation told Biz of Hockey.

This week, co-owner of the Rochester Americans Lewis Staats said the team will not extend its affiliation with the Florida Panthers past the 2010-’11 season, leaving the team a free agent. Rochester ownership made harsh comments this week concerning their relationship with the Panthers. Co-owner Curt Styres said he wants a partnership not a dictatorship, while Staats said the team’s best option is to search for a better affiliation.

According to the source, the Rangers, who reside approximately six hours from Rochester, are unhappy with their relationship with the Wolfpack and are very interested in becoming the parent club of the Americans. Rumors surfaced that the Wolfpack might not be returning in February when the Albany River Rats, the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, were relocated to North Carolina. The Albany Times Union said, “Among the teams rumored to be looking elsewhere are the Hartford WolfPack, owned by the New York Rangers, and Lowell Devils.”

River Rats owner Walter Robb also implied the Rangers were in the market to find a new affiliation and mentioned the possibility of the Rangers taking over the River Rats.

Syracuse has also been rumored to be another suitor for the Rangers, the Syracuse Post-Standard wrote in March, “The Rangers own their own franchise in Hartford and would have to sell it or put it in suspension if they want to pair up with Dolgon in Syracuse. It’s unclear how much the Rangers might have to pay to get out of their current deal with the Wolf Pack.”

Though details of the deal have not yet come available, it appears the Rangers will be moving their AHL club back upstate (the team was once affiliated with Binghamton), just not to Albany or Syracuse.

———————————————————————————————————————————-OK, now I have to address this. I got 110 views this week of a post I made at the beginning of the show called “Yes that’s Patrick Kane, we care why?” Which included pictures of Kane half-naked in a limo with some ugly blond Canadian girl. First of all, you guys haven’t seen that yet? It was a big story …uh…. four months ago. Second, why does that page keep getting so many hits? It’s very bizarre to me. IF anyone clicks on that story can tell me where it came up, please let me know!
Hi There!
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Back to the important stuff, my friend Todd Sheridan will join me on The Blue Line Show this Sat. at 10 am to talk about his battle with cancer and how he beat it. He will have advice for Craig Charron and will talk about his new project. For the last few years, Todd was the goaltender at The University at Brockport. He’s a great person and I’m greatly looking forward to having him on.
View his site at www.savesforacure.com

This comes from our friend Keith Wozniak from LetsGoAmerks.com:

Cancer sucks. That’s it plain and simple. If you don’t personally know anyone with cancer consider yourself lucky. On Tuesday it was made public that former Rochester Amerk Craig Charron is stricken with stomach cancer and is hard at work fighting it off.

If you have a few minutes and a few dollars help support the Charron family in their battle. Click through the links below to read about his story and his fight if you haven’t done so already.

There’s also going to be a number of events this summer to help raise money, announced so far:

Celebrity Bartending Night at Murphy’s Law 6/21/10
Hockey Game at ESL with NHL Players 8/1/10
Golf with NHL Players 8/2/10

I’ll post reminders as the dates and details become clearer. I’ve already started saving to make my largest donations at Murphy’s on June 21st.

Links:

http://craigcharron.com/ – The official site to keep updated on everything!

Hockey O-Zone – “Sharky’s resume filled with one victory after another”

Democrat and Chronicle – “Former Rochester Amerk Craig Charron fights cancer”

Amerks.com – “Charron At ‘Home’ As He Faces Next Challenge”

Quote from the D&C Article:

“I’m ready to fight this, I’m ready to fight this every step of the way,” said Charron, who retired after the 2001-02 season and has called the Rochester area home for 15 years. “I want to be one of those (beat-the-odds) statistics.”

You can fight it Sharky!

Thanks for keeping up with The Blue Line!!!!

Here’s a look a some of our Rochester rep’s best goals of his career:

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 meetings with the coaches and Randy Sexton.

I think the players would have wished they had separate meetings, one with the coaches and one without the coaches and just Randy Sexton in the room.  When you’re together in a room with your boss and his boss there are certain things that you do not want to say.

Mike York and Jamie Johnson were on one year contracts, York said he enjoyed his time here and would definitely think about coming back.  Jamie Johnson said he’s going elsewhere to try and chase his dream of playing in the NHL.  He said he loved Rochester but he’d never give Florida the time of day again.  In the future an AHL deal could be an option.

Graham Mink was political in his answers and said it was tough watching the game seven loss but what happened is over with.

Everyone heard the “Groulx Must Go” chants during the game last night.  Everyone.  The players, the coaches, staff, management and ownership.  Ted Nolan and Lewis Staats said that with the full affiliation agreement they can’t make there own changes but in meetings with the Florida Panthers those are things that will come up in discussion.

Maybe down the line when the emotions and dust settles some thoughts will change, but right now all fingers point at the man in charge of making decisions, the coach.

Check out this quote to Kevin O at the D&C:

Groulx seemed a little surprise to hear the criticism. “It’s so easy when it’s over to start pointing fingers,” Groulx said. “I’m not going to do that. I have too much respect for players here.”

Rory Fitzpatrick talked after the game on Tuesday night about the poor communication on the ground level of the team between the people making player decisions and the actual players.  He would not directly say it was the coaches, but there’s no way Randy Sexton is making phone calls and telling Groulx what to do.

To end for now on a positive note, every player has great things to say about Ted Nolan, Jody Gage, Lewis Staats and Curt Styres.  They all love playing for those guys.  Lewis Staats said that Jody Gage will be back and that they plan to have Ted Nolan back as well.  Ted Nolan said he loved working here and would love to come back as well.

I think there’s only one change that needs to be made.

A lot more in the days ahead from the final days of the season including today’s locker cleanout.

Trying something new here… between periods I will be copying over tweets from people watching the game….. of course I can be followed on Twitter @matthewcoller….love to hear what you think of the new theme…or do you prefer the classic live-blog?

Here’s the best tweets and my comments:

First Period

@nyc_cupcake Maybe my temp is low because I’m totally stressed out & anxiety ridden from the Sabres game. $hit. Let’s go BUFFALO!

-I know the feeling.

@experiencedchic Nathan Gerbe was a pain in my ass when he played at BC and he’s a pain in my ass playing for the Sabres. #Bruins

- Like Gerbe, just keeps plugging no matter what.  Sabres have good quality prospects in the wings… wish they have vet leadership though

@Tthip @BNHarrington If the Sabres should guard against any Boston PP move – it should be the one the Sabres try every game themselves.

-Sabres need to figure a new strategy on the Power Play.  I always put that on coaching.  Is Ruff gone if Sabs lose?

@LaurieMoonPR Giggles when fans blame officiating. Here’s the stat: #sabres are 0 for 17 on the PP- They’re getting calls-just not goals.

-Excellent point, but refs really cost them game 4 with awful calls….

@grayninja vanek’s not gonna help you, sabres

-You’re probably right.  An injured Vanek isn’t exactly like having Sid the Kid.  But, maybe him playing offers a boost to the rest of the team.

@Sentrix27 Sabres don’t score first and aren’t playing physical enough. We need a strong second period.

-They got some opportunities, but the B’s have played tougher all series.  Sabs just have to overcome that.

@WGRZSports Not the start Sabres were hoping 4

- Thank you, Grand Master of the Obvious parade

2nd Period

@nesnmhurley Lindy Ruff has it all wrong. The refs in the #bruins #sabres series are completely unbiased. But completely inept.

-That seems fair.  You’d think they’d have good refs for playoffs, but they blow calls like I curse at squirrels in my garbage ….a lot

@versonic I am proud that the #sabres have scored.

-I’m happy, thrilled, overjoyed…. but proud?  Did your child score the goal?  I’m proud of LeBron’s half-court shot

@kaceandpoint the camera people can barely keep up with the action between #sabres and #bruins

-Your name is corny, but I like that you were PC enough to call them “camera people” and that you used a type of evidence that the game was getting wild as opposed to saying “cool, sabres”  A-

stevezipay 2-1 Bs as Sabres strike

-Sorry, that picture is hilarious.

@flywithpie Damn Sabres lost:( what sport are we supposed to watch now:p?

-You’re telling me!

@Sam_Oursler58 fuck the sabres i hate all the bandwagons, and fans who claim not to be bandwagons when in reality they are. GO RANGERS

-People ride the Sabres bandwagon?  Hm

@Jimmert444 @sbaicker Bruins didnt look that good. Sabres just looked that bad.No offense to Bruins fans but its the truth! if u can score goals ur good

-Sabres just found every way possible to play soft and make mistakes at big times in the game, I don’t think the Bruins have much chance as it goes on, but Tuuka Rask played great.

@Chris_TCI Sabres got no heart. Miller is the only one.

-Couldn’t agree more

@NuniaBusiness Buffalo Sabres are out. So sad. We will get them next year.

-Not unless they Sabres make some serious changes

The Rochester Amerks lost Sunday 5-1.  It should have been 10-1.  Keaton Ellerby played like my mom and Benoit Grouix showed us again why all 26 fans who attend scream for his job.  They’ve given away at least two games now (if you remember Grioux’s bone-head decision to start Salak in Game 1) and if they don’t step up, don’t expect anyone to come back next year.

And I wouldn’t blame them.  Who wants to spend $20 and at least $10 more in food and $8 in parking to see God-awful hockey?  For that kind of dime you can do things like…oh, I don’t know, feed your kids, put gas in your car, buy an over-sized Gerry MacNamera FatHead (oh, wait) …pretty much anything.

I sat there thinking, if this team (especially Ellerby) doesn’t put in effort in the playoffs, when will they?  The city has lost its lust for the team anyway, so if you want to convince people to come back, stealing $20 from them is not the way.

They need this game.  Heck, I need them to win Game 7.  I want the Amerks magic back.  Only a Calder Cup run can do that.