By Ted Montour, Canada/NLL Editor
Minnesota Swarm
It seems appropriate that I start this year's previews with Minnesota, given that the current temperature outside my Ottawa home is a frosty -20º Celsius, several ticks south of 0 Fahrenheit.
Minnesota Sports and Entertainment, owners of the NHL's Wild, will operate the new NLL franchise in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. MS&E chairman Bob Naegele Jr. hired retired goalie (Boston/Syracuse/Buffalo) and ex-Wings GM Marty O'Neill to be the club's first General Manager. The Victoria, BC resident looked no further than his back yard to hire life-time Shamrock Mike Simpson to be the Swarm's Head Coach, then selected another BC'er, Burnaby's Derek Moffat, and his former Philly bench boss Adam Meuller, as assistants.
O'Neill started building from the back end, signing free agent defender Neil Doddridge, and packaging expansion draft selections to acquire goalie Matt Disher, along with defender Ted Jenner, from Anaheim. He would later add Ravens tender Nick Patterson in the dispersal draft. A trade brought big Eric Pacey to his fourth NLL team, where he will be re-united with equally well-travelled, economy-size former team-mate Bruce Alexander. Former Johns Hopkins Second Team All American Shawn Nadelen was acquired from the Wings in the expansion draft. Torontonian Brock Boyle and former Bandits walk-on Ray Guze arrived via the free agent route.
As for offence, Marty liked former Toronto first-round pick Jamie Taylor well enough to sign the restricted free agent attacker to an offer sheet, later matched by Rochester, then trade his third-round 2005 entry draft pick to finally land him. He signed his first-rounder, Ryder Bateman of Calgary, Alberta, a former Shamrock and two-time All American with the Whittier College Poets (47 goals and 6.5 ppg, second overall in D-III). Edmonton's Jon Harasym, a two-time member of U-19 Team Canada and former UMBC middie, had his best NLL season as a rookie in Columbus in '02 (27 points) but underachieved in Rochester.
NY Saints '03 first-round pick Chad Culp, a former captain with Lindsay Sanderson's OLA Jr. A Orangeville Northmen, Trent Smalley (6'2", 220 lbs. from Richmond, BC), veteran Derek Malawsky (six pro seasons, 146 goals and 411 points) and NLL career 2-points-a-game scorer Kerry Susheski, will all contribute.
Matt Disher and Kerry Susheski
O'Neill's biggest acquisition, however, has to be Craig Conn, selected first overall in the dispersal. The '04 All Rookie Team attacker tallied 19 goals and 20 assists for the Ravens, and showed a new maturity with a paltry 17 penalty minutes. Conn has three Minto Cups as a junior scoring sensation, two with his hometown St. Catharines A's and one with the BCLA's powerhouse Burnaby Lakers.
Matt Disher has seen an awful lot of rubber in his previous NLL stops, particularly Ottawa and Anaheim, but he will have the best defence he has had in front of him since his rookie season in Buffalo. Doddridge, with 117 pro box games and the NLL's career mark of 352 penalty minutes on his resumé, epitomises veteran leadership. Indeed, the Swarm have an abundance of that not-so intangible called toughness (and some size), on O as well as D --- with the likes of Pacey, Jenner, Hill and Guze along with "Dodds" out the back door (Boyle had one career game with Albany, but managed to collect 14 penalty minutes), plus rookie second-rounder Scott Campbell, and hardnosed attackers like Culp, Conn, Bryde and Smalley up front. 6'4", 240-lb. free agent Anthony Kelly won 58% of his face-offs as a four-year starter at Ohio State.
Major Merchandising - Swarm Gear
The Swarm will have an expansion team's inconsistencies - witness their pre-season home-and-home split with the Mammoth - and the defence will gel before the offence. With a rookie head coach (though Simpson is no stranger to the pro-style game), and a GM who is getting a second chance to "make his bones" in the NLL, this squad needs to establish an identity and style, not simply put up some W's. Unfortunately, the NLL East is the tougher Division in which to do all of these things. If they can finish this winter with something that is identifiably "Swarm lacrosse", and a respectable showing in Division games, i.e. no blow-out losses, consistent goal production, and an upset or two, they will be judged a success.
Photos from the Swarm Website.
Buffalo Bandits
The Bandits got their man.
Buffalo General Manager Kurt Silcott has never been reticent to make changes in pursuit of the Champion's Cup, and this past off-season was no exception. Still smarting from the shock of their loss to the Calgary Roughnecks in last spring's final, as was I, Silkott and Head Coach Daris Kilgour clearly decided well in advance that they wanted Delby Powless Jr. of Six Nations to be a Bandit. In a three-way deal involving the expansion Swarm and the Arizona Sting, they sent Mike Accursi, Kerry Susheski, their own 8th overall draft selection and another in 2005, to Minnesota for the No. 1 draft slot, a later third-round pick, Dan Teat and Tyler Francey.
Powless, the former Rutgers attackman and leading scorer and the scoring champion of last summer's World Indoor Lacrosse Championships with the silver medallist Iroquois Nationals, is finishing his undergraduate studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, where he was an All Canadian on the Badgers' 2004 Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) Baggataway Cup championship squad.
2004 All-Star MVP Mark Steenhuis
Brock won 13 Ontario university men's titles before this inaugural Canadian championship, the change made in '04 to reflect the ongoing participation of two Quebec schools, McGill University in Montreal and Bishop's University in Lennoxville. The Badgers have been to every Baggataway Cup final since the league's inception in 1986, and Powless is the latest in a long line of NLL'ers in their line-up, including (this year) Bandit mate Mike Hominuck, the Rock's Sandy Chapman and Sean Turner, the Storm's Matt Roik, Mark Tinning (Arizona Sting, 2nd round '04) and Matt Marchildon (Rock practice roster), plus Canada U-19 starting keeper Kurtis Wagar. CUFLA being a club sport organization rather than varsity, there are no prohibitions against the participation of pro's. My own Carleton University Ravens (Head Coach Chad Fairfoull, assistants Phil Dubuc and myself, CUFLA '04 Coaching Staff of the Year) lost 15 - 2 in the semi-finals to the Badgers, who went on to defeat Bishop's 10 - 9. For more about the Badgers' illustrious history, and CUFLA, visit www.brocku.ca/athletics/, and select 'men's lacrosse' from the "Choose a Sport" drop-down menu.
Delby is the latest of several exciting youngsters to step into a line-up with an excellent veteran core, starting from the back end with goaltender Steve "Chugger" Dietrich, entering his 13th season, and back-up Derek "Chico" General from Six Nations, going into his 10th campaign. Chico finished a mid-February win over Toronto after Chugger pulled a groin muscle, and helped extend the Bandits' mid-season winning streak to six before Rochester stopped their run at the end of that month. Dietrich returned at less than 100% before season's end, but he played two brilliant play-off games before getting outshone in Calgary by Curtis Palidwor.
Buffalo's "D" gets a boost with the addition of Francey, and free-agent rookie Clay Hill of the OLA Major Six Nations Chiefs. Chris White came over in a trade after two seasons with the Attack/Stealth. These three newcomers join crusty veterans Kyle Couling, Drew Candy and Kyle Laverty, and young bruisers Billy Dee Smith and Greg Floris. Expect this crew to get more than their shares of licks in on opponents, while helping to put the Bandits once again at or near the top of the NLL penalty stats.
As if to emphasize the importance of their transition game, the Buffalo roster lists no less than six forwards as 'midfielders', including last year's All Star MVP Mark Steenhuis, A.J. Shannon, who scored a hat-trick including the game winner in his debut, Aimé Caines, returning after a promising season was cut short last winter by a disastrous two-ligament blowout of his knee, nine-year veteran Pat McCready, original Bandit Captain Rich Kilgour, and Powless. With the exception of draw-man Kilgour, every one of these guys can score 20+ goals-per-season, and Steenhuis, Shannon and Powless are all bona fide game-breakers.
Franchise attacker John Tavares will break through the regular-season 1,000-point barrier some time around the All Star break --- I'm predicting Saturday, February 19th in Rochester, fourth quarter --- while across the floor, Jonas Derks has 60 goals in his last two Buffalo seasons, and also spent the summer playing opposite JT with the OLA Major Akwesasne Thunder. Teat has eight NLL seasons in, and averaged over 31 goals over his last four with the Albany/San Jose franchise. Jason Crosbie is steady and dependable, with a history of amping up his game in the play-offs. Another free agent makes it three "Kyle's" on this team, Kyle Jamieson of Six Nations. I expected him to prosper as a pro three years ago when he broke in with Columbus, but he has yet to play a full season; maybe this will be his break-out opportunity.
John Tavares
The Bandits must stay away from undisciplined penalties (I didn't count, but I know that this is hardly the first time I have written this phrase), moreso than any other team in the East. It has cost them time and again, and with the power play prowess in their division it could be fatal to their otherwise excellent chances of returning to the Champion's Cup game, not to mention the risk of making them the Buffalo Bills of lacrosse.
In addition to leading the NLL in Kyle's, the Bandits have a couple of other factors in their favour. They only have one fly-in player, but veteran "back- door man" and career Bandit Couling really just has to show and play. Their five-player contingent from St. Catharines have been winning together since their mid-teens. Head Coach Darris Kilgour and brother Rich from the Tuscarora reservation, along with General, Hill, Jamieson and Powless, make them the unofficial "Rez" team (acknowledged by their pre-season fan day at the new Iroquois Lacrosse Arena at Six Nations), plus JT, with his years with the Chiefs and the Thunder, is like an honorary Rez player.
A lot, but not necessarily the season, will depend how well and how quickly Delby Powless Jr. acclimates himself to the NLL. At the 2003 World Indoor Lacrosse Championships (WILC) he notched 6 goals and 4 assists in the Iroquois Nationals' first game against Scotland (Teat had 4-and-4 for the Scots), then added 2 goals and 1 assist in the next game against Team Canada and the likes of Jim Moss, Cam Woods and Pat Coyle. He later exploded for 5-and-4 versus the United States, which, though missing top players from the MLL, still had pro's Rich Brzeski, Scott Stapleford and Paul Talmo out the back door. He ended up the goal-scoring champ of the tournament with 26, 4 more than Teat and John Grant Jr. That is world-class production by any yard stick.
The Rochester Knighthawks may be the team to beat in the East, but I believe the Bandits are the ones to deliver the beating --- third time's the charm for Darris and the boys.
Photos from the Bandits Website.
Philadelphia Wings
The winners of the first NLL Champion's Cup in 1998 have not fared well over the last several seasons, since their second Cup in 2001 in Toronto. Novice General Manager Marty O'Neill and Wing alumnus-turned-coach Adam Meuller were unable to turn things around, with no post-season wins during their three-year tenure, and were cashiered before the dust settled on the 2004 season. There were some bright lights, particularly the emergence of Jeff Ratcliffe and Keith Cromwell as offensive stars, but other events, particularly the loss of Jake Bergey for the 2003 season, conspired to detract from O'Neill's rebuilding program. Although they finished one game below .500 last winter, the Wings were 3 - 5 at home, where they still drew 13,640 faithful per game to the Wachovia Center.
Enter Lindsay Sanderson, brother of the Rock's Terry, with whom he broke into the NLL with the ill-fated Montreal Express. The Wings new General Manager and Head Coach, who also served with Ottawa and Toronto, is the Head Coach of the Ontario Lacrosse Association's Jr. A Orangeville Northmen, where he won three Minto Cups since 1993. He added the GM's duties in 1997, but stepped down as coach earlier this December to become the bench boss for the Barrie Lakeshores, the newest entry in the OLA's senior Major league.
Fully half the teams in the NLL now have one man as Head Coach and General Manager - Johnny Mouradian in San Jose, Derek Keenan in Anaheim, Bob Hamley in Arizona, Terry Sanderson in Toronto and brother Lindsay in Philly, plus Head Coach Paul Day, who serves as Assistant GM to Jody Gage in Rochester.
Sanderson brought in his Orangeville wing-man, Gregg MacDonald, and nephew Chris Sanderson, a former Virginia Cavalier and Team Canada keeper who was also Dallas Eliuk's understudy, to be his assistants. With franchise goalie Dallas Eliuk and a capable back-up in Nick Schroeder, and a veteran defence anchored by Hugh Donovan and Peter Jacobs, along with the hard-hitting All Rookie Team's Thomas Hajek, he went looking for offensive help. The Wings scored 192 goals last season, down from 203 in '03 and 224 in '02, a cumulative decline of 2.0 goals per game and more than enough to explain two sub-.500 campaigns.
Sanderson grabbed forward Matt Dwane, a solid career goal-a-game guy who has averaged over 65 loose balls a season, in the Vancouver dispersal, releasing veteran attacker Tony Henderson and acquiring San Jose's first-round entry draft slot next season, in the process. First-round draft pick Rob Van Beek (who joins fellow "PoCo" Ratcliffe) had 26 goals and 61 points last summer in BC for his hometown Jr. A Saints, and second rounder Dan Finck, former Whittier College Poet (4.4 ppg in his senior season) from Peterborough, Ontario (where he just won a Mann Cup), both made the roster. What the Wings need, however, is a return to form by Bergey, whose career average was 32.2 goals a season before 2003, but who managed just 11 in 11 games last year. While Ratcliffe maintained his production (41g, a career 37.75 season average), Cromwell and Marechek also had sub-par seasons.
At first glance, it might seem that, with a Canadian coaching staff and a predominantly US-born-and-raised defence, the Wings would do a better job defending "the Canadian pick-and-roll", however, that has not been too much of a problem in the past (witness the 2001 9-8 Cup win in Toronto). As odd as it might sound for a team that boasts half-a-dozen bona fide scorers, Philadelphia needs more offence. If the Wings are to return to contention, their veterans on the front door must lead the way; and if Dallas Eliuk breaks down (let's not forget that he was ready to retire after the 2001 Cup win), they will need a starter in goal. I am not convinced that Schroeder is the guy for the job, and NLL general managers make big demands for parting with a top-drawer 'tender. They also must perform better at home.
A Wings Wallpaper from the Wings site
A .500 season was enough to get into the East Division playoffs last year, and it will likely be the same in 2005. The Wings open the season with a week-end in the West, facing the Sting and the Storm on back-to-back nights; the Stealth and the Mammoth will visit the Wachovia Center. Their schedule contains just one other two-game week-end, a February 18 homer against the Knighthawks, then a Sunday trip to Minnesota. While he has trusted assistants on the bench, and has done the combined GM/Head Coach job before in OLA Junior A, this will be Lindsay Sanderson's first solo in the NLL. He could not find a more solid franchise to start with, nor a more demanding 'baptism of fire'. The Wings should contend for a play-off spot, if they get some help, in the form of either a slump by one of Buffalo, Toronto or Rochester, or some intra-divisional upsets by Minnesota.
Post Script:
My wife and I made an impulsive detour on our post-Christmas journey to the Rez, and went to Barrie, Ontario to take in the December 30th exhibition game between the Wings and the Rock. Terry "AB"(All-Business) Sanderson played Bob "Whipper" Watson in goal the entire game, while the Wings' Dallas Eliuk yielded to Nick Schroeder for the second half. Bergey looked fit and feisty, scoring twice and jousting with Brian Beisel all night, and the youngsters Hawksbee, Van Beek and Finck all showed well. Draw man Kyle Sweeney ate up every man that was sent out against him. Toronto's Rusty Kruger made the mistake of going with Thomas Hajek, and got lumped up and bloodied for his error in judgement. Rusty, for future reference --- Hajek, hockey player.
The Wings Website.
Rochester Knighthawks
Last year at about this time, I opined that the question that the Rochester Knighthawks had to answer for 2004 was how to beat the Rock in Toronto.
It took them all season, but they did come up with the right answer in the last game of the season, reeling off five fourth-quarter goals to take a 12 - 10 win at the Air Canada Centre, and semi-final home floor advantage over Buffalo. They did it without John Grant Jr. or Marshall Abrams, lost to concurrent season-ending knee injuries, and on the back of Shawn Williams, who scored 34 of his 45 goals after Grant went down, but was held to just one in their 13 - 9 semi-final loss to the Bandits. Williams never missed a beat, going on to win the OLA Major scoring title with 48 goals and 78 assists, a resounding 32 points ahead of the runner-up, Brooklin Redmen team-mate Gavin Prout, but Grant and the Peterborough Lakers won Ontario, and then the Mann Cup.
General Manager Jody Gage and Head Coach Paul Day are not known for acts of desperation or rash decisions, and they waited until the entry draft to make a five-player deal with the Minnesota Swarm that brought former Bandit Mike Accursi and original Toronto Rock Ken Millin to Rochester. They snatched the Ravens' first-round draft pick, Chris McKay of Victoria, BC, a long-pole middie for the Butler University Bulldogs, who has also scored 23 goals in forty regular-season games over three years for the senior 'rocks, in the dispersal. They sent a 2006 third-round pick to Toronto for lightly played (26 games in three seasons) defender Carter Livingstone.
John Grant, Jr. was the MVP of the 2004 Heritage Cup
If Pat O'Toole's summer was any indication, he is in formidable form entering his 11th pro season. He played all but 26 minutes of six games in the Mann Cup series for the Peterborough Lakers, posting an 8.43 goals-against average and an 83.2 save percentage, and scoring 1 goal and 10 assists. From what I saw of this series, O'Toole was indeed in rare form, dominating Victoria Shamrock shooters and dictating the play. Back-up Pat Campbell, on the other hand, should be well-rested, after dressing for just six games with the Six Nations Chiefs (playing behind Derek "Chico" General and Ken "Monster" Montour).
A healthy Marshall Abrams returns to a veteran defence lead by Captain Mike Hasen and original Knighthawk Regy Thorpe, along with hometown boy Chris Schiller and big Steve Penny. In fact, the defensive corps has a collective 45 seasons of pro box experience, and they average 5.0.
Like Thorpe, attackman Tim Soudan is an original Knighthawk, but let us not forget that he broke in with the New England Blazers in 1991, that same year as Paul and Gary Gait in Detroit, making 2005 his 15th season. The still-jump-shooting SUNY-Brockport grad saw action in 10 games last season, scoring 5 goals and 22 points, winning 17 of 32 face-offs, and maintaining his career average above 1 goal a game. At the opposite end of this particular spectrum, Kim Squire was released in the pre-season.
The Knightingales
John Grant Jr. eased into the summer's OLA Major season with the Peterborough Lakers with 3 goals and 8 points in four games (the same number as Coach Jamie Batley suited up for!). He hit his stride quickly in the play-offs, though, with 21 goals and 25 assists in 12 games, garnering the Mike Kelly Memorial Award as the Mann Cup MVP, and electrifying a hometown devastated by a mid-July flood of the Trent River: --- all of this twenty years, almost to the day, after another bunch of Lakers with names like Evans and Batley, and lead by John Grant Sr., had won "the 'boro's" last Mann. As they say in the Hemi commercials (and Kawartha Chrysler was the Lakers' title sponsor), SWEEEET.
In addition to O'Toole and Grant, Accursi lead the Lakers in post-season scoring and the 2004 NLL All Rookie Team's Scott Evans (16 goals, 35 points) paced them through the regular season with 46 goals and 85 points. Attackers Brian Croswell and Matt Giles complete the Rochester - Peterborough connection.
The Knighthawks, along with only the Wings in the East, will face four, not five, Western opponents - they visit Anaheim in January and San Jose in April, and host Arizona and Colorado (for Gary Gait's final regular-season NLL game). They see expansion Minnesota thrice, including the season opener. Look for Rochester to get off to their best start in years, maybe ever. If everyone stays healthy and the creek don't rise, I am joining the growing chorus of those calling the Knighthawks the team to beat in the East, this (regular) season. We'll see about the play-offs.
Photos from the Knighthawks Website.
Toronto Rock
General Manager and Head Coach Terry Sanderson had a successful debut with the Toronto Rock in 2004, by any standard except his own and Toronto's. In the hometown of the NLL's first dynasty, championships are the only standard. Not only did the Rock not win the Champion's Cup, they did not make it out of the East, despite a comeback Division regular-season title, and have been unseated as perennial attendance leaders by the Colorado Mammoth. Nevertheless, as they say at NASA, confidence is high in the "Big Smoke" and the main reason is, more Sandersons.
Last season, the Rock stumbled out of the gate with a 2 - 4 start, but got back on track with seven wins in a row before losing 11 - 10 in double OT to the Roughnecks in Calgary in Week 15. Finishing at 10 - 6 atop the East got them a first-round playoff bye, but the extra week's rest did them no good against the Buffalo Bandits,
Blaine Manning & Bob "Whipper" Watson
In the biggest roster move of the off-season, Sanderson sent Steve Toll, Daryl Gibson, and, when the other shoe dropped, goalie Anthony Cosmo, along with two 2004 entry draft picks, to San Jose in exchange for son (and NLL assist-record holder) Josh, nephew Phil, and Rusty Kruger.
Former 2002 draft pick and practice roster goalie John Preece was signed as a free agent to back up Bob "Whipper" Watson; "Jay" was a Jr. A starter in Ontario and BC, and has played a couple of seasons of Ontario Senior, but has not seen any NLL action. The defence will miss Darryl Gibson and transition man Steve Toll (gone to San Jose), but, in a return to an earlier Rock configuration, expect to see more of Captain Jim Veltman out the back door, along with veterans Ian Rubel, Dan Ladouceur, Glenn Clark and Patrick Merrill. A trade brought Brian Beisel from the Wings, and John Rosa was signed after being released by the Storm. Free agent walk-on Luke Forget played for Terry with the OLA Sr. Major Brampton Excelsiors.
Josh Sanderson (I am loath to call him "Shooter" because for players of my vintage there is only one Shooter - the legendary Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Famer John Davis of Peterborough, captain of les Quebecois de Montreal in the NLL of 1974 and 1975, scoring 157 goals and adding 234 assists in 88 games) adds instant diversification to the Rock offence.
His extraordinary floor vision and passing will make it impossible for opposing defences to gang up on Colin Doyle and Blaine Manning (they will gang up on Josh now). New dad Rusty Kruger (impending fatherhood and three time-zone travel to San Jose last winter accounted for a sub-par season) will get on the end of Josh's feeds as well. Free agent Nick Trudeau returns to the NLL (two 30+ goal seasons in Albany, broke in with Buffalo in '98), and the 2000 Mann Cup MVP for the Brooklin Redmen brings scoring punch and special-teams prowess. Add in Matt Shearer and Aaron Wilson, and Toronto's power play, with Josh on top, Wilson and Trudeau on the crease, and Doyle and Manning or Shearer at the shooting elbows, will be even more potent than last year (a regular-season-leading 62 goals and .508 scoring average). Another free agent walk-on, Jim Quinlan from the Alberta hotbed of Sherwood Park (think Manning, ex-Rock Kaleb Toth) and veteran Sandy Chapman will help make up for the loss of Toll in the team speed department.
Will the Rock return to the top of the League this year? Terry Sanderson now has a dozen members of his Brampton OLA Sr. Major squad on the Rock roster (although he himself will not be back next summer, having first stepped down from the Excelsiors, then later agreed to coach in Sr. B Owen Sound, where he used to play). He will stand or fall with a team that he has (re-)built since taking over from Les Bartley, Ed Comeau and Derek Keenan. Bartley himself has returned to the Rock fold (not that he ever really left) as the Vice President, after taking on what proved to be a key role in the negotiation of the new CBA.
I have the utmost respect for both "Turk" and "Bart", so I am not stirring the pot here, but one cannot help but wonder how it will feel for Sanderson and his staff, with Bartley sitting in the VP's seat in the owners' box at the Air Canada Centre, especially next to club President Brad Watters and his notorious trigger finger. As an aside here, Watters' main pro sports preoccupation, the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Renegades, recently completed their third consecutive losing season (on both the field and the balance sheet) since entering the League, although they did a fine job of hosting the Grey Cup. Ottawa is in the midst of an ownership squabble, in which Watters find himself at odds with one of his Rock partners, Renegade co-majority owner Bill Smith (a pal of dad Bill Watters).
Air Canada Centre
Oddly enough, "Smitty" and team governor Randy Gillies, who each own 30%, are not fighting for control, but rather, are bogged down in negotiations to determine who will sell out to whom. With cumulative operating losses approaching $9 million Canadian (real money these days with the loonie's gains against the US greenback), and an undetermined total in cash calls over three seasons, this dispute seems to be to settle who gets left holding the bag. Watters' rapid loss of interest in the NLL Rebel was at the root of that team's demise, where the brothers Sanderson were in the early stages of overhauling that line-up, when he yanked the Sportexe out from under everything. With Brad and family having previously re-located from Toronto to Ottawa to be closer to the Renegades, what would happen, should the Rock falter?
Last season, with the announcement of Bartley's cancer treatment, and the subsequent scramble to re-group that ultimately lead to the appointment of Sanderson, was equally trying for players, management and fans. All may yet find new reasons to be glad that Bart's steady hand is there once again. The Rock are still part of the Buffalo-Rochester-Toronto triangle at the top of the NLL East, but that triangle is now equilateral. The Rock's Post-season seeding and match-up may well come down to tie-breakers.
Post Script:
Having taken in the December 30th exhibition tilt with the Philadelphia, I am left to wonder about a couple of things. First, While brother Lindsay played each of his goaltenders for a half starting with Dallas Eliuk, Terry kept Bob Watson in for the entire game, with nary a look down the bench to John Preece. In the midst of a Wings run, I could not help but hear (accurate) observations from both fans and press (the Barrie Molson Centre press box is immediately behind the top row of seats with no glass between) about "Whipper's" well-known weakness on outside shots. What happens when Watson hits a long bomb-induced slump? Second, Philly's Kyle Sweeney ruled the circle, schooling Patrick Merrill, Phil Sanderson and Blaine Manning, giving his team possession off the draws all night. Last season's Toronto draw-men, Ken Millen and Steve Toll, both over 50%, are gone. More offence means more face-offs, so who will step up for the Rock?
Photos from the Rock Website.
| |
