Lacrosse season is almost upon us! The season starts at the end of December, and the teams are getting their rosters ready now. I don’t think I’ve done this in the past, but here is my mini-analysis of the NLL’s Eastern division as well as some predictions for how the teams finish. The teams below are listed in no particular order; I’ll get to the predictions at the end. I’m a Rock fan so I’ll start with Toronto.

Toronto Rock

It turns out Dan Ladouceur did not retire at the end of last year as previously believed (though I never did see an official statement to that effect), but will play at least one more year. Honestly, I’m not sure how much Laddy can contribute anymore. He used to be a very solid defenseman, but he’s not nearly as effective as he once was — though I do remember saying after one game last year that he played really well. Jim Veltman did retire which is a big loss for the Rock, but he will join the coaching staff and I think he’ll do a good job there. I’m happy with the Rock’s choice of Chris Driscoll as the new captain. He’s a veteran player who’s respected, and is also one of the unsung heroes of the Rock over the last few years. He can score with the best of them but also plays solid defense and is pretty quick on transition as well.

Manning and Ratcliff will lead the offense, and hopefully Ryan Benesch can shake the sophomore jinx that plagued him last year. Aaron Wilson is gone but was replaced by Luke Wiles, and I mentioned before that he looks like a similar player to Wilson anyway, so that’s a wash. If Craig Conn is healthy then he will be a strong addition. Jason Crosbie has scored more than 50 points in four of the past six seasons, so even if the two big “ifs” (Benesch and Conn) don’t produce, the offense is still better.

We lost Veltman but gained Stephen Hoar. Hoar is a good defenseman, but he’s no Jim Veltman. But Veltman was a hundred and eighty years old while Hoar is 26. At best, that’s a wash. There weren’t any other major defensive or transition changes, so call the defense a little worse, but not significantly.

My biggest fear for the Rock is goaltending. Bob Watson is coming off a Goaltender of the Year award, which is pretty impressive for a 7-9 team that didn’t make the playoffs. But he’s also 38, and Mike Poulin, a very capable backup, is gone. Mike Attwood, the new backup (gotta have a goalie named “Mike”, apparently), has played a total of zero minutes in the NLL. If Watson gets injured or just can’t play as well as he used to, the Rock could be in serious goaltending trouble.

Overall the Rock are improved, but it may not be by much. Exactly how much depends on Conn, Benesch, and Watson.

Buffalo Bandits

Not much to say here. They’re the defending champs and have made no major changes in the off-season. Tavares is 40 now but doesn’t seem to be slowing down, and Steenhuis and Powless are only likely to get better.

Rochester Knighthawks

Not many changes for the K-Hawks this year, but they are significant. Out: John Freakin’ Grant, arguably the best player in the game right now, and Stephen Hoar. In: Gary Freakin’ Gait, arguably the best player in the game ever, and Aaron Wilson. Gait is not likely to be what he once was — heck, when he retired in 2005, he wasn’t what he once was. But he’s still Gary Gait, and though he won’t replace Grant, he and Wilson together might, numbers-wise anyway. Last time Grant was injured for a while, Shawn Williams stepped up admirably and became the de facto team leader. Might that still happen with Gait on the team? Sure it could.

But if Wilson+Gait=Grant, then the Knighthawks are a Hoar short of the same team that missed the playoffs last year. From that point of view, it could be argued that they’re not much improved from last year, and I suppose that’s true. But I don’t see the Knighthawks missing the playoffs this year. Why do I think Rochester will improve while I’m not so sure about Toronto? Easy: Rochester underperformed last year, while Toronto didn’t.

Weird: Grant will not play this year, but he will be an assistant coach in Rochester. John Grant the injured player coaching Gary Gait the former NLL Championship-winning coach seems a little weird.

Philadelphia Wings

No major changes in the off-season for the Wings either, though reigning MVP Athan Iannucci got injured in the summer league and there were rumours that would not be 100% this coming season. If that’s true, that’s a big blow to the Wings, but from what I’ve heard recently, those rumours were unfounded and Nooch will be ready to go. Kyle Wailes has been signed and has apparently dealt with his work visa issues, and so he will be able to play this year, so he joins Iannucci, AJ Shannon, and Merrick Thomson on the offense. Geoff Snider broke Jim Veltman’s loose balls record last year, and is an absolute monster on faceoffs. The Wings have Hajek, Jacobs, and Taylor Wray on defense, and they also have Rob Blasdell and Brandon Miller in goal, possibly the best one-two punch in the NLL.

I expect big things from Philly this year

New York Titans

The Titans went to the eastern division final last year, and now have a new coach in Ed Comeau. What else can I say but that they are an all-round solid team? I remember seeing Jarett Park play last year and was impressed, and Jordan Hall was a heckuva player as well. Powell, Boyle, and Maddalena make for a pretty potent offense, and Matt Vinc was an All-Pro last year. Turns out Americans can play box lacrosse after all. Who knew?

Boston Blazers

Meh — they’re an expansion team so they’ll suck, right? Maybe not. The Blazers grabbed Dan Dawson from Arizona in the dispseral draft (or was it from Portland in the expansion draft?), and remember Dawson brought the LumberJax from missing the playoffs to the Championship game the very next season. They also got Jake Bergey from Philly, and a couple of pretty solid goaltenders both named Mike: Miron and the aforementioned Poulin. Will they make the playoffs? I’d say probably not, but this will not be one of your 2-14 expansion teams (à la Edmonton or Ottawa).

Chicago Shamrox

Chicago only made one major move in the offseason, but it was a doozy. The Shamrox acquired Anthony Cosmo, one of the best goaltenders in the league, from San Jose for Matt Roik, a better-than-decent goaltender himself, and a couple of draft picks. This doesn’t immediately turn them into a contender, they’ll need some more offense for that, but they might win a few more 11-9 games rather than losing 17-11.

Summary

The East will be a tight race, as it always is. I think the Bandits and Wings have to be your top two teams. New York proved last year that they can compete with anyone, and I think Rochester will rebound from an off year, so that gives you your top four. This means that Toronto, Chicago, and Boston will not make the playoffs. Man, I hope I’m wrong about Toronto, but I have no idea which of my top four would have to drop out for Toronto to get in. If I had to guess, I’d have to say Rochester.

Prediction:

1. Philadelphia
2. Buffalo
3. New York
4. Rochester
5. Toronto
6. Boston
7. Chicago

I’ll do the NLL West next.

Update: After Chicago vanished and the rosters were released, I updated my predictions.

Weird — I just finished writing about two different blockbuster trades that the Rock made with the San Jose Stealth, and they go and make another one. This time, they threw the Rochester Knighthawks into the mix.

The Rock traded Aaron Wilson and a draft pick for next year to Rochester in return for Stephen Hoar. Rochester sent their draft pick for this year to San Jose, who sent Luke Wiles to Toronto. So Toronto gives up Aaron Wilson and a draft pick for Luke Wiles and Stephen Hoar, Rochester gives up a draft pick and Stephen Hoar for Aaron Wilson, and San Jose gives up Luke Wiles for a draft pick. Got all that?

As much as I like Aaron Wilson, I think this looks like a good deal for the Rock. I don’t know much about Luke Wiles (since the Stealth have never played in Toronto), but from the numbers, he looks like a similar player to Wilson anyway. Hoar, who has one of the best names in the NLL (he’s heard “Hey Steve, your mama’s a Hoar!” all his life, and now replies with “Not until she married my dad!”), is a solid defender and transition guy. It kind of sucks to have traded an offensive star like Wilson to a division rival, but it may not matter. The Knighthawks lost John Grant, Jr. for the season today, so I guess the K-Hawks are hoping that Wilson will make up for that loss to some extent. You simply can’t replace a talent like Grant, but if you have to try, Wilson will do as good a job as just about anyone.

Paul Tutka wrote a piece in NLLInsider.com today about the moves the Rock have made this off-season, and when you put them all together, it does look pretty good:

In: Luke Wiles, Stephen Hoar, Craig Conn, Jason Crosbie, Chad Thompson (injured last year), Lewis Ratcliff

Out: Josh Sanderson, Aaron Wilson, Jim Veltman, Mike Poulin, Dan Ladouceur

The goaltending situation is a little dicey. Watson is coming off a Goaltender of the Year award, so no real worries there but if he gets hurt, the backup will be Mike Attwood (not sure if he’s ever seen action in an NLL game) or one of the two goalies they drafted the other day, neither of which has ever played in the NLL either. Poulin didn’t see a lot of floor time last year, but he was the goaltender of the year in the OLA this past season, in a league featuring Cosmo, O’Toole, and Brandon Miller. Might have been good to protect Poulin instead of Watson, but then make Watson a franchise player so Boston would be unlikely to draft him.

In July of 2004, the Rock made a blockbuster deal with the San Jose Stealth which came to be known to Rock fans as The Trade. Two and a half years later, the Rock made another trade that is still being talked about, but not in the same way. These were the two biggest trades in Rock history, and while the first directly contributed to the Rock’s 2005 NLL championship, the second was not-quite-but-pretty-close directly responsible for the two worst seasons in Rock history.

The Rock won the NLL championship in 2005, but struggled in 2006, beginning the season 0-4 and ending up with a worst-ever 8-8 record. The Rock management adopted a “What have you done for us lately” attitude with head coach and GM Terry Sanderson, and fired him within weeks of the end of the season. Former player Glenn Clark was hired as head coach, and Mike Kloepfer got the job as “Director of Player Personnel” (don’t know why that’s different from “General Manager” as it’s called for every other team, and for the Rock prior to this). A couple of weeks before the start of the 2007 season, Kloepfer made his mark on the team by making The Trade II. Kloepfer traded Colin Doyle and Darren Halls to the San Jose Stealth for Ryan Benesch, Kevin Fines, Chad Thompson, and two draft picks.

Doyle had played his entire career with the Rock organization; one year in Hamilton when they were the Ontario Raiders, and then eight years with the Rock. He won five championships with the Rock, and finished either first or second on the Rock in scoring every year from 1999 to 2005. In 2005, he actually led the league in scoring — the first player not named Gait or Tavares to do so since 1990 — and was named league MVP. Doyle was also named MVP of the Championship game three times, something nobody else has ever done more than once. Needless to say, Doyle was the offensive heart and soul of the Rock. He was also a fan favourite who gave his all whenever he hit the floor, and from all accounts, he was also a popular guy in the locker room. The trade shocked the lacrosse community, and even Doyle himself did not see it coming. Many Rock fans were absolutely incensed, and some even cancelled season tickets because of it. Management never really gave a good reason for the trade, other than the typical “going in a different direction” crap. When you’ve won five championships in seven years and then have one bad season, you don’t need to go in a different direction; you want to get back to the direction you were going in the previous year, and trading your best player away is not the way to do that.

Of course, Doyle wasn’t the only player involved in the trade. Darren Halls was a rookie who was traded to the Rock from Arizona only the previous month. Ryan Benesch was the first overall pick in that year’s draft, and was touted as a very exciting young player. I had never heard of Fines or Thompson, but despite the others involved in the trade, it essentially came down to Doyle for Benesch — the current superstar for the up-and-coming rookie. Perhaps the Rock was hoping that Doyle was on the downside of his career and Benesch would turn into another, well, Colin Doyle. But in 2006, Doyle was only a year removed from his MVP season, he made the All-Star and All-Pro teams, and finished third in league scoring. In short, he was not showing any signs of being on the downside of his career.

Doyle only scored four points in his first game in San Jose, but got nine assists in his second game and seven in his third (plus a goal). He ended the 2007 season with 81 points, fifteen less than his total with the Rock the previous year. Rather than attempt to be the goal leader, he seemed to take a page from Josh Sanderson’s book, and let Jeff Zywicki, Gary Rosyski, and Luke Wiles score all the goals. Doyle led the team in assists, and the Stealth made the post season for the first time in three years. In only the second playoff game in Stealth history, Doyle, who thrives in the post-season (did I mention his three Championship game MVP awards?), scored a goal and added ten assists to help the Stealth beat the defending champion Colorado Mammoth 15-14 in OT. The next week, however, the Stealth were bumped from the playoffs by the Arizona Sting. Last year, Doyle scored 88 points, and the Stealth won the west division, though they lost in the opening round of the playoffs to the LumberJax.

As for the Rock, Ryan Benesch lived up to most expectations, finishing with 58 points and was named NLL Rookie of the Year. In total, Benesch, Fines, and Thompson finished with a total of 104 points, even more than Doyle could have been expected to get. But Doyle, Josh Sanderson, and Blaine Manning made up a very potent offensive threesome, and losing part of that group really hurt the team. Call it team chemistry or whatever. Sanderson’s points total dropped by thirteen, and Manning, whose point total had already dropped by twenty five the previous year, saw his total drop by another three. The Rock finished the season 6-10, their worst record ever. They managed to back into the playoffs thanks to tiebreakers, but were soundly defeated in the first round by the eventual-champion Rochester Knighthawks. Last year, the Rock finished 7-9 and out of the playoffs for the first time ever.

It’s hard to say that the Rock’s decline from dynasty to also-ran was caused by the Doyle trade, since they were no better than mediocre the year before the trade. But things got quite a bit worse after the trade. Fines was traded away the next year, and then Sanderson near the end of last season. Benesch was benched for the last two games of the 2008 season, and there were rumours that he’d played his last game as a Rock. Nothing ever came of it, and Mike Kloepfer has since gone on the record saying that Benesch was never on the trading block and is a big part of the Rock’s future. However, no explanation was ever given for the benching.

While it could be argued (and I did) that the Stealth basically lost the Sanderson/Cosmo deal, there’s no argument that they ended up on the winning end of the Doyle/Benesch trade.

Quite honestly, I was not a very big fan of Colin Doyle during the first few years that I watched the Rock (i.e. starting in the the 2001 season). There was no question that he was talented, but he seemed like too much of a hothead to me. It always seemed like he wanted to get out there and fight someone (and my opinions on fighting in sports are very well documented), and the only reason that he didn’t was because his coach refused to let him, deciding (correctly) that he was too valuable on the floor to be spending time in the penalty box.

Over the years, however, he matured and became a superstar. The hothead thing vanished, and he now seems perfectly happy to let others do the fighting while he just goes out and scores goals. Something else that impressed me about Doyle was unrelated to lacrosse — during the national anthems, he stands perfectly still and even sings along to O Canada. I don’t understand why players have to keep shifting around during the anthems. Do they think it helps them stay loose? Then why do they sit down on the bench when they’re not playing? Why not stand behind the bench, shifting from foot to foot? And players who take off and continue their warm-up before the anthems are over really annoy me. Anyway, kudos to Doyle for showing respect.

The Doyle trade is one of those “I remember when I heard about…” moments for me. I am an occasional Wikipedia editor (OK, more than occasional, I have made over 7,000 edits to Wikipedia pages), and the day after the trade, I went to Wikipedia to look at my watchlist (a list of changes to pages I’m interested in), and one of the changes was to the Colin Doyle page, which I created. The only thing that was changed on the page was the first line:

Colin “Popeye” Doyle (b. September 8, 1977 in Kitchener, Ontario) is a lacrosse player for the San Jose Stealth of the National Lacrosse League.

“San Jose Stealth?” I thought, “Stupid vandals.” Vandalism is something that happens all too often on Wikipedia, so I was all ready to revert the change, but then I noticed a new paragraph that described a trade in more detail (i.e. who was involved). The next thought I had was not “vandalism”, but more something along the lines of “no fucking way!” and went screaming over to NLL.com to see if it was really true. It was.

In the two seasons since he was traded, while watching the Rock struggle to score goals, I came to realize just how valuable Colin Doyle was to the team. This coming season, the Stealth are playing in Toronto for the first time since the trade, so I’m looking forward to seeing Doyle play again, even if it is against the Rock rather than for them.

As I wrote about the other day, Anthony Cosmo was traded from San Jose to Chicago. Cosmo is a former Toronto Rock goaltender, and was traded to San Jose in the summer of 2004, essentially for Josh Sanderson (at least, they were the two biggest names in the trade). This was the biggest trade in Rock history, up until the Doyle trade of two years later, and was known to Rock fans simply as The Trade (just as Jays fans used to think of the Alomar and Carter for Fernandez and McGriff deal).

Though excited about having Josh Sanderson on the Rock, I remember thinking at the time that trading Cosmo would come back to bite the Rock later on. Despite the fact that Cosmo has blossomed into one of the best goalies in the league, I was wrong on this one. This turned out to be a fabulous trade for the Rock.

For four seasons, Cosmo was the Rock’s backup goaltender, behind the legendary Bob “Whipper” Watson. During most of that time, Whipper was the definite #1 goalie and Cosmo was the backup. Beginning in 2003, Cosmo began playing more often, and when Whipper got injured, Cosmo took over. He played in nine of sixteen games in 2004, as he and Whipper more or less shared the goalie job. Whipper was in his mid 30’s at the time while Cosmo was more than seven years younger. I distinctly remember one game where Whipper started but didn’t play very well and was pulled in the first quarter. Cosmo finished the game, and played amazing. I remember wondering if we had just seen the unofficial transition from the Watson era of Rock history to the Cosmo era. Beginning that night, I assumed that Cosmo would be the starting Rock goaltender the next season, with Watson serving as the backup, if he didn’t retire. Never happened. The Cosmo era, if it ever truly began, ended a couple of months after the 2004 season ended.

In a blockbuster deal, Toronto traded fan favourite Steve Toll, defenseman Darryl Gibson (later to become an all-star), two draft picks and a player to be named later to the San Jose Stealth for the single-season assist record holder and master playmaker Josh Sanderson, his cousin Phil Sanderson (another soon-to-be all star defenseman), and Rusty Kruger (who happened to be a good friend of Josh). It wasn’t officially part of the trade announcement, but it was widely known that the Rock “player to be named later” was Anthony Cosmo. It was weird that someone as good as Cosmo was a “player to be named later” in a trade, but that wasn’t the weirdest thing about The Trade.

The league was about to hold an expansion draft for the new Minnesota Swarm. Each team was allowed to protect a certain number of players and the Swarm would be allowed to pick one unprotected player from each team. As part of the deal with the Stealth, the Rock were obligated to protect Cosmo. Not only was this weird because it meant that they had to leave someone else unprotected, but the Stealth already had two very good goalies (Brandon Miller and Rob Blasdell), both of whom were protected. So the Stealth, essentially, forced the Rock to protect one of their goalies, allowing them to end up with three. This made little sense, as Cosmo started the majority of games for the Stealth the next season, with Miller and Blasdell seeing little floor time. Blasdell was left unprotected in the next season’s expansion draft, and was selected by Edmonton (who immediately traded him to Arizona).

Many lacrosse fans raised a Spockian eyebrow at The Trade announcement since Josh’s father Terry Sanderson was the GM and head coach of the Rock at the time. Some wondered if he gave up too much to acquire his son, his nephew, and his son’s best friend. But nepotism aside, The Trade turned the Rock into an offensive powerhouse. Josh Sanderson combined with Colin Doyle and Blaine Manning to make the Rock one of the most potent offensive lineups in NLL history. In 2005, Doyle led the league in scoring, Manning was tied for second, and Sanderson was tied for fourth. Josh set a new single-season record for assists. Doyle, Manning and Josh were named to the All-Star and All-Pro teams, and Doyle was named league MVP as the Rock won their fifth championship in seven years. In 2006, all three were again All-Stars, as was Phil Sanderson, Josh led the league in both assists and points, and Doyle and Josh made the All-Pro team again.

After 2006, the Rock went downhill quickly. Terry Sanderson was fired, and Colin Doyle was inexplicably traded to the Stealth. Without Terry to fight for him, Josh became unpopular with management, and he was traded to the Calgary Roughnecks during the 2008 season. The Rock finished below .500 in both 2007 and 2008 (their worst records ever), and they missed the playoffs in 2008 for the first time in team history.

But what about Cosmo? He became the starter in San Jose that Rock fans knew he would. He made the All-Star team in 2005 and 2006, was named Goaltender of the Year in 2007, and is now widely regarded as one of the best in the league. And yet the Rock traded him away — so why was this still a great trade? Because of Bob Watson. In the four seasons since The Trade, Watson has simply been outstanding. He made the All-Pro team in 2005 and 2008, and was named Goaltender of the Year in 2008 at the age of 38 — on a team that went 7-9. He’s had a couple of different backups (Phil Wetherup and Mike Poulin), neither of whom has played often because Watson is a workhorse. Trading Cosmo didn’t hurt the Rock because even if they hadn’t, he wouldn’t have gotten much playing time. The fact that the Rock pretty much sucked last year and the year before is irrelevant — their suckage was not Watson’s fault, and having Cosmo in goal wouldn’t have changed things.

The Rock had an excess of talent and traded some of it away for a championship. That’s the quintessential example of a great trade.

I’m going to stick with my previous statement that nobody will stop the Bandits, and predict a Buffalo championship. Championship game MVP is a tough one… I think I will say Steenhuis

Nailed ’em both.

There is only one game left in the NLL season. It’ll be in Buffalo, but we’re going up north this weekend so I won’t be going. Luckily, the game is televised, so I plan on watching it at my parents’ place on Saturday night.

I went 1-1 in my second round predictions, slightly better than the 1-3 in the first round, so I’m 2-4 overall. Buffalo beat New York as I predicted, even though Mark Steenhuis did not learn how to pass the ball, only getting a single assist. Didn’t matter much though, since he scored seven, and John “ageless” Tavares had 10 assists to go with his two goals. It was an intense game as I predicted as well, with each team racking up 65 minutes in penalties.

I got the Calgary-Portland game wrong, though I did wonder if Dan Dawson could carry Portland for another game, and with five goals and five assists, I guess the answer is “yes”.

I’m going to stick with my previous statement that nobody will stop the Bandits, and predict a Buffalo championship. Championship game MVP is a tough one — Tavares is always a good bet and Mike Accursi has been great since returning to the Bandits, but I think I will say Steenhuis.

As for league MVP, which will be announced tomorrow, it’s a no-brainer. Athan Iannucci beat Gary Gait’s goal-scoring record by 10, and over a 16 game season that’s pretty significant, especially for a player in only his second season in the league. It’s possible that this year was a fluke (like Brady Anderson hitting 50 home runs, though that was more likely chemically-induced), but I think this guy’s the real deal. It would not surprise me if in ten years, we’ll be saying Iannucci’s name in the same breath as names like Gait, Tavares, Marechek, and Veltman as one of the best in league history.

OK, so my hockey predictions (8-4 after 2 rounds) are slightly better than my lacrosse predictions (1-3 after one round). As I said as I updated the previous post, I nailed the Buffalo game completely, and was totally wrong on the other three. Since there are only three games left, the best I can do is 4-3, so let’s try for that:

• Buffalo over New York — The one word that best describes Darris Kilgour is intensity. If there’s anyone who can get his team fired up, it’s Darris, whether that’s through an inspiring speech or just being afraid that if you don’t step up your game he’ll beat the snot out of you. Bob McMahon just doesn’t have that kind of presence. Anyway, they’ve been getting great goaltending from both Thompson and Montour, and if Steenhuis can learn that passing the ball is a good thing, I don’t see New York, or anyone from the west, stopping the Bandits.
• Calgary over Portland — Dan Dawson has the ability to carry a team for one game, and since this is single-game elimination, that’s a big deal. But he did that in the win over San Jose — can he do it two games in a row? Calgary played well enough to make it to the playoffs without Tracey Kelusky for most of the season. But he’s back now, and if there’s one goalie whose name isn’t Bob Watson that I want between the pipes in a critical game, it’s Chugger.

One more thing I need to say: I’ve never been a big fan of Billy Dee Smith. He generally takes too many dumb penalties and I haven’t yet forgiven him for the nasty cross-check to Colin Doyle’s head about five years ago. But he played a great game in Buffalo on Friday. The Bandits in general played smart, stayed out of the box (an old nemesis of theirs — stupid penalties have cost the Bandits a number of games over the last few years), and Smith played a hard but smart game and even scored a couple. A few people on the lacrosse message boards have talked about Smith in the past as a good solid player with a bad reputation, but I never saw it. On Friday I did.

I’m also wondering if John Tavares will retire after this season if Buffalo wins it all. He’s still playing at a high enough level that he doesn’t have to, but he may want to retire before he gets to be one of those players who still hangs on and doesn’t want to admit that their playing days are over even though they are a shadow of their former selves. Jim Veltman could probably have played another year, but he wanted to retire before he became that guy that should have retired, and Tom Marechek and Gary and Paul Gait all did the same thing. It would be kind of too bad if Tavares does retire after this year, since Veltman, Gary Gait, and Marechek all had the whole “final season” celebration thing, and Tavares deserves that as well. It would be too bad for the fans if he finished the season and then just didn’t come back.

I made my predictions for the first and second rounds of the NHL playoffs, so it’s time to make my predictions for the NLL playoffs as well.

• Buffalo over Philly — Iannucci is the real deal, Snider is a monster on face-offs and loose balls, and Philly got some great goaltending from Blazer and Miller in the Toronto game the other day, but they did almost lose to a Rock team that didn’t make the playoffs and didn’t have Ryan Benesch playing for some crazy reason. The game is in Buffalo, and the crowd there will be really loud, which the Bandits thrive on. This will be a good game though, and some friends and I will be heading to Buffalo to catch it.
• Minnesota over New York
• San Jose over Portland — Colin Doyle had a great season for San Jose and always steps it up in the playoffs. We saw it time and again when he was with the Rock. The guy hasn’t won three Championship Game MVP awards for nothing.
• Colorado over Calgary

Update: I nailed the Buffalo-Philly game. I did go to the game last night, and Iannucci was the real deal (4 goals), Snider was a monster on face-offs (winning 28 of 30, though the vast majority were simply conceded by the Bandits), Blazer and Miller did play well, and the Buffalo crowd was very loud. Oh, and the Bandits did win.

Second update: That was all I nailed. New York took out Minnesota, Calgary beat Colorado, and Portland stunned San Jose this evening, so I’m a dismal 1 for 4 in the first round. Second round begins this Friday, so more predictions coming soon…

For the first time in their ten-year history, the Toronto Rock will not make the playoffs this year. They had yet another mediocre season (though actually better than last year when they did make the playoffs), and have not had a season above .500 since 2005 when they won it all. Something’s gotta change, and I think it should be Mike Kloepfer, the “Director of Lacrosse Operations” (why they don’t just call him the General Manager like every other sports team, I don’t know). He’s the guy that made the Doyle for Benesch deal which I wasn’t sure about at the time, but has since shown itself to be the downfall of the franchise. That may be stretching things just a bit, but not that much. This is nothing against Benesch, who I like — he is a skilled player and has scored his share of very nice goals. But Colin Doyle he ain’t, and his sophomore slump this year isn’t helping his case any. Maybe they thought that Kevin Fines would turn into a Doyle-type player, but before he showed whether he could or not, they traded him away as well.

Kloepfer brought Peter Lough to Toronto as a free agent, and that was a good move. Getting Cam Woods and Kasey Biernes sounded good, but neither has played as well as I had hoped (though Woods is kicking ass in the penalty minutes department). Clark didn’t play Ian Rubel and then Kloepfer traded him away for nothing, and I don’t understand that move at all. Rubel was no candidate for Defenseman of the Year, but he was capable and tough, and I don’t understand why they didn’t want to play him. He traded Rusty Kruger away for nothing. He traded All-Star defender Phil Sanderson away for nothing. The Josh Sanderson for Ratcliff trade is too recent to really consider, though it is a touch ironic that Sanderson assisted on the overtime goal that knocked the Rock out of the playoffs.

Then there’s Glenn Clark behind the bench. In his two years as head coach the Rock are 11-16 with him behind the bench with one game left to play (that doesn’t include the 2-2 record while he was suspended). He’s not in a Paul Maurice-type situation, i.e. a good coach with crappy players, he’s had some excellent players in front of him including future Hall-of-Famers Veltman and Watson, a bunch of skilled offensive players like Manning, Sanderson, Ratcliff, Benesch, Wilson, Biernes, and Shearer, and top defensemen like Phil Sanderson, Chris Driscoll (one of the most underrated players in the league), Lough, Woods, Daryl Gibson (another guy traded away for nothing), Biesel, Merrill and Rubel. Clark has also shown a tendency to fly off the handle, though he’s shown a lot of restraint since that incident. The Rock’s failure this year is at least partially his fault as well, but Kloepfer is the guy who made the big trade that killed the offence. I don’t think Kloepfer is as bad as this guy does — he think that it’s Kloepfer’s fault if it rains — but the team needs a major change in the off season. Jim Veltman is retiring after this Sunday’s game and losing him will hurt, so some lacrosse-savvy person needs to be brought in to do something, and probably something significant.

The Rock have a track record of not waiting long to make this kind of move. Ed Comeau took over for the legendary Les Bartley and so had some pretty big shoes to fill, but they fired him after only six games. Terry Sanderson took over and brought that 2-4 team to the playoffs, then brought them to 12-4 and the Championship the next year, but when the Rock finished 8-8 the year after that, Terry was given the hook. I guess the thinking there was “Sure, we won the Championship last year, but what have you done for me lately?”

If they don’t fire Kloepfer and/or Clark after missing the playoffs for the first time ever, I will be very surprised.