The Toronto Rock opened their 2011 season with a decisive 13-7 home victory at the Air Canada Centre. 2010 Rookie of the Year Stephen Leblanc led the Rock with 3 goals, while Garrett Billings, Kasey Beirnes, and rookie Aaron Pascas scored two each. Bob Watson was stellar in net, allowing only one goal in the second half. Whipper made 36 saves and his good friends the goal posts made a few each as well. Ryan Ward scored a pair for the Rush, who were simply outplayed tonight.

In recent years, it seemed like the beginning of the season always snuck up on the Rock. “What? You mean the preseason is over and we have to play tonight? Like, for realsies?” Because, you know, the schedule isn’t announced months in advance or anything. The first game of the year (and from 2007 to 2009, the second through sixteenth as well) always seems to feature dropped balls, missed passes, passes to teammates who aren’t there, or just dumb plays. Not tonight. The Rock seemed ready for this one from the get-go, even though they didn’t score their first goal until 11 minutes in.

Rush goalie Matt Disher was solid in net – he actually made more saves (43) than Whipper did, owing to the fact that the Rock took 56 shots at him while the Rush only took 43 at Whipper. Disher did give up a lot of big rebounds, though I think there was only one or two that led directly to a Rock goal. I didn’t think Edmonton’s defense was really all that bad, but Toronto played the pick-and-roll to perfection, or so my friend Steve tells me. He actually plays lacrosse whereas I do not, so I’ll take his word for it. I think Toronto’s win came mainly because they put that little round thing in the Rush net more times than the Rush put it in the Toronto net.

Brodie Merrill did not have his best game ever. He was dropping passes and occasionally looked lost, though he did end up with 18 loose balls – ten more than anyone on the Rock. He almost blew a gasket in the first quarter when he had a breakaway and the Rush coach called a timeout. He looked at the ref who blew the whistle and held his hands out as if to say “What the fuuuuuuuuuck?”, and the ref told him there was a timeout call. He slowly walked back to the Rush bench but didn’t drop his hands or close his mouth until well after he got there. He then said about five words (unlikely “Perhaps not the best time”) to the coach and went and sat down. In the fourth, Mike Hobbins and Brodie’s brother Patrick Merrill managed a 2-on-1 with Brodie as the 1. Hobbins ran around Brodie like he was standing still (which, in fact, he was) and passed to Patrick, who scored. Brodie certainly did not look like the better Merrill on that play.

Some other random notes from the game:

• The opening Rock highlight reels showed a ton of fights, a number of solid hits, and the odd goal or save. I wholeheartedly disagree with this type of marketing. I’ve always told people that lacrosse is a rough game but it’s not a violent game. Don’t market the violence over a great passing play culminating in a score or the beauty of an over-the-shoulder goal.
• The Rock unveiled their new mascot Iggy (short for Igneous Rock). Not terrible, but it didn’t do anything for me. Then again, I’m 41 so I kind of doubt I’m in the key demographic they were considering when they decided they needed a mascot. My 8-year-old son was sitting right in front of me, however, and he didn’t seem all that enthused either. But much to my chagrin, he doesn’t care much for lacrosse (or pro sports of any kind) anyway; he spent most of the game playing with the new digital watch he got for Christmas.
• No dance team! I guess they replaced the dance team with Iggy. Personally, I’d rather watch a bunch of beautiful and scantily clad young women dance around than a man with a permanent grin on his big plastic head, flexing his pretend muscles. But that’s probably just me.
• Colin Doyle had a breakaway in the second and once he got to the crease area, did he bury a laser into the top corner? Dive across the crease and shoot behind the goalie? Bounce a beauty between Disher’s legs? No, he took a weak shot directly at Disher’s chest. My friend Jeff immediately thought of Alex Ovechkin – he can score backwards from his knees with multiple people pounding on him, but put him in a shootout and he can’t find the back of the net.
• Blaine Manning took a ton of shots in the first half but either missed the net or hit Disher square in the chest. He finally scored one in the third and ended up with 5 assists.
• The Wave doesn’t show up at every Rock game, just now and again. It went around the ACC in the fourth quarter, but clockwise. In the past, and just about every time I’ve seen it, it’s always been counter-clockwise. My friend Faisal wondered if this is what it would be like to watch a sporting event in Australia.
• Something happened in the fourth quarter that I’m pretty sure I have never seen before. At one point, both nets were empty. The Rock had possession in their end, and Garrett Billings was set up near the Rush net, with Disher on the bench. Note that play was stopped at this point, so Disher would have had time to get to the net, but did not. The Rock net was also empty, also for reasons that escape me. The whistle blew, the Rock player launched a pass to Billings, and he was hit by a defender a split-second before he shot, so he missed the net. The Rock came rushing (ha ha) down to the Edmonton end and another Rock player scored in front of a diving Matt Disher who had come charging off the bench. There were several minutes left in the quarter at this point, so I have no idea why either net was empty, let alone both.

As I mentioned, I have never played organized lacrosse, so perhaps someone can enlighten me on something I’ve seen a number of times, including at least once last night. Play is blown dead and before play resumes, the attacking team pulls their goalie. They have five attackers in the opposing team’s end, and another attacker with the ball way back in their own end. The whistle is blown, the guy with the ball starts running, passes to another attacker, and immediately runs to the bench. The goalie then runs out and goes back to the net. WTF? Why bother with the switch? Why couldn’t the goalie make the pass?

Both teams next see action next Saturday night. Edmonton travels to Boston, while the Rock head to Rochester.

The Toronto Rock and Edmonton Rush begin their 2011 seasons this Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. The Rock are coming off a very successful, if streaky, season. They started off 6-1 and then lost five in a row before pulling it together again and winning three of their last four. Despite finishing with a mediocre 9-7 record, the Rock got hot in the playoffs and returned to the Championship game for the first time since winning it in 2005. They lost to a superior Washington Stealth team, but a number of Rock players had never been to the finals before and got a taste of what it’s like to get there – and what it’s like to lose. They will be hungry to get back there again and this time, take home the trophy.

The Rush had their most successful season by far in 2010. They finished above .500 for the first time and made the playoffs for the first time. In fact, it could be argued that they just didn’t suck for the first time. The Rush missed making it to their first ever Championship game by one overtime goal. The long-suffering Rush fans were treated to an exciting season, and hopes are high in Edmonton that they can repeat their success in 2011.

The Rock and Rush met twice last year and split the series, with each team winning at home. In February, the Rock demolished the Rush 16-7 in Toronto, as Blaine Manning scored 5 goals and added 5 assists. A week later, Ryan Powell scored 4 and added 4 helpers as the Rush held off the Rock 14-13 in Edmonton.

When the Rock won the Championship in 2005, they were an offensive powerhouse, with Colin Doyle, Josh Sanderson, and Blaine Manning all finishing with over 100 points. Last year only Sanderson (then on Calgary, now on Boston) hit the century mark, but the Rock had four players over 80 points – the only other team to have more than two was the Minnesota Swarm who had three. (Yes, the Swarm. I checked it twice.) Two of those four were rookies so as long as the sophomore slump doesn’t hit both Billings and LeBlanc, the Rock should still be right up there again in the goals scored department, especially after adding Pat Maddalena to the mix.

On the other side, the Rush tied for the most goals allowed last year so in the off-season, they were looking for ways to cut down on opposing attackers getting good shots on their goaltenders. Given the sheer size of the Rush defense, the Rock attackers may have trouble even seeing Matt Disher at all, let alone shooting at him. Only one player on the Rock roster (Tim O’Brien, who typically doesn’t see much floor time) is listed at over 215 pounds, while the Rush have five, including three (one of which is Disher himself) at 260. And I’d like to see a Rock player try and pull the old swim move on 6-foot-10 David Morgan.

The big story of this game is Brodie vs. Patrick – the battle of the brothers Merrill. According to edmontonrush.com, the pair have only met in an NLL game once before, when the New York Titans (remember them?) featuring Patrick beat the Portland Lumberjax (remember them?) featuring Brodie back in 2008. Patrick is a tough defender and drops the gloves occasionally, while Brodie is the NLL’s reigning Transition Player of the Year (two years running) and knows his way around both ends of the floor. Brodie is obviously one of the premier transition players in the game, but if anyone has ideas on how to shut him down, it might be his brother.

Given the fact that only one team scored more than the Rock last year, and nobody got scored on more than the Rush, you might think this will be a cakewalk for the Rock. It’s hard to compare between divisions though – the Rush scored 11 fewer goals and allowed a whopping 45 more goals than the Rock last year, but ended up with a better W-L record.

Just for fun, each of the writers at the NLL Blog have made predictions on the final standings of the 2011 NLL season. The rosters have been set and the season starts in just a couple of days, so here they are. Make sure to bookmark this article so you can check on how we did at the end of the season!

 

NLL East

 

Melissa Dafni	Alex Hinkley	Avry Lewis-Macdougall	Kevin Neibauer	Graeme Perrow	Mike Wilson
Toronto	Buffalo	Buffalo	Boston	Toronto	Toronto
Buffalo	Boston	Toronto	Buffalo	Boston	Boston
Philadelphia	Toronto	Boston	Rochester	Buffalo	Buffalo
Boston	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Rochester	Rochester
Rochester	Rochester	Rochester	Toronto	Philadelphia	Philadelphia

 

NLL West

 

Melissa Dafni	Alex Hinkley	Avry Lewis-Macdougall	Kevin Neibauer	Graeme Perrow	Mike Wilson
Colorado	Calgary	Washington	Washington	Washington	Washington
Washington	Colorado	Edmonton	Edmonton	Colorado	Edmonton
Edmonton	Washington	Minnesota	Calgary	Edmonton	Colorado
Minnesota	Minnesota	Colorado	Minnesota	Calgary	Calgary
Calgary	Edmonton	Calgary	Colorado	Minnesota	Minnesota

 

Consensus says another Toronto-Washington final. The Stealth had four first place votes out of six, and only one person had them finishing as low as third. Not much love for Philly or Rochester in the East or Minnesota in the West. Calgary, Colorado, and Toronto got both first and last place votes. We’ve got an interesting season ahead!

Attention Facebook readers: You might want to click the “View Original Post” link at the bottom of this note. Facebook sometimes messes up the formatting.

NLL East

Boston Blazers

In: David Brock, Kevin Buchanan, Scott Campbell, Geoff McNulty, John Orsen, Casey Powell, Matt Quinton, Kyle Rubisch, Josh Sanderson

Out: Gary Bining, Paul Dawson, Mat Giles, Jon Harnett, Matt Lyons, Sean Morris, Kyle Ross, Matt Smalley, Brendon Thenhaus, Daryl Veltman, Head Coach Tom Ryan

Comments: There’s only one ball. Sanderson can score, to be sure, but he loves to pass. But both Dawson and Powell are used to being the guy. Can they both be the guy at the same time? Head coach Tom Ryan was fired during training camp, which tells me that he was not fired because they bowed out in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last two years, or because ownership felt that they underachieved with an 8-8 record last year. In either of those cases, he would have been fired long before now. No, that tells me that either Sanderson or Powell (or both) didn’t like Ryan or something about his coaching style, and they demanded that he be fired. This does not scream “cohesive unit” to me and makes me wonder if this will be like Canada’s 2002 Heritage Cup team – a group of superstars that could not play as a team.

Prediction: Second

 

Buffalo Bandits

In: Chad Culp, Clay Hill, Travis Irving, Tracy Kelusky, Scott Self, Brendon Thenhaus, Jay Thorimbert

Out: Mike Accursi, Kevin Dostie, Sean Greenhalgh, Ken Montour, Kyle Schmelzle, Billy Dee Smith, Brandon Swamp

Comments: No major changes for the Bandits; the biggest would be losing Accursi and picking up Kelusky. Both are veterans with leadership ability, but Kelusky scored 20 more points last year in 2 less games. Greenhalgh and Smith (at least) are injured to start the season, but may return. Adding Culp and Thenhaus will help the offense, and Self is a solid defender.

Prediction: Third

 

Philadelphia Wings

In: Matt Alrich, Ryan Boyle, Paul Dawson, Ray Hodgkinson, Steve Holmes, Athan Iannucci, Bodie MacDonald, Brett Manney, Ryan McClelland, Ryan McFadyen, David Mitchell, Brendan Mundorf, Shawn Nadelen, Joe Smith, Alex Turner

Out: Rob Blasdell, Jason Crosbie, Dave Cutten, Tom Hajek, Kevin Huntley, Jordan Levine, Brett Moyer, Steve Panarelli, Jeff Reynolds, Josh Sims, Bob Snider, Geoff Snider, Dan Teat, Kyle Wailes, Mike Ward

Comments: Wow, is there anyone on the team from last year? Six of their top ten scorers last year (Wailes, Snider, Teat, Giles, Huntley, Crosbie) are gone, and their backup goalies are both rookies. On the upside, Athan Iannucci is returning, and if he’s anywhere close to as dominant as he was in 2008, he’ll be a serious offensive force to be reckoned with. Then again, that was three years ago.

Prediction: Fifth

 

Rochester Knighthawks

In: Mike Accursi, Troy Bonterre, Tyler Burton, Jarrett David, Colin Hall, Cody Jamieson, Pat McCready, Ian Rubel, Josh Ruys, Matt Vinc, Chase Williams, Matt Zash

Out: Marshall Abrams, Mac Allen, Cory Bomberry, Matt Danowski, Shawn Evans, Kevin Fines, John Grant Jr., Jordan Hall, Peter Jacobs, Cody Johnson, Bobby McBride, Pat O’Toole, Andrew Potter, Regy Thorpe, Steve Toll, Shawn Williams

Comments: Abrams, Shawn Evans, Hall, and Shawn Williams are all starting the season on the injured list, with no announcements on how long they might be out. I know that Williams broke his arm during an MSL game during the summer, but was supposed to be healed and ready for training camp, so hopefully Knighthawks fans won’t have to wait long for his return. Mike Accursi adds some offensive punch, and Cody Jamieson is heavily hyped. Rochester must believe wholeheartedly that he will be the real deal, since they signed him to an unprecedented 10-year deal in mid-December. With all due respect to Pat O’Toole, who did a better-than-admirable job in net last year, their goaltending has improved with the trade for Matt Vinc, but the big question is: can the Knighthawks replace the offense of John Grant, Jr.?

Update: The Shawns, Williams and Evans, have both been activated from the injured list, and Chase Williams and Colin Hall have been released.

Prediction: Fourth

 

Toronto Rock

In: Pat Campbell, Mike MacLeod, Pat Maddalena, Patrick Merrill, Gee Nash, Tim O’Brien, Aaron Pascas, Kyle Ross

Out: Scott Campbell, Steve Dietrich, Brendan Doran, Mike Hominuck, Anthony Lackey, Pat McCready, Geoff McNulty, Kim Squire, Josh Wasson

Comments: No huge losses for the Rock, but they’ve added Pat Maddalena for some more offense, and upgraded their goaltending by replacing the now-retired Steve Dietrich with Paddy Campbell and Gee Nash. I don’t know about other Rock fans, but I will sleep a little easier knowing who’s backing up the Whipper. I also applaud the signing of Tim O’Brien. I’m not a big fan of fighting in lacrosse, but I recognize that it’s sometimes necessary and if someone has to spend five minutes in the box, I’d rather it be O’Brien than Doyle, Billings, or LeBlanc. Also with O’Brien’s reputation as a fierce fighter, people just might take a few less liberties with the big scorers, so even if he doesn’t actually do anything, his mere presence may help. Toronto made it to the finals last year, and I’m trying not to be a homer about my prediction here, but I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t get back there again.

Prediction: First

 

NLL West

Calgary Roughnecks

In: Cory Conway, Curtis Dickson, Jon Harnett, Derek Hopcroft, Brandon Ivey, Dan MacRae, Dayne Michaud, Curtis Palidwor, Geoff Snider, Daryl Veltman, Kurtis Wagar

Out: Craig Conn, Craig Gelsvik, Tracey Kelusky, Matt King, Rob Kirkby, John Lintz, Cutris Manning, Jeff Moleski, Josh Sanderson, Carlton Schuss, Rob Van Beek, Devan Wray

Comments: Snider will pick up every face-off and loose ball available, and then pass to… who? The Roughnecks have lost two of their most potent scoring threats in Sanderson and Kelusky. They still have Dane Dobbie and it’s not like they got nothing in return – Daryl Veltman picked up 65 points for the Blazers last year. A healthy Kaleb Toth will also help, but it’s not just about numbers. Replacing Sanderson’s vision on the floor will be difficult. The Roughnecks also replaced their starting goalie with former backup Mike Poulin and also signed Curtis Palidwor, who announced his retirement a week before the rosters were announced.

Prediction: Fourth

 

Colorado Mammoth

In: Mac Allen, Shayne Bennett, Rob Blasdell, Ned Crotty, Ben Davies, John Grant Jr., Matt King, Matt Leveque, Mike Mclellan, Jarrett Park, Steve Toll, Josh Wasson

Out: Rich Catton, Cory Conway, Chad Culp, Shawn Dhaliwal, Chris Gill, Chris Levis, Andrew Leyshon, Derek Malawsky, Ryan McFadyen, David Morgan, Bruce Murray, Curtis Palidwor, Jed Prossner, Brad Richardson, Bryan Safarik, Neil Tyacke, Matt Wilson

Comments: Out goes a superstar goalie, and in comes one of the most prolific scorers in league history. Grant isn’t well liked in Denver after delivering a punishing hit to John Gallant about five years ago. Some call him the “Todd Bertuzzi of lacrosse”, though Bertuzzi was never one of the best players in the league, as Grant has arguably been for most of his career, nor was Grant’s hit nearly as brutal as Bertuzzi’s. Hell, Gallant himself has forgiven Grant, so surely the Mammoth fans can as well. And if he plays at the same level as he has in Rochester for a decade, I think they will. And considering Matt Vinc never played a game in a Mammoth uniform anyway, they pretty much got Grant for free.

The Mammoth also released Andrew Leyshon and Curtis Palidwor and picked up Matt King from Calgary so although their goaltending isn’t as good as it would have been with Vinc, it’s still better than last season. They’ve also re-signed all of the Gajic brothers (I think they have twelve of them now), so I predict pretty good things for the Mammoth this year.

Update: Chris Levis is on the roster, and will be the backup goalie along with Blazer. The Mammoth also signed transition specialist speedin’ Stevie Toll after Rochester released him. I would have been happy to take Toll back on the Rock at any point in the last few years, but if Rochester released him, perhaps he’s lost a step or two. But even if he’s not as fast as he once was, he’s still a better-than-average defender.

Prediction: Second

 

Edmonton Rush

In: Bill Greer, Kedoh Hill, John Lafontaine, Bruce Murray, Devan Wray, Bobby McBride

Out: Bruce Alexander, Chris McElroy, Ryan McNish, Justin Norbraten, Ryan Powell

Comments: For five years, the Rush were the L.A. Clippers or Toronto Maple Leafs of the NLL. No matter how bad your team was, you could always count on the Rush to be worse. But sometimes being last has its privileges – in 2010, the Rush selected first in the Portland dispersal draft and picked up Brodie Merrill, who they hoped had the power to turn the team around. They also changed coaches and picked up Matt Disher, Ryan Ward, and Derek Malawsky. Merrill lived up to his billing as a franchise player, and the Rush not only made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, they finished tied for second in the west and were one overtime goal away from the Championship game. The Rush haven’t made many changes to their lineup for 2011. Former Roughneck Devan Wray comes home to Edmonton as a faceoff specialist, and former captain Chris McElroy has moved on to Washington.

Update: Devan Wray is actually on the practice roster.

Prediction: Third

 

Minnesota Swarm

In: Mat Giles, Tyler Hass, Travis Hill, Matt Kelly, Ryan Sharp, Rory Smith, Andrew Suitor

Out: Colin Achenbach, Kevin Buchanan, Ryan Cousins, Josh Funk, Scott Self, Sean Thomson, Jay Thonimbert

Comments: The Swarm made the playoffs despite a 5-11 (.313) record, which is the second worst ever in the NLL (three teams made the playoffs in 1993 and 1994 with 2-6 (.250) records) and third worst ever in any sport (the 1952-53 Baltimore Bullets of the NBA made the playoffs with a 16-54 (.229) record). They were beaten by the eventual champion Stealth, but I’m curious about the lack of significant changes in their lineup during the off-season. A 5-11 record, playoffs or not, should be an indication that major changes are needed, but they haven’t really made any. Perhaps they have followed the Toronto Maple Leafs modus operandi and decided that as long as they made the playoffs, the season can be considered a success. God help them if they head down that path.

Prediction: Fifth

 

Washington Stealth

In: Chet Koneczny, Chris McElroy, Jeff Moleski

Out: Joel Dalgarno, Wade DeWolff, Travis Gillespie, Ben Hunt, Brett Manney, Kyle Sorensen

Comments: They won the Championship last year, and have made minimal changes to their roster this year. The only significant changes are the additions of Moleski and McElroy, who will bolster an already better-than-average defense. Their offense was pretty damned impressive already, and in the list of best one-two goalie tandems in the league, Richards and Roik are right up there. Not much to say here – no reason to believe they won’t kick serious ass again this year.

Prediction: First

 

Overall Standings

East

1. Toronto
2. Boston
3. Buffalo
4. Rochester
5. Philadelphia

West

1. Washington
2. Colorado
3. Edmonton
4. Calgary
5. Minnesota

Note: this is a “recycled” article from my blog from a few years ago. I’ve updated and posted it to the NLL blog.

Most NLL fans know that every year, teams appear, disappear, or move. But here’s a sobering fact: the last time an NLL season began with exactly the same teams as the previous year (in the same cities) was 1993. That’s eighteen straight seasons with some kind of team movement. Here’s what’s happened since then:

• 1994: Removed Pittsburgh
• 1995: Added Rochester, removed Detroit
• 1996: Added Charlotte
• 1997: Removed Charlotte
• 1998: Added Ontario and Syracuse, removed Boston
• 1999: Ontario moved to Toronto
• 2000: Added Albany, Baltimore moved to Pittsburgh
• 2001: Pittsburgh moved to Washington, Syracuse moved to Ottawa, added Columbus
• 2002: Added New Jersey, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver
• 2003: Washington moved to Colorado, removed Montreal
• 2004: New Jersey moved to Anaheim, Albany moved to San Jose, Columbus moved to Arizona, removed New York and Ottawa
• 2005: Added Minnesota, removed Vancouver
• 2006: Added Edmonton and Portland, removed Anaheim
• 2007: Added New York and Chicago
• 2008: Removed Arizona
• 2009: Added Boston, removed Chicago
• 2010: New York moved to Orlando, San Jose moved to Washington, removed Portland
• 2011: Removed Orlando

Sometimes franchises fail because lacrosse just didn’t sell in that city (Ottawa, Anaheim, Orlando, San Jose). Occasionally they fail because of corrupt or incompetent ownership (Vancouver). In the case of Arizona in 2008, it was some mystery reason that made no sense. This was the year that the NLL season was temporarily cancelled due to a labour dispute. The Sting shut down operations because of the cancellation, but then the season was resurrected two weeks later. Arizona management announced that they had already shut everything down and couldn’t restart it in time (though every other team managed it), so they’d just sit out 2008 and return in 2009. Of course they didn’t return at all, so it sounded to me like they used the season cancellation as an excuse to fold up operations since they weren’t making much money. This is too bad for Arizona fans, since they had a very good team that made the finals twice in three years. The Chicago thing was another mystery reason — their owners said that it was just too difficult to manage the team in Chicago from their offices in Atlanta and LA. Mmmmmmkay. Never heard of phones? Email? Video conferencing? Hell, hire someone who lives in Chicago that can run things.

Whatever happened to due diligence, not only on the part of NLL ownership groups, but on the part of the NLL itself?

Apparently the Chicago owner announced that he wanted to sell the team during the middle of the 2008 season, which means that less than two seasons after he bought an expansion franchise, he was trying to sell it. Did he not consider the “difficulty” of running a team from a thousand miles away before spending $3 million to buy an expansion franchise? Did the NLL not ask him how he intended to run the team from a thousand miles away?

Twenty-six NLL teams have folded or moved since the league was formed in 1987. Of those, four (Ontario, Charlotte, Montreal, Orlando) only lasted a single season. Compare that to the NHL, where a total of eighteen teams have folded or moved since 1917. Four cities (Pittsburgh, Washington, New York, and New Jersey) have had NLL teams fail twice. Does this sound like a good league to purchase a franchise in?

Having said that, the Toronto, Colorado, Calgary, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and Rochester franchises are all healthy. I don’t know about Edmonton or Minnesota, but I haven’t heard any negative rumours about those. Boston and Washington are probably too new to really have a good grasp, but 2011 will be Boston’s third season in the league, so that bodes well for them. I really hope that the late 90’s and early 2000’s were a kind of experimental phase for the NLL, where they tried lots of new markets, many of which failed. Now that they have a core of seven or eight franchises that are doing well and are unlikely to fold, perhaps we’ll see a little more stability.

Your team has just traded for a player who is one of the best players in his sport, and has been for much of the last decade. We’re talking about a lacrosse player who has the following credentials:

• NLL MVP
• NLL Championship (Rochester Knighthawks)
• NLL Championship game MVP
• MLL Offensive Player of the Year
• MLL MVP
• World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (Team Canada)
• Mann Cup (Peterborough Lakers)
• Mann Cup MVP

That’s a pretty impressive list for any career. But consider this: those are John Grant, Jr.’s accomplishments in 2007 alone. Not listed here are his accomplishments in other years: rookie of the year awards (2), other championships (2 MLL, 2 Mann Cup, one World Indoor Lacrosse, one World Outdoor Lacrosse, one Heritage Cup), other MVP awards (2 more), and MLL Offensive Player of the Year awards (2 more). Guy’s got more hardware than Home Depot.

So now this guy is on your team, and all you had to give up for him was a guy who has never played for your team in the first place, and you got for free anyway. Great news, right? Why would any fan be upset about acquiring such a player? Well, just ask Colorado fans how they feel about acquiring Grant last week. Not all of them think this was a great idea, in fact some are quite unhappy with the deal. Why? Because they don’t think he’s that good? Absolutely not. Nobody is arguing Grant’s talent. It’s because of a split second decision that Grant made back in December of 2006. Grant cross-checked Colorado defender John Gallant in the back of the head, knocking him out and getting himself a one-game suspension. Gallant was likely concussed – he was out six weeks and suffered headaches for a while – but luckily returned to the Mammoth. For Mammoth fans, this brought back a painful memory of the last game of Steve Moore’s NHL career, before Todd Bertuzzi ended it.

Was Grant’s hit a cheap shot? I personally didn’t see it, but I can’t imagine how a cross-check to the back of someone’s head while they’re walking away from you wouldn’t be. Is Grant a goon? Not by a long shot, but I can’t say he’s the most sportsmanlike player I’ve ever seen either. We all know that lacrosse is an intense game played by passionate people, and passionate people sometimes make errors in judgement in the heat of the moment. John Gallant himself has said that he and Grant are friends and he’s very much looking forward to playing together on the Mammoth, so he’s forgiven Grant. It’s easy to just say “Yo Colorado fans, it’s been six years. Gallant only missed a few weeks and he himself is good with it, so just get over it.” But that’s much easier said than done.

Back in the early-mid 2000’s (I can’t remember exactly when it happened), the Philadelphia Wings were in Toronto to play the Rock. At some point in the game, the Wings’ Dave Stilley and Toronto’s Steve Toll started pushing and shoving each other and the gloves dropped. No more than a couple of punches were thrown before Stilley did something I had never seen before on a lacrosse floor and haven’t seen since – he head-butted Toll, who instantly dropped to the floor. Stilley was booed relentlessly, and was tossed from the game. I don’t remember if there was a suspension involved. Toll was out the rest of that game, but returned for the next game uninjured. To this day, I remember seeing Toll drop like he’d been shot. I remember the jaws of everybody in our row dropping open as we watched Stilley being dragged away. I remember the defiant look on Stilley’s face, as if to say “Yeah, I went there, so don’t fuck with me!” Ever since that game, the name Dave Stilley has represented to me the worst of violence in pro sports (well, up until Todd Bertuzzi grabbed it and hasn’t let go). A couple of years ago I saw a picture of Stilley raising the 2001 Champions Cup in Toronto as a member of the Wings. The fact that you could see me in the background of the picture was pretty cool, but I couldn’t stop staring at the C on his chest, stunned that he had at one point been chosen as captain of the Wings. As I read the tweets, blog posts, and message board postings about how ticked off some Mammoth fans were about the Grant trade, I immediately thought “Get over it, Mammoth fans”. But then I wondered how I would have felt if the Rock had traded for Dave Stilley.

My first thought was “Well, that was different, because…” but then I couldn’t think of how to finish that sentence. Both were cheap shots. Both could have caused devastating injuries or even been career-ending, but they weren’t. Both players returned after a relatively short absence, and both continue to play well – interestingly, Toll played with Grant for five years on the Knighthawks and Gallant is now captain of the Mammoth and Grant’s teammate. Both offenders were penalized and the incident subsequently considered closed by the league, the teams, and likely the players involved. But not the fans. The only real difference I can think of is that if Stilley were acquired by the Rock, it would have been a fairly minor deal, as Stilley was never a superstar. We could have still followed the Rock but hated Stilley, and it wouldn’t have been that big a deal. Nobody would have cancelled their season tickets over it. But Grant is a superstar, and is expected to singlehandedly bring the Mammoth back to glory. If he succeeds and the Mammoth contend this year, it will be very difficult to cheer for a team led by a man you hate. Of course the other option would be to give up your lacrosse tickets. I cannot imagine doing this myself – I wouldn’t give up my season tickets even if the Rock traded Colin Doyle for Dave Stilley straight-up. (Excuse me while I go and scrub my brain with steel wool for even thinking such a thing.) The only advice I can give Mammoth fans is to give it time and try to forgive, even if you can’t forget.

Scheduling in pro sports leagues is hard. I cannot imagine the complexity of the software that does scheduling for a league of 30 teams and 82 games (NHL, NBA) or 162 games (MLB). Even 16-game seasons like the NFL or NLL are pretty complex. You have to take into account arena availability (though many NBA, NHL, MLB, or NFL teams have first priority on the arena / stadium), how many games against division / conference opponents should there be, other league-imposed rules like the Maple Leafs must always play at 7pm on Saturday nights, and travel time (you can’t have a home game in New York on Saturday and a road game in Vancouver on Sunday). In the NHL, you’re talking about 30 teams and 82 games each, or 1230 games. That’s gotta be a nightmare to schedule. I’m not sure if scheduling baseball would be easier or harder, since all their games are in groups of 3 or 4. So before I talk about the problems in the NLL scheduling, I want to say that I realize that this is a hard problem.

Having said that, the software that does the scheduling for the NLL has some flaws. Either that, or some of the league-imposed rules are a little silly. In the six seasons from 2005 to 2010 inclusive, here are some things I noticed:

• Rochester played in Colorado four times but Colorado only played in Rochester once.
• Colorado has had a weird schedule hosting teams from the East. Rochester has played there four times, Buffalo and Philly two, Toronto zero.
• Toronto never played in San Jose or Colorado, and the Stealth and Mammoth only played in Toronto once each. (Toronto did play the Washington Stealth once in 2010, but only in the Championship Game.)
• Buffalo and San Jose each hosted the other only once.
• San Jose hosted the Rock, the Bandits, and the Knighthawks once each, but Philly three times.
• Cal-Edm games in Calgary: ten. Cal-Edm games in Edmonton: six.
• Edm-Col games in Colorado: eight. Edm-Col games in Edmonton: five.
• Buf-Min games in Buffalo: eight. Buf-Min games in Minnesota: five.
• Neither Edmonton nor Calgary have ever played in Buffalo or Philadelphia, but they’ve played in Toronto four and six times respectively. The Bandits have played in Calgary once (plus one Championship game) and Edmonton twice, and Philly has played twice in Calgary and twice in Edmonton. Toronto has played five times in Edmonton and six in Calgary.

I get that the NLL wants teams from the same division to play each other more often, and I have no problem with that. But the Stealth were in San Jose for six seasons, and the only time they played the Rock was the last game of the sixth season in Toronto. In a league with this few teams, does it make sense to have two teams go almost six full seasons without meeting at all? And for the love of Jim Veltman, can we please do away with this supposed Canadian rivalry that doesn’t exist? I think Calgary and Edmonton could have a good rivalry with each other because they’re so close together (and already have rivalries in the NHL and CFL), but Toronto’s main NLL rivals are the Bandits. A rivalry that’s forced on the fans doesn’t work, and it makes the scheduling problems even worse.

I’d love to see a system that allowed every team to play every other team at least once per season, but I understand that this may cause scheduling difficulties. But every other year should be doable. Now that there’s five teams in each division (not that that is likely to last long – article on NLL stability coming soon), the scheduling could go something like:

• three games against other each team in the same division = twelve games (alternate 2 home + 1 away or 1 home + 2 away from year to year)
• one game against four of the five teams in the other division. That’s four more games, totalling sixteen. The team that gets skipped changes from year to year, so you won’t go more than one season without seeing any one team. Alternate home and away as well so you don’t have a discrepancy that way.

Maybe this is just too difficult a problem for a simplistic solution like this to work. But the Toronto Rock and the Washington Power / Colorado Mammoth had a pretty good rivalry going back in the day, when they played each other in the semifinals three years in a row (2001 and 2002 as the Power and 2003 as the Mammoth). In the seven seasons since then, the Rock and the Mammoth have only played each other in the regular season once. Obviously, something is wrong with the current scheduling system.

First Josh Sanderson was sent from Calgary to Boston for a buncha kids. Then just a couple of weeks ago, the Roughies sent Tracy Kelusky to Buffalo for a draft pick. And now in the third major trade of the offseason, John Grant Jr. leaves Rochester for Colorado in exchange for Matt Vinc. Combine this with some other trades (Snider, Paul Dawson, Conn, Moleski) and the Orlando Titans dispersal draft, and I can’t remember an offseason when so many big name players were moved around.

I have to say I’m confused about one part of the trade, as reported by NLLInsider.com:

The Colorado Mammoth have confirmed the deal Insider reported on earlier today, the Mammoth sending Matt Vinc, Matt Zash, Brad Self and their first & third round picks in the 2012 entry draft to the Rochester Knighthawks in exchange for John Grant, Brad Self and Rochester’s first round picks in the 2011 and 2013 draft.

Odd that Brad Self finds himSelf (har) on both sides of the same trade. The second Brad Self there (the one going to Colorado) should actually be Mac Allen.

I found this trade a bit odd at first. One of Colorado’s biggest problems over the last few years is the lack of a solid #1 goalie. They picked up the reigning Goaltender of the Year in the Titans dispersal draft, so problem solved, right? Wrong. Instead they improve their office by getting Grant. But then later in the day, they grabbed Matt King from Calgary. King is no Vinc, but he’s an improvement over the committee the Mammoth had in goal last year (Levis, Leyshon, Palidwor, Tyacke). The Mammoth definitely needed a bump in the offense department – they scored more than 12 goals only four times last year. Adding Junior will help there, no question.

Being a Rock fan, I’ve seen Grant play a bunch of times and when he’s on, there’s arguably nobody better in the game today. (I’d be interested to know if anyone has scored more than Grant over the last ten years. Likely Tavares and maybe Doyle or Sanderson, but that’s about it.) More often than I can count, I’ve seen him walking around the offensive zone, looking for someone to pass to, when he seems to just decide “I think I’ll score now” and does. His behind-the-back goals are legendary, and I always laugh when I see some rookie run out in front of the net and try one, missing the net by three feet. Not only can he score, but he’ll deal the ball as well – of course, when you play with guys like Gary Gait, Shawn Williams, Cory Bomberry, Craig Point, and the Evans boys, you’ve got some talented people to pass to. But just having Grant on the floor will help you. He’s a big strong guy that pretty much requires double-teaming by two very capable defensemen, thereby leaving only three defenders to cover your remaining four forwards. This makes Grant deadly on the power play.

Now, this is not to say that Grant doesn’t have his weaknesses. Here’s a tip for all you western division defenders that haven’t played against Grant often. (Aside: Write this date down in your calendars. It’s not every day you see a man who’s never played a lacrosse game in his life giving lacrosse advice to pros 20 years younger than him.) Here’s how you reduce John Grant’s effectiveness: PISS HIM OFF. Surely by now Grant is used to being double-teamed and hacked relentlessly by defenders, but now and again something makes him angry and he takes a dumb retaliatory penalty. Mission accomplished. More often than not after this happens, he’s just not the same John Grant anymore. He loses his scoring touch (to some extent – you can’t completely shut him down) and sometimes takes even more dumb penalties. This is what makes John Tavares so great – piss him off and he’ll just score on you. I’ve seen Tavares take his share of dumb penalties as well, but not as often as Grant, and it doesn’t seem to affect his scoring touch afterwards.

Rochester gives up some offense, but now has one of the most enviable goaltender tandems in the league. O’Toole was Goaltender of the Year in 2003 and has been at the top of anyone’s goalie list for most of his career. Now with Vinc as the likely #1, O’Toole becomes the best backup goalie in the league.

But assuming Colorado doesn’t make any more moves, they have King and either Palidwor or Levis as their goalies this season. This is an improvement over last year, even if it isn’t as big an improvement as Vinc would have been. They’ve also improved their offense substantially, so when combined with the King deal, I’d say Colorado wins this trade.