Wow.

So it’s shortly into the third period and the Rock are leading by a couple. This is lacrosse, so this is by no means an insurmountable lead, especially against the likes of the Boston Blazers and The Big Three. I’ve written a few notes in my little notebook but not that much and nothing earth-shattering. It’s been a pretty entertaining game thus far, but what am I going to write about when I get home? The first goal, which was really weird? The fact that Josh Sanderson was invisible for most of the game so far? No, really, I can’t just say “here’s the final score, and here’s who scored the goals” – I need to write about something. This is a problem. I sure hope some interesting stuff happens in the second half.

The game started off with one of the weirdest goals ever. Stephan Leblanc fired it and hit the crossbar, and the ball shot straight up in the air. I’m not sure Anthony Cosmo knew where it was because when it came back down, he made no attempt to catch it, and it bounced in front of the net and went in. The refs reviewed it to see if it went off of Cosmo’s back (which would have negated it), but it didn’t touch him or anyone else so it counted. Kind of an ugly goal for Leblanc, but the ugly ones still count. This was not the first ugly goal I’ve seen Cosmo give up (nor would it be the last). During a game a bunch of years ago when Cosmo played for the Rock, he made a save on a fairly routine play, then stood up and looked down the floor for someone to pass to. He reared back to make the pass, then hesitated for half a second, and the ball fell out of his stick and bounced into the net. There were no opposing team players within 20 feet of the goal. The guy who got credit for the goal was sitting on the bench when it went in. Ugly. This wasn’t quite as bad as that, but I’m sure Cosmo wouldn’t mind having it back.

Rock sophomore Stephan Leblanc was on fire tonight, scoring five and adding four assists. The other Rock sophomore Garrett Billings only scored one but added six assists while captain Colin Doyle was only one-and-four. On the other side, Casey Powell was almost unstoppable, matching Leblanc’s 5 goals and 4 assists. But he scored his 5 goals on 13 shots, while Leblanc only needed 12. So there. Josh Sanderson only had three assists, which might have been the difference, since Kevin Buchanan scored five and Dan Dawson added two more. If Shooter had been on his game, it wouldn’t have been nearly this close. Maybe he wasn’t happy about having daddy behind the other bench rather than behind his.

That said, Watson had a good night, despite giving up 14 goals. He wasn’t quite as on as he was during the first two Rock games, but he made a bunch of great saves, especially late in the 4th and overtime. I made a point of telling my son that he was lucky to be able to watch the greatest goalie in the history of the NLL. Anthony Cosmo was equally good if not better in the second half – he had a span of over sixteen minutes during the third and fourth quarters where he only gave up one goal. I don’t want to take anything away from Cosmo – he did stand on his head a number of times and was excellent in the second half – but an awful lot of the Rock shots missed the net in the 4th. It does seem weird to talk about how great the goaltending was when 29 goals were scored, but there you have it.

With a little over two minutes left, Colin Doyle grabbed a beautiful flip pass from Garrett Billings and tossed it backhanded into the little hole between Cosmo’s leg and the post, putting the Rock up 14-11. But as we all know, two minutes is an awful long time in a lacrosse game, and no 3-goal lead is ever safe. Boston scored three in the final two minutes (two with less than a minute on the clock), to tie the game and send it to overtime.

The defense and goaltenders for both teams were outstanding during overtime, with a number of forced shot clock violations because nobody could get near enough to the net or open enough to shoot. At one point the Rock had three full 30-second possessions in a row and had no serious scoring chances in any of them. Then almost nine minutes into overtime, Stephan Leblanc tossed the ball towards Aaron Pascas who was in front of the net, but Pascas missed it and it bounced underneath Cosmo and into the net. Easily the ugliest goal all night (see video below), but as I said earlier, the ugly ones count too. The Rock celebrated and lined up for the handshakes, but the refs were reviewing the goal. The Blazers weren’t about to concede anything so they never left their bench. After a minute or so the signal was given and the game was officially over. The weird thing is that Pascas quite obviously ran through the crease before the ball got to the net, so why did the goal count? He wasn’t in the crease when the ball went in, but he did take a couple of steps through and I thought that was an immediate loss of possession. Perhaps it’s only when the guy with the ball steps in the crease. Checking rule book now…

I have a copy of the 2005 NLL rules so it’s possible that these have changed, but it says that a goal is disallowed when the ball goes in the net “when any part of the body of a player of the attacking team is in the goal crease area at the time”. This was not the case, as Pascas was out of the crease before the ball went in. However, Rule 46 (a) specifically says “An attacking player may not be in the opponent’s goal-crease area at any time”. Strangely, it doesn’t say what the penalty is but I doubt it’s “any goal scored after this rule is broken will count”.

Here’s an interesting coincidence from last Saturday.

The Bandits’ John Tavares scored a hat-trick in Buffalo’s 9-6 win over Philadelphia. The very same night, Tavares’ nephew, the other John Tavares, scored a hat-trick in the Islanders’ 4-1 win over Buffalo. But not only did two players with the same name each score hat-tricks for or against Buffalo teams in different sports on the same night, but they both did so against goaltenders named Miller.

Weird.

The Rock finally broke the curse of Rochester Saturday night, winning there for the first time ever in the regular season. (Of course, Rock fans will not hesitate to tell you that the team actually has won in Rochester once, the one time being the 2003 Championship game.) The final score was 12-9 Rock, but the game wasn’t really as close as that score may indicate. Twice the Rock had 6-goal leads, and were pretty much in control for the entire game. The first quarter was all Rock, and it started to look like it might be a pretty one-sided game. But starting in the second, and especially continuing in the third, the Rochester defense really picked up their game, and Matt Vinc made some very nice saves. Once again the story of the game was game MVP Bob Watson who was simply stellar, making 53 saves.

The Knighthawks have been an enigma to me for years. You look at a team with people like John Grant, Shawn Williams, Shawn and Scott Evans, Cory Bomberry, Gary Gait, Mike Accursi, and Craig Point, and backstopped by Pat O’Toole, and yet some nights they look like an expansion team consisting entirely of cast-offs from all the other teams. In 2007 everything came together and they won the Championship, including a sixteen game winning streak that continued into the 2008 season, but then they’ve missed the playoffs two of the past three years. I think they’ve seriously underperformed during that time, and losing Grant (and Bomberry) will not help, even if Cody Jamieson is the real deal. And he looked like the real deal last night, scoring three and adding three helpers.

Other notes from the game (which I did not see live, but watched on TSN2):

• TSN announcers: Yes, there are a lot of new faces in Rochester this season, and yes, Mike Hasen is in his first year as coach, but listing Hasen as one of the new faces in Rochester is patently wrong.
• Kasey Beirnes’ goal in the first was called off but it was actually good – his foot didn’t land in the crease until after the ball was in the net. Of course, I had the advantage of watching the game on PVR, so I rewound and advanced in slow motion.
• TSN’s play of the game was Doyle’s second goal – a backhand and underhand shot that found the top corner. I can’t decide if it was a beautiful shot or a really ugly shot, but it counts either way.
• After two games, I don’t see a difference in faceoffs. Other than when a player (namely Geoff Snider) simply grabs the ball, it still seems random which team ends up with the ball. The two players involved mash their sticks together and one of them wins out and pushes the ball behind him – but there are players from both teams behind him, so it’s essentially random which one ends up with the ball.
• Congrats to Shawn Williams who reached 900 career points and Bob Watson who reached 6000 career saves.
• Beautiful over-the-shoulder goal by Craig Point near the end of the 2nd.
• Some pretty exiting Rock players have worn number 93: Kim Squire back in the early 2000’s, then captain Chris Driscoll, and now rookie Aaron Pascas, who scored two last week and another two tonight.
• Two strange stats: for the second straight game the Rock didn’t allow a goal in the third period, and there was only one penalty in the game – an Illegal Substitution penalty against Rochester at the end of the third.
• Stephan Leblanc’s streak of scoring in every NLL game he’s ever played in continued with a hattrick. That’s 21 straight games with a goal to start his career. The announcers mentioned this streak but strangely, there was no mention of what the league record is. Maybe nobody knows. Or maybe Gary Gait holds the record of something like 84 games and Leblanc is so far away from breaking it that mentioning it wasn’t worth it.

Each off-season for the past four or five I’ve wondered about the Rock’s goaltender situation in the next season, and the phrase “Whipper isn’t getting any younger” always seems to come up. But during the season, that phrase never comes up at all. Watson is arguably the greatest goalie in the history of the NLL, and despite being 40 years old, is still one of the best in the league. Watson recently became a police officer in Kitchener-Waterloo, and because of the new career, he didn’t even decide whether he would play this year until shortly before the season began. Given that, it’s probably safe to assume that this will be his last season, which is a huge blow to the Rock. Watson has been one of the top goalies in the league for the entire existence of the franchise, so the end of the Watson era in Toronto will be bigger than the end of the Bartley era or even the Veltman era. I only hope that if Watson does decide to retire after this season, he announces it before the end of the season as Veltman did so that he can also be given the goodbye he deserves. I have confidence in both of the backup goalies, Campbell and Nash, but as backups. Neither has been a regular starting goalie in the NLL for a few years, so I’m not sure how confident I will be next year if the Rock go with Nash and Campbell as their goalies.

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

NLL West

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!