The Stealth Dragon

Do you know what you are looking at?  If you answered your shoes you got it wrong.  The correct answer is "Everyone else in the West!" and even "Everyone else in the NLL!".  Thanks to a 4-0 start the Washington Stealth have first place all to themselves.  That is not the only place they're sitting on top of the league.  The Stealth offense has averaged just over 15.25 goals per game, more than goal higher than the next closest team, Colin Doyle's Toronto Rock who are averaging 14.0 goals per game.  Defensively the Stealth are in second place with 10.25 goals against per game, behind the Toronto Rock who have incredibly allowed only 6.6 goals against per game in their three wins over the Boston Blazers (twice) and the Rochester Knighthawks. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Up on Top"] [/caption] It feels great to be on top of things after the first four games of the 2010 season.  Saturday's early season rematch with the Colorado Mammoth, in Colorado, will be a good barometer for the Stealth.  The Mammoth won two games last week and their offense looks improved from their first two games (losses to the Stealth and Edmonton Rush).  But the defense is still the same defense that let the Stealth run around them and scored 17 goals on opening night.  So my prediction for Saturday's match up is Stealth 17 and the Mammoth 10.  The Mammoth are better on offense than they were but the Stealth are still just as good as they were on opening night, if not better after a few more games playing together. If you have the Altitude TV network you can watch the game live this Saturday January 30th at 6pm Pacific Time. Random NLL Notes: After watching the first two Stealth opponents, the Colorado Mammoth and Edmonton Rush, play themselves the night after the Rush lost to the Stealth I felt like I had just watched two bad defenses play against two mediocre offenses.  Two days later it was not all that surprising when Bob McMahon's was fired as the Mammoth head coach.  Mammoth President and GM Steve Govett (he's a dual Canadian and US citizen as well as the all time leading goal scorer at some university named Radford, scroll to the bottom for his resume for some unintentional comedy) replaced McMahon as the head coach and scared the Mammoth players in to two overtime wins against Minnesota and Philadelphia last weekend.  Some try to argue that the coach in the NLL doesn't really do that much to which I will present Chris Hall and Troy Cordingley as my counter arguments to that any day of the week.  Coach Hall has done masterful jobs in game planning and preparing the Stealth for all their games this season.  Troy Cordingley has taken his D system that has won the past two Mann Cups for Brampton and the NLL Championship in Calgary to Toronto and got that team off to a 3-0 start, meanwhile Calgary which has most all of it's players back from last season are now 1-2 without Cordingley.  So the immediate "success" of Govett is probably just the players playing for their jobs because the coach has been fired, so they're next if stuff isn't working. Even though they're 0-4, the Buffalo Bandits defense was a much greater challenge to the Stealth than anything the Mammoth or Rush showed during the first two games in Everett.  The Bandits consistently stepped out and pressured the ball and forced the Stealth in to sloppy passing for most of the first quarter until the Stealth forwards got their heads on straight and started focusing.  Without playing against the Bandits defense I do not think the Stealth could have gone in Calgary and won the following night if the Stealth forwards had only played against the low pressure, non-disruptive systems the Mammoth and Rush brought to the first two Stealth games of the season.  Thank you Buffalo. Matt Beers can fight and fight well. Garrett Billings in Toronto is on his way to being Colin Doyle's next Rookie of the Year.  No offense to Rhys Duch, but seeing Garrett Billings production with Colin leading the offense shows how influential Colin was in Rhys success in 2009.  Thankfully Rhys can stand on his own as well, as shown by his continued success last summer in Victoria and complete lack of a "Sophomore Slump" to start this season.  But I'm going to pick an alternate reality, the true interpretation of what we're seeing in Toronto is that Rhys Duch taught Colin Doyle how to trust in a rookie and Garrett Billings is the beneficiary of this.  Good work Rhys!  That is all you.

[caption id="attachment_161" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Colin Doyle"] [/caption] When: Saturday January 31st 2009 Where: All points on the HP Pavillion turf How to Enter: Be Edmonton's best defender Previous Winner: Jeff Moleski of Calgary Expectations: You'll be attached to Colin's hip at all moments throughout the evening.  Colin won't put out, but he will put up points on you. Double date opportunities exist with Jeff Zywicki and his defender. Note: The more attention you pay to Colin the greater the risk everyone else is scoring behind you.  Good luck with that.

It's the end of the calendar year and I'm chilling in Portland at my friends house and I realized I'm sitting in the exact same chair I was two years ago when I read that Colin Doyle had been traded to San Jose.  Two years later I'm not jumping up and down like I was that evening, but that is only because it's no longer new news and not because of the results Colin has brought to San Jose. The Stealth have had some great players on their roster - Cam Woods, Josh Sanderson, Steve Toll and Anthony Cosmo to name just a few.  But Colin was different.  Colin has won titles at all levels and is an offensive leader.  Previously the Stealth have had great offensive stars but not an offensive leader.  Colin came to the Stealth at the end of training camp and didn't even get the chance to mesh with the team before they were on the floor.  So the offense started a little slow out the gate in 2007.  Combined with the typical slow start that Cosmo gets off to things were little dicey in January and February of 2007.  But everyone got used the changes, including Colin himself getting used to being a setup man instead of the scorer he was in Toronto.  The Stealth finished the year losing to Dan Dawson and the Arizona Sting in the Western Division Finals. In 2008 Colin had a full training camp and a year with the team and the team won the regular season title out West.  Again, Colin and the Stealth stumbled over Dan Dawson again getting bounced in a home playoff game to Dawson and the Portland Lumberjax.  Now Dan Dawson is out east and the path is clearer for the Stealth to take it to their team success to the next level. Now the offense goes where Colin goes and the Stealth have gone to the playoffs for the past two years after missing the playoffs for two straight years.  That change is directly related to Colin joining the team and the leadership he brings.  Yes, there are other events that have occurred the past two years like Jeff Zywicki's emergence as a super star scoring threat, but when Jeff is great there is a #1 threat ahead of him so that Jeff doesn't have to shoulder 100% of the scoring load or threat.  Sure Wick can run around guys like 2 time defending NLL Defender of the Year Ryan Cousins and create his own opportunities, but the settled goals for Jeff and everyone else go through Colin. As we enter 2009 and the third season of Colin Doyle in San Jose more great things will come to the Stealth and I can't wait to see them. For more information about Colin and by Colin check out his blog over at Yard Barker for a little insight in to what it's like being a big time lacrosse pro in a small time league.