The Stealth Dragon

This is going to be a cross-posted article with the Everett WA blog to help grow Stealth fan awareness. Now to today's topic. We've survived the five week break without a Washington Stealth home game in Everett. It was no easy task, but thanks to the free live video steams on NLL.com we made it. If you missed any of the action be sure to checked out highlights on the Stealth channel. Hopefully everyone has completed their Stealth Fan 101 work. It was pretty simple (so simple that it is not even written down anywhere), all you had to do was go to a Stealth home game at the Comcast Arena in Everett. You've now seen the boys play between 1 and 5 games and are getting comfortable with the flow of game play and can recognize players on the floor maybe even by their position on the floor, if they're tall or short and if they're left or right handed, not just their name or number. It's a big step. If you're really good, you might even recognize them in the Ice Box after the game without the name and number on their back. Now lets look at the three steps that comprise the "Being a Stealth Fan 201" course.

Step 1: If you have a favorite player, let them know it! Get to know them! Hopefully you've got a favorite player by now. This is one of the prerequisites for completing the Stealth Fan 201 course work. Or you've maybe narrowed your list down to a couple of favorites, possibly one on Offense and one on Defense so you can always have a favorite on the floor no matter which team has the ball. This is the plan I agree with, plus it is too hard to pick just one.

For my example I'll say that Matt Beers is your favorite player on defense. Does Matt know that he is your favorite player? You'll make his night if you come up to the Ice Box after the game and let him know that he's your favorite and you love watching him play. The same goes for all the other players on the team. If you go up and tell them that they are your favorite you will make their night, especially if your favorite player is a defender because they all tend to think that nobody is really watching them. All the players are very approachable. Do not be intimidated by their size or the fact that they are pro athletes, they are just guys that love lacrosse like you do. You've already got that in common. If you see your favorite player huddled together with the rest of the team don't take that as a sign they don't want to talk to you. They are probably only doing that because they don't know you're there to say hello. Just walk right up to them, tap them on the shoulder (or tug at their arm if you're a shorter/younger fan) and get their attention and let them know that their play matters to you. If you've got a question for them like "What do you do when you're not playing?" now is the time to ask and start a conversation or get an autograph.

Step 2: LOUD ON OFFENSE and quiet on defense The Comcast Arena in Everett is primed to be a great home field advantage for the Stealth. It's a smaller arena and the noise the fans make can't escape up to the rafters, it all goes down on to the floor. Bring your cow bells or other noise makers and be loud and proud. The rule for optimal noisemaking in lacrosse is as follows. LOUD ON OFFENSE, quiet on defense. This is the exact opposite of other sports we're more familiar with like football where the quarterback needs to audible so being quiet helps on offense. In lacrosse the players that need to communicate are the defenders to call out screens and slides. When we are LOUD ON OFFENSE then the opposing defense can't hear the calls and it is good for the Stealth offense. So say it with me, LOUD ON OFFENSE, quiet on defense.

Step 3: Be Proud and and a little bit Crazy Check out the first 15 minutes of video from a Rochester at Buffalo game from earlier this season. Watch the crowd from the opening shots, at the 10 minute mark during a timeout and again at the 15 minute mark after a fight. The crowd is covered in orange and/or Buffalo Bandits gear. If you ran a store in Buffalo and sold anything orange I have to think you must do well. The Stealth game on Saturday March 27th is against arguably our biggest rival, the Colorado Mammoth, so as fans we need to be prepared to make the Woolies feel very unwelcome in Everett. If you don't have pink to wear then dig out your red.

That concludes class for today! Thanks for attending and I'll see you on Saturday in Everett to watch the boys beat the Mammoth! Go Stealth!

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.

What a great opening night for the Washington Stealth! A 17-8 drubbing of the Stealth's long-time Western Conference rival the Colorado Mammoth was the perfect beginning to the season.  Both teams retooled their line ups during the off season.  One team's changes appears to be working and one is not (yet) working.  In my opinion, the Mammoth's issues are not just on the floor; I think Colorado's Coach McMahon is the wrong guy for the job.  McMahon has had head coaching success in the NLL and was actually a former NLL Coach of the Year when he was with the Albany Attack in the early 2000's.  (Why is that interesting?  Because the Washington Stealth are the Albany Attack, just two cities and one team name down the line in the franchise history.)  Back to the point, McMahon's success came when he was paired with fellow coach Bob Hamley and vice versa.  McMahon has guided the Mammoth to roughly a .500 record after taking over for the legend, Gary Gait, who led the Mammoth to the NLL Championship in 2006.  The Colorado fans expect a winner and McMahon is not providing the Mammoth fans with this and they are getting restless.  Now, having said all that, it was just one game.  They still have 15 more games to work everything out. Enough about the other team, let's talk about the home team!  The Stealth played a total team game and aside from Jeff Zywicki's (#67) 5 goals really spread the ball around with no other player scoring more than 2 goals.  It is very comforting to me when the Stealth do not need one man to do all the work.  Everyone just kept passing from one open guy to the next open guy and he buried the ball in the back of the next and it didn't matter who "he" was.  I'm not going to be expecting 17 goals in every game, that output may have been tied to the Mammoth goalie situation and the Stealth players being jacked up for the first game in the new barn.  I am also not going to be expecting 17 goals against the more mature defense the Edmonton Lumberjax will be bringing to the Comcast Arena on Friday night.  There are a lot less rookies on the Jax (I mean Rush or do I?) squad than the Mammoth, but veteran Matt Disher is constantly on the verge of blowing his knee out which may open the way for another backup goalie (in this case the largely untested Brandon Atherton) coming in again. Defensively, this is the most athletic Stealth squad I have seen since I started going to their games in 2005.  The defense also had an abnormal amount of passes they picked off from the Mammoth offense.  This is a situation where the game being a blowout can skew things.  The Mammoth may have been forcing passes they wouldn't normally make to try to get back in the game, but in general the Stealth were picking passes in all quarters of the game. Finally, how great is the new barn, The Comcast Arena of Everett?  They serve Mountain Dew!  So it's just like we are still in San Jose and light years better than Portland with their Coke products.  Also, the fresh mini donuts were a big win.  Seriously though, every seat in the new barn has a great view and the crowd was really into it. Questionable Mammoth Roster Changes: Similar to the Stealth, the Colorado Mammoth made a number of roster changes involving key players from their 2009 rosters.  After watching the Mammoth play, the one move that sticks in my mind is how on earth the Mammoth let Josh Sims go for free yet they kept Bruce Murray who allowed Lewis Ratcliff (#42) and other Stealth forwards run around him and score.  The Philadelphia Wings then picked up Sims and he played with them in their first game.  Sims had trade value that was passed up for an older, slower defender.  As an outsider looking in, it appears the Mammoth front office may be too loyal to some of their roster. [caption id="attachment_295" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Stealth Rookie Matt Beers"]

[/caption] Rookie Welcomings: How about Stealth rookie Matt Beers (#2) bursting onto the scene.  To quote a certain teammate late after the game "1 goal and 2 fights.  Worst.  Rookie.  Ever!".  Thankfully that joke is far from the truth.  It wasn't a 5 goal debut like Garrett Billings of Toronto, but Beers isn't a forward either.  Beers went out and played his defense and scored a goal, going above and beyond.  The bar has been set high for Friday's game against the Edmonton Lumberjax, personally I'm expecting 2 goals (and 2 fights).  The only other Stealth rookie on the floor was forward Kory Kowalyk (#19)who failed to score a couple of goals because his feet are too big.  My size 14 feet can totally relate to him, so I forgive him.  He'll get it next time out. The Colorado Mammoth played with five rookies on the floor.  The Gajic brothers who are really only rookies in name because they've been playing successful lacrosse at the highest levels in Canada for a couple of years, Cliff Smith who is their teammate on New Westminster, Brad Richardson who I'm pretty sure is a rookie (and fought Eric Martin (#25)) and finally Ryan McFadyen who is a whole lot bigger in person than he looked on TV while playing for Duke. [caption id="attachment_291" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Stealth Goalie Tyler Richards"]

[/caption] Game MVP: Jeff Zywicki had a marvelous game with 5 goals and an assist.  Wick really stuck it to Paul Tutka and his NLL Top 50 players rankings.  But I am sorry, he did not end up being my game MVP.  Tyler "The Ghost" Richards (#00) and his ~84% save percentage and first quarter shutout of the Colorado Mammoth was the real difference maker in Saturday's game.  The defense in front of Richards helped prevent the Mammoth from walking in on Richards all night, but 7 goals is well below the average goals scored output for an NLL team. Special Player Quiz: Which player's father camped out and lied about his son's age to get him registered to play hockey when he was just a "3 foot tall 4 year old with a 2 inch fuse" instead of waiting until he was 5 in accordance with the hockey association's rules?

[caption id="attachment_275" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Paul Rabil (image from nll.com)"] [/caption] The Stealth have a player on the team that fans may not recognize from last season. After watching him last season and now in training camp heading in to this season he looks like a completely different player.  Not just an improved player, but a different player.  So watch out. The Colorado Mammoth will find out first during the Stealth home opener.  Watch the game Saturday to see who I'm talking about and then come back here Sunday when I fill in the picture. Ding! Ding! Ding! Brian is the winner!  You've just won, ummm, the privilege of hanging out last night?! Paul Rabil did not disappoint in his season debut.  Two goals and three assists against the Mammoth in the Stealth 17-8 win was a great outting and a career high single game point total in the NLL for Rabil.  Rabil didn't take it to the cage yet like he has in practice, but he still produced five points and did his role. Keep up the great work Rabes.

I've gathered together my super squad of West Division friends and foes to give me their playoff predictions.  Without further ado, here are the predictions from Wingszone forums members and Lumberjax fans laxinoregon and Smackem, Mammoth fan Mtn_Scott and Stealth fans Zmystere, Zeboim and myself.  I'm sorry I haven't included anyone from Calgary, but I haven't really interacted or met with any of them yet. Laxinoregon: Colorado @ Calgary. The 1 vs 4 seed. The #1 hasn't faired in recent years, however, I expect Calgary to buck that trend with a landslide win, 15-9. Calgary's offense is clicking and everyone's healthy, defense is aggressive and plays within itself harrassing the opponents scorers. Only weakness is in the transition which unfortunately for Colorado they aren't suited for. The only way at an upset will be if both Prout and Langtry score early and score often, I don't see that happening. San Jose @ Portland. The 2 vs 3 seed. San Jose has a few things going for them in this game. Renewed aggression on the defensive end, pay back for last years home playoff loss, and two guys by the name of Doyle and Zwyicki. Portland counters the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin with The Butcher (Alexander) and The Playboy (Codron) and The Wall (Disher). These two teams hate each other, plain and simple and I expect nothing less than a war on the floor, a few fights, a few lead changes, a penalty shot to send the game into overtime, and a Jax victory 12-11 in said OT. Or it could be a masacre of epic porpotions with a 17-9 San Jose win, but nah, my first predicition has more drama. Jax 12-11. Smackem: I hope my Homer instincts don't kick in too quickly so I'll start with Colorado vs. Calgary. As much as this one seems to be a lock for Calgary I would offer some caution. If Leyshawn gets some early stops and builds his confidence he could keep Colorado around, but I'm doubtful that will happen with the injuries the Mammoth defense has suffered. Guze was a nice story of giving his all, but his 15 minutes of fame is over. No way anyone knows better than a Jax fan how much Langtry seems to rise to the occasions of away games, but it will be too little too late. Should Colorado get it going early I think Calgary will make a quick switch of goalies. Campbell and King have both played well and I believe either one could step in and stop the bleeding. Calgary puts this one away early, but I'm holding out hope for the Mammoth (homerism demands it). Portland vs San Jose. This one is keeping me up at night. These 2 teams met 3 times and the Jax won twice. The problem I'm having is that Eric Martin absolutely handed one of those games over by taking horrible penalties at terrible times. I believe Peter Morgan has to play great and Disher has to be healthy enough to go the distance for the Jax to win. The Stealth seem to be getting it together and gaining momentum at just the right time. The question will be how do their rookies, particularly Duch, handle playoff pressure. I'd love to see the Jax quicken the pace on transition and see if it forces some rookie mistakes (this is where Rabil's lack of box experience could hurt). What frightens me the most about the Stealth is undoubtedly Colin Doyle! I'm not sure if there is any one player out there I'd rather have than Doyle if you needed someone to will you to a win, he can flat out get it done. I know Dawson is incredible in the playoffs, but the Jax were just 6-10 with Dan. For an entire season I actually think I'd go with Doyle. OK, homer time. The Jax defense with Disher behind them can make any offensive players' life miserable. If the refs let them play physical, and I think in playoff atmosphere with the home crowd they will, the Jax are going to escape with a hard fought narrow victory. Zeboim: Calgary vs Colorado --- winner Calgary Calgary is really hot right now. The entire team is playing like they want to win. The Roughnecks offense is really clicking. On defense, Calgary is swarming to the ball. Seriously, this team is playing so well that I expect them to represent the west in the Championship Cup this year. This Colorado team is not the same as we have seen in past years. They have many injuries, resulting in no continuity on the floor on defense or offense. Also, they are playing uninspired lacrosse right now. The Mammoth seem to regret having Gavin Prout as their captain. He provides no leadership and has been a very selfish player this year. Portland vs San Jose --- winner Portland (come on Colin, prove me wrong!) The Portland Lumberjax team identity revolves around their defense. The Jax defenders are big, strong, and fast. Tyler Codron is a shutdown defender who is extremely competitive and takes it as a personal challenge to stop whatever player the coach puts him on. Disher has been playing excellently this season, but I don't know if he will be back at 100% for this game. Offensively, the Jax lack the firepower and leadership that Dan Dawson provided them with last year, but they manage to get enough transition goals from players like Brodie Merrill, Peter Morgan, and Scott Stewart. San Jose has had a season that didn't start off too strong. The team made a lot of changes from 2008, not all of them by choice. It is in games like these that the Stealth really miss Anthony Cosmo. The San Jose defense has improved with the addition of Shaydon Santos to the roster. Jeff Zywicki seems to be healed up, which will help out an already potent Stealth offense. Finally, and by no means least, Colin Doyle is an amazing team leader and he may just decide that I am full of crap and take this game into his own hands and lead the Stealth to a victory. Zymystere: Portland is not necessarily better than last year, because they had a damn good team last year.  But they are now full of confidence and have trust in Disher to make the big saves to keep them in the game. San Jose ended the season with big wins.The offence is what we had hoped they would be, though the scoring is coming from Duch and Doyle, versus last being Wick and Doyle. Wick is always dangerous in the second season, but it will come down to goal tenders. The Ghost T-Rich is hot and will take this time to solidify his position on the team. T-Rich will be the diff. 14 - 9 San Jose wins. Now for the CO, they are a Jeckyl/Hyde team. If everyong plays their best game, they can do well. Prout will try to carry the team and Langtry will get 7 pts. CAL is the class of the West.Thought that they would falter as the season went long, but they held together. Campbell should get the start and is a solid tender. TK is just being TK and Dobbie is a threat to keep the boys energized and open the shooting lanes. I see it being a close game, no more than a 1 goal differrential at the final whistle. Colorado will find a way to make up for a depleted D and sqeek out a win. Colorado wins...barely! Mtn_Scott: Colorado @ Calgary This is a very interesting game for quite a few reasons. On paper, this will be Calgary's game to lose. Calgary's offense and power play unit have been unstoppable all year. Fortunately for the Mammoth that plays directly into their strengths. Unfortunately, the Mammoth might start suiting up fans to play. In the final game of the season Rich Catton and Ray Guze both went down to injuries and status is uncertain. This adds to an already lengthy casualty list. The Mammoth's best hope is the fact that this is a rivalry game, and games between these two teams always comes down to heart. I am not sure even a Mammoth size heart can overcome the pure talent differential. Calgary 12-8 San Jose @ Portland This is another game of a great offense versus a great defense. Normally, I would take the defense on this, but not when the offense involves Colin Doyle. He is the most clutch player in the league during the playoffs. Portland has beaten San Jose Twice this season already, beating them a third time will be tough in this league. San Jose 13-12 in OT. StealthDragon: First up #4 Colorado @ #1 Calgary.  The previous two seasons the #4 seed in the West has walked in to the #1 seed's barn and won.  In both of those games the #4 team had also beaten the #1 seed while playing at the #1 seed's barn during the regular season.  This season Colorado beat Calgary 13-12 but it was not in Calgary.  I fully expect Calgary to break the curse of the #1 seed in the West losing in the first round.  Colorado has too many injuries on defense to stop Calgary's offense and transition game.  Or Langtry scores 9 goals to keep it close, but Calgary still wins. Now the big show #3 San Jose @ #2 Portland. The rematch of last season's #4 over #1 upset in San Jose.  Most of the Stealth players were there last year and will have revenge on their mind.  The Stealth have defeated the Jax in Portland this year, so despite the season series being 2-1 in Portland's favor this Stealth squad knows how to win in Portland.  Beating Portland goalie Matt Disher early and making him move will be key to the Stealth victory.  If Disher is hot then it could be a problem for the Stealth.  Jeff Zywicki is finally healthy and has been running around his defenders the past couple weeks after not driving to the cage and challenging defenders the first 3/4 of the season.  Brett Manney we'll see you soon. My wild card factor is Portland coach Derek Keenan, there's a 50/50 chance that he develops the right game plan for a Lumberjax victory.  When he plans right the Lumberjax can be dangerous.  Thankfully Stealth coach Chris Hall is capable of adjusting on the fly, so if the Jax get out of the gates fast there will still be time to right the Stealth ship. In my opinion, it's a good night and the Stealth win 13-8 like they did in late March. Final Tally: Calgary is picked 5 to 1 while the PDX/SJ meeting is split 3 picks each.  Bring on Friday! Go Stealth!

We're back again with a mid season West Conference power rankings. This time around I recruited some of my left coast amigos from Portland and San Jose to get a broader range of input. So I'd like to thank Zeboim, Zmystere, RP=BA and laxinoregon for their assistance and comments to create these rankings. Like me, they all watch more games than just their home teams (thank you NLL for the Mogulus services this season) so I trust their judgement. In talking with Zeboim I realized the goal of the list is not clearly defined for if it is A) How the teams are playing right now or B) How the West Division will finish. I'm leaning towards A and when I do another ranking in a month I'll make that more clear. Scoring: I had all participants rank the teams 1-6 and then I averaged out their scores to rank the teams. Their final average score is what is listed as their rank. No two rankings were identical and for the record, no fan of their own team picked them as the top team. Finally - ranking does not account for the games already played on Friday February 27th. Calgary Rank: 1.4 [caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Calgary Roughnecks"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank: 1 - Sure they lost two in a row, they are still healthy and because of that they are a right scary team. zymstere: Rank: 2 - Because of their recent losses and the close games they have had all season. Campbell in cage has been average at best. As you mentioned before, they peaked at the beginning of the season and is one injury away from being a bottom feeder. RP=BA: Rank 1 - The Boston game doesn't bug me that much, they're just starting to round off a little after starting so hot. I've never been a huge Campbell guy so I have concerns there. They need to keep improving like the rest of the west and hope they haven't peaked. Zeboim: Rank 2 - I had Calgary ranked #1 until they had close losses in their last 2 games. The 'Necks don't seem to be able to handle playing against physical defense. StealthDragon: Rank 1 - The two losses were in close games and the wins were not that close. If they're going to really be a league champion again I think they need to be able to close out a close game. Still, one injury away from being in major trouble on offense or defense. Portland Rank: 1.6 [caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Portland Lumberjax"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 2 - Best defense in the West. Only question is can Disher maintain his form for the remainder of the games. Disher goes down, good night Irene. zymstere: Rank 1 - Because the D has been consistent from game one and their O has been getting better each game. Morgan, Conway and Malawsky has been the back bone. Of course you can't help but mention Merrill the human loose ball vaccum. RP=BA: Rank 2 - I was ready to stick the Mammoth here (#2) before they laid an egg this weekend. I'm concerned about the Wings game this weekend only because they've had so much time off and were playing so good before the layoff. This is the 2nd of a back to back though for Philly and the Jax know 1st place could be at stake. Zeboim: Rank 1 - Portland seems to score just enough points to win, but since wins and losses are what ultimately counts, they are doing what it takes. Defensively the Jax are strong, fast, and aggressive, overpowering most teams them play. Just for the record, while I think the Jax are the best in the west, I don't like it! StealthDragon: Rank 2 - Maybe the best defense in the league. Size does matter when you can never get your hands free because a monster 6'5"+ defender is guarding you. Disher is surprising the heck outta me. Their offense learned a great deal from Dan Dawson that they're applying to games this year now that he's not there. San Jose Rank: 3.2 [caption id="attachment_132" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="San Jose Stealth"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 3 - At 3-4 San Jose is better than their record, but not by much. They still have a lot of questions concerning their defense, but they are starting to gel together. zymstere: Rank 3 - Stealth had their most complete game on both sides of the floor. The cast of rookies are improving with every shift. Gillespie, Hartzell and Manney have been more than capable and it showed this weekend against the Mammoth. The addition to McKinlay and Veltman now available for the roster will only help the D/T. O has been solid with contributions from Doyle, Wick, Duch and TJ not to mention Cam. The current trip to NY & Boston should help prove this point. RP=BA: Rank 4 (StealthDragon note: hater)- This was a tough pick for me but the Stealth have been playing really well as of late. I still think Roik is too much of a headcase when other teams make runs, that will always hurt the Stealth in close games and the D is young and fairly inexperienced. Love the offense though, I'd take SJ's O over Calgary's even. Zeboim: The Stealth just beat Colorado, and thus I can't rank San Jose below the Mammoth. However, the Stealth have no close wins, which is concerning as we head into the back half of the season. StealthDragon: They can't move up until they beat one of the teams above and they don't get to play Calgary again... Double header against Eastern teams this weekend to lock up some out of conference victories. Colorado Rank: 4 [caption id="attachment_153" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Colorado Mammoth"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 4 - What is their identity? In years past it was crisp offensive excecution and transition. Now both are gone, and it's all down hill. zymstere: Rank 4 - Colorado is still a dangerous team and with them playing at the can will help stabilize their struggles. Leyson may loose his position as #1 tender. Colorado needs to re-group from a horrible weekend and Pawlidor may be the answer. Langtry and Prout will need to get things going if they want a spot in the playoffs. RP=BA: Rank 3 - Starting to finally take shape. Prout is playing better, Langtry is aggressive and will score, and Danowski has been huge for them. The Gajic injury is gonna come back to bite them especially now with Ward out too. I still don't buy into Leyshon as a playoff contender. Zeboim: Rank 5 - Speaking as a Stealth fan, Colorado should be in last place, but Minnesota's five losses in a row can't make that happen so I am putting them at #5. They have a few key injuries that have disrupted their productivity. StealthDragon: Rank 4 - They're either hot or cold, but more cold than hot it seems. Edmonton Rank: 5.2 [caption id="attachment_154" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Edmonton Rush"] [/caption] laxinoregon: Rank 6 - Look it's good to have 3 wins, two against Colorado, but until the consistently do something they're going to sit at the bottom spot. zymstere: Rank 5 -  Edmonton has all the pieces in place to be a contender, they just need the confidence that they can compete. RP=BA: Rank 6 - Hamley will trade half his roster at the deadline so its tough to get a beat on them. Lots of individual talent but crummy goaltending, below avg D, and the worst tranny unit in the West will bury them. Zeboim: Rank 4 - Edmonton seems like they should be winning more games. I think the problem may be that some of the Rush players don't seem to be playing the whole game. Hamley is probably the most successful coach in the NLL in the post-season, so don't count him out of the hunt. StealthDragon: Rank 5 - Win or lose I think it's safe to say that Hamley is still trying to trade someone. I don't quite like all the pieces he has in place, but maybe he does for all I know. But if I had to guess, until Dan Dawson is on his roster again I'd say Hamley is still looking for pieces to the puzzle he built in Arizona. Minnesota Rank: 5.6 [caption id="attachment_144" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Minnesota Swarm"] [/caption] laxinoregon: The West isn't what you thought it was and your Eastern foes aren't laying down either. Offense needs help and 2 good defenders does not make a good defense. zymstere: Minneapolis is in total disarray. They trade their leader in scoring 2008 (Craig Point) and Cousins has been mediocre. Croswell & Patterson has been solid in net to start the season but the O has not been able to lay the hammer down. RP=BA: They fend off the Rush, but BARELY. This team is in a bad way, Patterson isn't the same he was last year, the transition game has struggled and an offense built around other guys contributing aren't getting the contributions they needed. I hated the Point trade for them too, that was dumb to give him up, he's gonna blow up in Rochester. Zeboim: Minnesota lacks a "team" identity. That by itself wouldn't put you at the bottom of my list, but five straight losses puts you at the bottom of the list. StealthDragon: My how the mighty have fallen! First to worst in just 5 straight losses. Traded away last seasons' Rookie of the Year Craig Point. That is all for now.  I'll work up another round of rankings at the end of March heading in to the playoffs.  Put your comments below and let us know what you think too.

I'm going to depart from my previous content cycle of game previews and reviews. That same stuff is covered on the team sites, league site and the NLL Insiders so there's nothing too ground breaking in my work there. It takes lots of effort and is time sensitive to get my previews up before games start and reviews up in a timely fashion. Changing things up relieves that pressure so I can just post what I want when I want and you're stuck with it. Since I watch more Western Division games than Eastern Division games I'm going to keep track of how the teams are stacking up out West with a Power Rankings each week. Ted Jenner is the only Insider out west, and I'm not by any means calling myself an Insider, but I watch a lot of Western Division NLL lacrosse so I'm going to talk about what I see in general. Right now, that's an initial Power Ranking for all the teams out West. 1) Minnesota Swarm (2-0) [caption id="attachment_144" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Minnesota Swarm"] [/caption] Their previous time in the Eastern Division toughened them up for their first season out West. Maybe their schedule was favorable starting against a Portland team that hadn't had any scrimmages against other teams and needed to find their own groove. In the Swarm's second game they got a Stealth team that had played the night before and was a little tired and a little beat up. They beat both teams and looked pretty good doing it.  They have to play several Eastern teams in their upcoming schedule so their overall record might be skewed, but I'll focus on their action against their Western foes. 2) Calgary Roughnecks (3-0) [caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Calgary Roughnecks"] [/caption] Coach Troy Cordingley has the Roughnecks off to a very hot start. They might be a 1B to Minnesota's 1A at this point. The downside that Calgary might have right now is they appear to be playing up to their potential. I don't necessarily know whether they have room to improve. They beat the Stealth by 2 and Edmonton in OT. If/when those two teams improve and Calgary is already playing at their max potential, Calgary might not beat them again.  The Roughneck offense might be the best in the West right now.  I think the Roughnecks are one injury away from being a completely different team, but for now they're cruising along. 3) San Jose Stealth (0-2) [caption id="attachment_132" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="San Jose Stealth"] [/caption] How is my winless team ranked above Edmonton and Portland? It is more than just being my favorite team.  Those two losses came to the top two teams and not a worse team. The Stealth defense was not a functional unit last weekend. They got torched on the Short Man and overall weren't entirely cohesive. When they do come together I think they can beat the Roughnecks and give the Swarm a good battle. Until then, it'll be a bumpy ride.  Just remember back to 2007 when the team had 14 new players and started 0-4 before going 9-3 the rest of the season and advancing to the Western finals. 4) Edmonton Rush (1-1) [caption id="attachment_154" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Edmonton Rush"] [/caption] The Rush are pretty equal to the Stealth. They actually had a closer loss to the Roughnecks than the Stealth did and they've got a win last night, but the Stealth should knock off Rochester Sunday night so they both have a win to balance this out so a zero win team is ahead of a 1 win team. Hamley has built a solid roster but doesn't have a blockbuster star like Colin Doyle to push them to the top. They'll do well, I don't know if they'll be great.  Keep an eye on the kid Ryan Benesch, he had a good debut after one practice.  Next weekend they come back to Portland to finish the modified "home and home".  A convincing win over the Jax might push them up in the rankings. 5) Portland Lumberjax (1-3) [caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Portland Lumberjax"] [/caption] They put a whooping on Colorado at their place, but lost a close one to Edmonton last night. They go where their defense takes them. Disher has been the best goalie in the West to start the season. The offense needs to be consistent every night.  They put 14 on the Mammoth with relative ease when Gee Nash had an off night.  In the other games they've scored 7, 10 and 10.  Double digits is not actually that bad considering the Lumberjax defensive potential but they failed to win those games so far.  A little more defense and a little more offense will swing the close games their way (yeah, I really went out on a limb there). 6) Colorado Mammoth (1-1) [caption id="attachment_153" align="alignleft" width="75" caption="Colorado Mammoth"] [/caption] The argument for the Mammoth this year is that they are younger than they've been in the past. But the argument against the Mammoth is that they lost way, way, way more experience on their defense (Josh Sims, Jim Moss and Pat Coyle) than can possibly be made up for in youth. Gee Nash is an All Star when he's on, when he's off even the Lumberjax can jump out to a 7-1 lead on him. Last season Chris Levis came in to save the day. In 2009, it's Andrew Leyshon's job to be the backup and he's no Chris Levis.  Might be a long season for the league's largest  crowds.

West Division Champs! West Division Champs! West Division Champs! Say hello to your 2008 NLL Regular Season West Division Champion San Jose Stealth! The Colorado Mammoth and great collection of their fans came out West for an old fashioned ass whooping in a very important game. There are two things I took from the game.

1. You want Colin Doyle on your team when the game is important.
2. You don't want Dan Carey and Josh Sims on the injured list when you can't win w/o them

Outside of the game, is the total constant in the second half of the season is Mr. Cosmo in goal. Gavin Prout failed to assist any of the Mammoth in scoring a goal in the final 25 minutes of game play! When was the last time the Mammoth were shut out for 25 minutes? (Probably the Black Out game in Colorado, hehe). The game wasn't all roses though. The Stealth highlights were consolidated to the first and fourth quarters. The Stealth actually lost the second and third quarters by a combined score of 4 to 2. Against a better team this lull could lead to a loss, so I am worried about that. But it's the playoffs now and our whole team has the experience from going to the Western Finals last year. The Stealth will take the momentum from this regular season ending victory and make their Champions Cup run. Good job Stealth!

The rubber match of the season series has a whole lot of value riding on it. The winner is the West Division regular season champion and secures home field for the expected rematch the weekend of May 10th. I've already been to Denver and I prefer my seats in San Jose, so I'm really looking forward to the Stealth winning this matchup. The Stealth have won 3 of the last 4 meetings of these teams. That is the biggest thing to the Stealth's advantage, they have little to no fear of the Mammoth. One concern I have is that the Mammoth were able to beat up the Edmonton Rush last weekend and now have a small winning streak started. On the other end the Stealth last to Portland last and have been alternating wins and losses for over two months. So they shouldn't lose a second game in a row, especially with Colin Doyle leading the way. He refuses to allow these guys to drop to in a row, he'll do it all himself if that is what's required. That's about all their is to say. There's a whole lot riding on the game, luckily the Stealth have been at home for about a month straight and are in a nice set routine. Plus the Stealth are used to playing Noon game while the Mammoth don't have the scheduling issues the Stealth do and won't be used to such an early roll call. Prediction: Stealth 14 - Mammoth 8 Go Stealth!

Congratulations to the Portland Lumberjax for their win over the Colorado Mammoth Thursday, March 20, 2008 (16-15). The Jax started the game out very physical, seemingly overpowering the smaller Mammoth team. The second half lent itself more to the Mammoth style of play with a lot of back and forth action. The game was exciting to watch from beginning to end and the crowd of 6,182 was really into it. The key difference in this game though was the atypical lackluster performance by Gee Nash in goal for Colorado. Nash is a spectacular goalie, one I curse every time my Stealth go against him. Against Portland however, Nash seemed slow to react to the ball and saves he normally makes he missed. Nash faced 63 shots on goal and had 47 saves on the night. I expected more from the western division All-Star starter. One other disappointment for me was the way Ryan Powell (Portland) acted when he went after Bruce Murray (Colorado). RP locked up with Murray on the crease, shoving Murray in the face. As soon as RP realized who he had gone after, he backed down and would not fight Murray, even after Murray threw down his helmet and gloves. I have to say that while it was probably smart for Powell to not go up against Murray, as Powell would likely have been pummeled, I was disappointed he refused to fight. If you are going to talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk. Each team had players that were expected to produce that did. Dan Dawson of Portland (4G, 2A) provided much needed leadership for the Jax offense and even played through what looked to be a serious ankle injury in the fourth to finish the game. This was the best game I have seen Dawson play in a Lumberjax uniform, if not numbers-wise, then through his leadership on the floor. For the Mammoth, Brian Langtry was on fire with 9 goals and 4 assists. Congrats to Langtry on an outstanding game; it was if the goalies were not even there when Langtry shot and his long sought-after diving-behind-the-back goal was incredible. Langtry deservedly received MVP of the game honors. Portland moves to 4-7 and Colorado to 6-4.