The Stealth Dragon

[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignright" width="116" caption="Former (and hopefully future) Stealth defender Ian Hawksbee"] [/caption] Dear Coach Keenan: I've noticed you've been reassembling several of your former Portland Lumberjax players up in Edmonton over the summer. I've also noticed that there are a couple that you have not yet picked up.  Training camp is about 10 days away, time to get moving on this. You just need to call up Johnny Mouradian and tell him that you want to give the Stealth Ian Hawksbee and you would like the Stealth will give you Peter Morgan and Brad MacDonald.  Morgan and MacDonald don't suck and I really miss Hawks from when he played with the Stealth back in 2007.  This totally works in my mind. Do it!  Do it now!!! Thanks for your time, Tyler

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.

[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.

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.

Huh, when I first said "Free Ryan Benesch!" I meant it as in, let Benesch be free from the grips of Toronto. [caption id="attachment_150" align="alignright" width="189" caption="New Edmonton Rush Defender Derek Suddons"] [/caption] Apparently in Toronto it meant, take Ryan Benesch for free or best offer. GM/Coach Bob Hamley of Edmonton either made the first or best offer and picked up Benesch and Derek Suddons for a couple of draft picks. Suddons is a defender I've never heard of because the Rock don't play Portland or San Jose but the Rock fans on the Wingszone forum say they're going to miss him and he one was of their top defenders. So Hamley got the better deal here. I feel Toronto's GM Mike Kloepfer didn't read my post that he was in a better bargaining position here than the final result dictated. He could have and should have gotten more for those two guys than a 1st and 2nd round draft pick.

Wow, not a lot of good things to be said about a blowout loss to a "last place" team. Bob Hamley showed again that he's got Colin Doyle and the Stealth figured out pretty good. It sucks that the Stealth have to play the Rush one more time still this season. Aside from the loss on the standings, the biggest loss of the night was Luke Wiles going down with a broken foot during the game. Luke is going to be out for six weeks, which will carry straight in to the playoffs. Hopefully he recovers quickly and is able join the team when they play for the Champion's Cup. I'm not sure who's going to replace Wiles, normally I'd say a righty forward steps in, so that'll be Peter Veltman. But Veltman hasn't played a game in about two months and could be terribly rusty. If Wiles is replaced with a lefty like rookie Tom Johnson or a well rested Gary Rosyski then the offense becomes terribly unbalanced towards lefties and requires Jeff Zywicki and rookie Frank Resetarits to play each and every shift. The third option is for a defender to come up the floor like maybe Kyle Sorenson or Paul Dawson. Sorrie is much too valuable to lose shifts on the defense, but Dawson might be adequate for come be a big guy in two man games. We'll find out on Saturday. The Rush held Colin Doyle to just three assists in the game and that was the difference maker. Teams that keep Doyle from scoring goals are the teams that beat the Stealth. Plain and simple, the Stealth go as Colin Doyle goals. With Wiles out of the lineup, Doyle and all the forwards needs to step up and continue winning. Despite being a half game out of first with Colorado playing Rochester and Buffalo this weekend, by the time the Stealth take the floor for their first game on Saturday they would be a half game in first place in the Mammoth drop both games. Now that the Stealth got the stink out of their game at Edmonton they can get back on track with home games every weekend in April. They'll be rested from the lack of travel and they'll get a good flow in their schedules and routines because they can bank on having a game or two every weekend. The playoff positioning starts on Saturday in Portland. You'll want to be there if you can.

The new look Rush, now of Bob Hamley's design face off against the same look Stealth tonight. The advantage clearly goes to the Stealth for a number of reasons, including - the Stealth have already beat the Rush once and the Rush have an atypically large group of players to integrate to Hamley's systems in basically one practice. As a Rush fan said in the Wingszone forums today, the game isn't about the Rush winning tonight, it is about learning to play together in a game environment and then taking that experience to the three remaining games against Calgary. But that doesn't mean the Rush can entirely be looked past at all. In the last meeting, Hamley's first game as coach he lead the Rush to having a fourth quarter lead before Jeff Zywicki broke free for a couple of goals to lead the way to the late comeback victory for the Rush. The Stealth made it through trade deadline week without making a single change. This is what I expected. Every other team in the league, except maybe for New York, made some moves to find the missing piece for a championship. The Stealth stood by and watched. GM Johnny Mouradian probably received several calls and offers, but wisely didn't make any moves. The Stealth are ready for the championship run with who they've had all season. Tonight's game they'll show off why they didn't need to make any moves. The defense will have to work a little harder than last time, the Rush have several new scorers on offense. And the offense can just continue to do what they've been doing all season. If the passing is crisp like against Calgary last week Curtis Palidwor will be going side to side and on his back before several of the Stealth goals are even shot. Prediction: The Stealth dominate all aspects of the game and win 14-9.

Bob Hamley works fast and got the Rush on the right track in just his first full week as head coach and GM. Despite missing Mike Accursi because of illness the Edmonton Rush defeated the Portland Lumberjax in front of 7500 fans at the Rose Garden. All Star Jimmy Quinlan got things started quickly for the Rush scoring on Matt King 1 minute in to the game and it was followed up 35 seconds later by Dan Stroup, leading a bad night for Matt King where he only saved 66% of shots and was pulled in the 3rd quarter. Rookie Steve Hutchins had 1 and 5 in just his second game ever while filling in for Accursi. Portland out shot Edmonton almost 2 to 1, but still managed to lose because all those shots were in Curtis Palidwor chest. Overall, rather pathetic and unlike the Jax in their previous four games. Coach Keenan was quoted in the Oregonian after the game as saying the Jax were looking past this game having beaten the Rush twice already this season. This is unacceptable and more proof that Keenan is not leading this team, but instead standing on the bench and expecting raw talent to win these games. Portland beat the Paul Day coached team twice, but this last match was against a new coach and practically a new team with new Hamley influence on them. In just three days Hamley got the Rush in position to take a lead in to the 4th quarter against a better Stealth team. With the whole week to be talking to his players and getting them ready to play the whole 60 minutes which they did for the first time this season. Congratulations to the Rush. You exposed the Lumberjax as pretenders who have only won games against weak or injured teams. The last 7 games for the Jax will be very difficult to win even one. The Rush take their first step towards the playoffs with this win and with Calgary and Portland playing each other the 4th place team will still only have 3 wins.

Damn, I'm getting way behind on my game reviews. But I've got thoughts about tomorrow's lacrosse game between the Portland Lumberjax and the winless Edmonton Rush. Normally on the third meeting of the season and second in two weeks I'd just point to the previous posting about this same match up. But this isn't the same match up. Edmonton went out and got themselves a new coach and GM, Bob Hamley to take over for Paul Day. Hamley inspired the team to a 4th quarter tie or lead against my might Stealth last weekend and that was on three days notice. Now Hamley's had a whole week to prepare for the Jax and we might see a team that lives up to its potential to be the fourth best team in the West. The first step to this is beating a Portland team that has obtained loads of confidence by already beating Edmonton twice as well as Calgary. Alas, Hamley is a great coach, but I don't see the Rush beating the Jax on Saturday. By next season they'll be a force to be dealt with, but 10 days after being hired will only produce a better team but probably not a winning team. Go Hawksbee, we love to watch you. Have a good game. Prediction: Lumberjax 13 and the Rush 11. A closer game than the last couple Jax home games, but a victory and Krispy Kremes will be had everyone.

After a week off, the San Jose Stealth return to the lacrosse field to battle an under performing Edmonton Rush team that had the Head Coach and GM Paul Day fired on Tuesday. The Rush selected Bob Hamley, current Mammoth assistant coach and former Arizona Sting head coach to replace Day. Outside of the two teams playing on Saturday, if Hamley taking this job isn't proof that the Sting aren't returning, I don't know what is. Sorry Arizona. I'm really glad we got to see the next to last Sting game last season when you hosted the Stealth in the playoffs. The Stealth have started to click on offense the last two games after a slightly rocky start to get the season going. The 17 goals the Stealth pinned on Chicago the last time out was a season high, and if it's going to be topped it'll be against this Rush team that let the Lumberjax march to the crease the whole game last weekend. I don't know what this'll mean for everyone else on the offense, but Zywicki is primed to put 7 goals in the change against a defense like this. (And he'll have to if he wants to contend with the regular season goal scoring title with Mr. On Pace for almost 80 _GOALS_ Athan Inanucci of Philadelphia). Luckily Nuc never passes (nor has to) so the assists that Z racks up every week will keep him on pace to win the overall scoring title that he's owned coming up on the mid point of the season. After Zywicki I can't wait to see Colin Doyle pick the defense apart and setup everyone else and come away with a truck load of assists (like usual) and probably even get a couple goals himself. Doyle's setup work for Gary Rosyski, Frank Resetarits and Luke Wiles should leave them all with open looks all night as the second tier defenders on Edmonton just can't compete with any of the Stealth. The Stealth will have the option to close out this game in 3rd quarter, or maybe even the 2nd if they start fast enough. The 4th quarter killer instinct they showed against the Shamrox (yes Brian Shanahan I saw you mention it in the power rankings, and I said it first in my Titans game review, so I think you're lifting my material and I'm calling you out ;) isn't going to necessary but it'd be nice to pile it once and play the whole game hard. Hell, Philly scored 11 in the 4th quarter tonight and I can't see any reason the Stealth offense couldn't match that against the Rush. After the first month of the season I didn't think I'd write these words in a positive fashion, but the defense needs to play just like Portland has. When pressured at the perimeter and not allowed to drive to the cage, the Edmonton offense imploded. Not a single guy stepped up to take charge, to take the ball to the cage or to even take a aggressive shot until half way through the 4th quarter. The Stealth have better defenders than the Lumberjax, so Shaydon, Curtis, Eric, Kyle and the gang should be looking to pitch a shutout each and every quarter of the game. Coach Walt Christianson has already stated that Bold will be starting in cage for the second time this season. Considering Bold's performance against the NY Titans earlier this month I'm completely confident that the Stealth will have nothing to worry about. Another solid outting and we might have a 'goalie controversy' in San Jose but I'll take one. It's better to have two great ones than to have barely one good one like Edmonton and Buffalo are stuck with. If Bold has another lights out game with an 85+% save percentage could we deal Cosmo before the trade deadline? The Rush didn't have a transition game that left me with any sort of memory after watching them play once. Portland owned the transition game against the Rush and it's something the Stealth can also do if the O guys work hard to get off the floor. After losing the games vs. Calgary and at Colorado because of poor transition and lazy play I haven't seen the same slip ups in February. Even is hustling to do their job so the team can be better. We'll continue to improve on this all season and guys get even better shape and the Stealth don't have to play 4 games in just over two weekends anymore. Prediction: Stealth will win this game big. The Rush might rally around the new coach with new enthusiasm for game, but at best this will only lessen the Stealth margin of victory, not overcome it. Final score of Stealth 18 - Rush 8. A real shellacking to show Hamley what he's working with. Go Stealth!