The Stealth Dragon

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.

The Minnesota Swarm opened their 2009 NLL season with a 11-7 road victory against the Portland Lumberjax.  The Swarm's Kevin Ross lead all goal scorers with 3 goals (5 pts total) and Sean Pollock lead all scorers with 6 pts (2 goals and 4 assists).  Kevin Croswell, the unexpected goalie starter for the Swarm had a slow start the first 10 minutes of the game but he and his defense settled down and only gave up 4 more goals in the final 49 minutes of the game.  He was voted a well deserved MVP of the game. [caption id="attachment_120" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Game MVP Kevin Croswell"] [/caption] Minnesota's success despite missing two All Stars, defender Ryan Cousins and goalie Nick Patterson, is an uncertain sign of one of two things 1) the team has depth and trusts everyone on the roster to contribute 2) Portland's offense is as bad as people feared.  Or some combination of the two.  A second game for each team will make things more clear, especially for Portland and their offense.  Peter Morgan and 40 year old Dan Stroup each scored two goals two lead the Jax offense.  Ryan Powell had zero points in his first game without Dan Dawson.  Stroup set several picks to get RP open, but RP's shoots were pulling about a foot left of cage each time.  He'll get that dialed in eventually, but until then he needs to be setting other guys up instead of taking 14 shots and only being on cage with half of those. There were a couple of bright spots for Portland.  Young goalie Joel Weber got his first ever NLL minutes running on and off the floor at the end of the game.  Welcome to the NLL Joel.  Second, the Jax got their first game out of the way and next  weekend will face a Colorado Mammoth team, that despite having a scrimmage against the San Jose Stealth 3 weeks ago, haven't played a live game themselves. Bottom line for the Jax - the defense can play their hearts out to keep the opponent in check, but without offense it is all for not.  It's not every game in the NLL where the winning team only scores 11 goals.  Brian Shanahan placed Portland at the bottom of the first 2009 NLL Power Rankings and it is not because of the defense. Finally, challenges are now part of the NLL and it's possible that Lumberjax coach Derek Keenan forgot this at the first opportunity he had to make a challenge.  I'm not positive the non goal would have turned over to a goal (from the one angle I saw the ball was on the line, but may not have crossed it entirely).  Minnesota's coach Duane Jacobs made a successful  challenge in the 2nd quarter to overturn a Jax goal.  Shortly afterwards Keenan did make a challege for a goal where Pete Jacobs was obviously lying in the crease. It felt reactionary to Jacobs successful challenge.  My buddy Tim is convinced that in the first instance that Keenan forgot he could challenge the call.  From what I saw, I'm inclined agree at this time.

[caption id="attachment_117" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ryan Cousins"] [/caption] Ryan Cousins missed the Swarm season opener in Portland because he is recovering from knee surgery he had four weeks ago.  He warmed up today but did not play in the game.  I asked him about it after the game and he told me about having surgery four weeks ago and he's still a week or two away from being ready to play.  I don't know what type of surgery he had, just that it was knee surgery.  Since this is only the first week of twenty this season it was a prudent playing decision by coach Jacobs to not rush him back.

[caption id="attachment_114" align="alignright" width="62" caption="Portland Lumberjax "] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_113" align="alignleft" width="50" caption="Minnesota Swarm "] [/caption] In 2009 the Minnesota Swarm join the West Division of the National Lacrosse League and starts there season on the road in Portland against the Dan Dawson-less 2009 Lumberjax.  Portland returns to action after advancing to the 2008 Champion's Cup.  Minnesota was a playoff team last season as well, though in a much tougher Eastern Division and losing in the first round.  Minnesota's move out West makes them an instant contender for a regular season title and deep run in to the playoffs. Portland has one thing they need to do right this game and this season.  Portland has to overcome the offensive points lost from Dan Dawson.  The Lumberjax defense won't be the issue.  The defense remains in place from last season and this year goalie Matt Disher won't be coming in to the system in the middle of the season.  The offense needs to find 5.1 points a game that they lost with Dan Dawson.  The Jax picked up Dan Stroup and Matt Brown during the off season.  Stroup is an older and wiser forward that might be a good spoke in the offensive wheels.  Matt Brown is a wild card.  He coaches the Denver University men's lacrosse team, so his attendance is not guaranteed late in the season.  If he's at the game the Jax are going to be better for it. Minnesota has a few key advantages that should lead them to victory in the opener.  Swarm goalie Nick Patterson is an All Star and starts each season out really strong.  Outside of the goal is the Ryan and Ryan show.  NLL Defender of the Year for 2007 and 2008 Ryan Cousins anchors the defense and can press the action on the offensive end as well.  Ryan Ward helps lead the offensive along with 2008 NLL Rookie of the Year Craig Point.  Minnesota lost Andy Secore during the off season and will miss him on offense a great deal, but not as much as Portland is expected to miss Dawson. All the signs point to Minnesota taking this game.  But the Jax are going to be raising their division title banner before the game to get the players even more jacked up.  Last year in Minny the team battled to OT and I think that can happen again if the Jax offense is clicking. I've been thinking about this game all week and since we haven't seen the teams play I still don't know for sure what the Jax are going to look like.  It's completely possible the Lumberjax defense could control all aspects of the game and keep it close enough for the Jax to win.  If that's the case I could see it being a 12-11 Jax win.  But if the Jax offense doesn't have its rhythm yet it'll be a long night for the Jax fans and the Swarm could roll to a 14-8 laugher.  This isn't the NLL Insider and I'm not being forced to make a pick so I'm playing both sides on this one until we've seen some more from the teams. I look forward to seeing former Stealth players Kevin Fines and Darren Halls in action this weekend.  Interestingly Kevin and Darren were traded for each other as part of the Colin Doyle trade.  Kevin was a crowd favorite in San Jose and Darren was a member of the '07 team that went to the Western Finals.  Darren plays a good game and I liked watching his hustle on defense that year.  I still remember one hit where he released off the bench and was able to get clear run at a guy at midfield and light him up, it was a great hit.  Have a good game guys. Other game previews: NLL Insider Swarm It Up!!! National Lacrosse League

All right, my vacation is winding down, time to get back to writing. This game review and the Shamrox preview are pulling me back to the real world. Last Saturday's Stealth game was their 4th in 8 days and the team appeared to show signs of tiring with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The game was back and forth until those final minutes allowed the Swarm to pull away from a Stealth squad that just couldn't muster the energy to close out the game. Positives for the Stealth included rookie Steven Panarelli's hustle and wrangling in loosies on face-offs. On offense, Jeff Zywicki continued his scorching scoring with 5 goals and 4 assists, including the final three for the Stealth, and captain Colin Doyle (3g, 8a) was an assist shy of being a part of every goal the Stealth put in. Finally, as I predicted, Tim Booth had a great game in the face-off circle (17 of 26), especially late in the game when he won all the draws necessary to keep the Stealth in the game even though the offense was unable to convert those possessions into goals. Good job Booth. Unfortunately, Zywicki appeared to be the only Stealth player that could get a shot past Nick Patterson of the Swarm, especially late in the game. Luke Wiles took 19 shots and only found the net on one goal that was waived off because he toed the crease line. Colin Doyle was able to score some big goals throughout the first 3 quarters, but wasn't left free late in the game to continue scoring. Patterson had an excellent 2nd half to slow down the Stealth offense that torched him in the first half. Without his exceptional efforts, even the tiring Stealth squad would have beat the Swarm. The Stealth defense had good energy until those fateful five minutes at the end of the game. The offense hustled off the floor so the defense could get on the floor and slow down the Swarm transition game. The defense worked together to scoop up loosies and weren't individually chasing down the ball. This coordination prevented the Swarm from pulling away sooner. The only thing they failed to do during the game was collect the rebounds off Cosmo from Swarm shots. This was atypical of how Cosmo usually plays in goal and provided the Swarm with a couple of 'garbage' goals on those second opportunities. Minnesota was lead by stud rookie Craig Point with (2g, 5a). He was amazing, more impressive than Jordan Hall (having seen them both play). Hall is better at contributing all over the floor, but he's not producing the scoring numbers that Point is. And why is Point allowed to have a silver face mask on his helmet while the rest of the team wear's black ones? The leading gaol scorer for the Swarm on Saturday was Andy Secore with 3 goals. The Stealth offense was lead by Zywicki and Doyle, but also received contributions from Gary Rosyski (2g, 1a), Cam Sedgwick (1g, 1a) and Curtis Hodgson (1g). Good work by everyone who contributed. We're well on our way to having the Stealth team that went to the Western finals last season. If the Stealth can rest up, no more 4 games in 8 days, defeat the Mammoth in the playoffs again and the Swarm can continue their current level of play and get past the rest of the East in the playoffs, I'd like to see this rematch in the NLL Finals. It'd be another close game and stellar conclusion to the 2008 season if it were to happen. Game MVP: Jeff Zywicki, without his effort the Stealth would have been rolled over by the Swarm.

Saturday night's lacrosse game between the San Jose Stealth (2-2) and the Minnesota Swarm (3-0) falls in to the two must win categories for the Stealth winning in the West. First, it is a home game and second, it is a game vs. an Eastern conference opponent. The Stealth can win the game if they maintain the effort laid out on Thursday in New York, especially the effort shown in the transition game. A lackluster effort in transition like we saw all last weekend will simply lead to a Stealth loss against this Swarm squad who beat Rochester last weekend. This is also the fourth Stealth game in the last 8 days. Based on Thursday's performance it might be helping the Stealth 'click' with all the time on the floor together. But a rested Minnesota team will expose any weakness in the Stealth squad caused by fatigue, particularly in the transition game. But the Stealth got to sleep in their own beds last night after returning from New York, so the extra day off between games should mitigate the fatigue. Hell, I'm tired from the games and I didn't have to go to New York two days ago. Face-offs should go in the Stealth's favor tonight. Tim Booth had a good battle on Thursday against big Jamie Hanford, so the smaller Swarm face-off man should feel like a vacation comparatively. Based on the stats the Swarm have had three different people taking their draws in their three games. This makes it harder for Booth to prepare for a single man, but it also shows that they don't like any of their current options. Once Booth controls the clamp it'll be up to his teammates to ensure the ball in controlled. I'm hoping to see Steve Panarelli in the lineup after splitting games last weekend. Panarelli is an athletic ground ball machine who impresses me with each game he plays in. The Swarm are lead by goalie Nick Patterson, defenseman Ryan Cousins who nllinsider.com calls the best individual defender in the league right now, leading scorer Ryan Ward, last week's NLL Overall and Offensive player of the week Sean Pollock and early Rookie of the Year candidate Craig Point. Like the New York Titans, the Swarm have a balanced offensive attack with 6 players having double digits points after just three games. When I looked at that stat by the Titans I fooled myself in to thinking they are better than they are and changed my prediction in that game (I originally thought it'd be around 14-8 but then saw all the points the Titans had put up and changed it to 16-13). This time though, the Swarm are a legitimate scoring threat. The X Factor: This time around it's not a single player, but has become the Stealth Power Player. Thursday night they were 0 for 7, lowering their already league worst 33% conversion rate. If the Stealth can't convert on the PP they'll certainly make the playoffs, but I can't imagine the team advancing the playoffs without formidable PP (see the Colorado Mammoth last year). Prediction: I just don't have a strong feeling about this game. If the Swarm win I won't be surprised, they're 3-0 and having been player a better game so far this season. But two of those wins were against the Toronto Rock who are not a powerhouse. It could be that the Swarm simply played a perfect game in that Rochester victory. The Stealth need to play like they did on Thursday night or it'll be a loss, no bout a doubt it. I need to see a stellar Stealth performance in person, so I'm picking the Stealth to win 17-15. Almost an OT game, but the Stealth will seal the game with an empty netter at the end. Go Stealth!