A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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My first game as a Lumberjax season ticket holder brings the New York Titans out West. This is a key factor in picking the winner. In the NFL you can almost always pick against the team that traveled cross-country. Same thing will apply here, even more so when the teams are otherwise evenly matched. The first face-off is at 10:30pm Eastern time, when I’m sure that a couple Titans are probably usually starting to think about going to bed, but Saturday they have to be starting a game.
The main headline for the game from the NLL is that there are two sets of brothers facing off against each other. The older brothers, Patrick Merrill and Casey Powell take on the younger brothers Brodie Merrill and Ryan Powell. It’s pretty amazing how many brother combinations have come through the NLL or are in the NLL right now. The league is focusing on the brothers when they should be focusing on Dan Dawson’s Portland debut. But I doubt official press from the league is going to focus on continually pointing out that Arizona suspended operations. They’ll just ignore that and talk about the brothers playing against each other.
It’s going to be Plaid Jersey night at the Rose Garden when the Lumberjax get to bust out the 3rd jersey to celebrate the new season. I’ve seen pictures of them and they’re a pretty decisive uniform. People either love them or hate them. I thought they’d grow on me, but I’m in the “hate them” camp. Maybe it’ll change when it’s on a player and not model.
Uniforms and brothers aside, the only real item to be evaluated is how much better will Dan Dawson make the anemic Lumberjax offense? Dawson tears it up on every team he plays for and he’ll do the same in Portland. He’s exactly what they need, it’s too bad that they’re only scheduled to have him for the one season. Also coming in on the other side of the offense is Derek Malawsky from Arizona, a former Stealth who still has the goods to put in a one or two goals a game.
The Lumberjax defense will be lead by Brodie Merrill. He appears to be back 100% healthy after last years quad or hamstring injury he suffered. He’ll probably be matched up on Casey Powell all night.
New York’s offense is lead by Casey Powell. Casey had a resurgent last season in his return to the NLL after not playing following Anaheim’s suspension of operations. They’ve implemented a very American based offense, actually they’re a very American based squad overall. This is a sympton of a rich New York guy buying a NLL for his kids. I have no proof, but I’m positive his sons made his select all their favorite players… but they were all field players. No good at the indoor game. They seriously brought Nic Polanco of the Long Island Lizards to the Titans camp a year ago. I’m sure the sons enjoyed it and their 4-12 record. Hopefully the dad has stopped listening to the sons and will let his GM pick up more Canadians to improve the team going forward.
Casey Powell is joined by Ryan Boyle and rookie Jordan Hall. Hall was the Number One overall selection in this year’s entry draft and I’m expecting him to make immediate contributions. The only doubt in my mind is that he’s playing indoor with a bunch of Americans that don’t play the typical Canadian based offense. I don’t know if this will hinder his introduction to the NLL game.
The highlight of the trip to Portland will be watching my favorite former Stealth and the most under rated player in the NLL, Jarrett Park. He’s arguably the fastest player in the league and has adjusted the physical aspects of the game compared to the finesse of the outdoor game. If he picks a pass he’s off to the races and just like Speedy Steve Toll, no one is going to catch him.
Prediction:
If it was a conference game with a short distance traveled by the teams it’d be a 1 point game as the teams are very evenly matched. Lumberjax take advantage of a travel weary Titans team and win 14-10. Dan Dawson will show the Portland fans why he was the easy #1 pick in the Dispersal Draft and put 7 points on New York.