A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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Is the 3rd time going to be the charm for Derek Keenan and his Portland Lumberjax as they host the Colorado Mammoth this week? Keenan has lost the confidence of some of the loyal and vocal Lumberjax fans. Personally, as soon as he lost to the NY Titans to start the season I knew he had screwed up the Jax, but I’m not a loyal Jax supporter so my voice doesn’t carry as much weight.
In the first meeting of these two teams, the Jax played one of the best games of the season, taking the Mammoth to overtime before losing. It was an inspired effort by the Jax, but not inspiration that would continue in to the following games. There has been rather constant goalie switching in most games as Dallas Eliuk is deemed healthy but then is unable to finish a game or Matt King gets a start and lets in a handful of quick goals to get pulled for Eliuk who wasn’t healthy enough to start the game but ends up playing much better than King did that night in the Jax loss to Edmonton.
The offense has been a rudderless ship. Dangerous Dan Dawson is good for 4 goals a game, but is constantly bogged down by the rest of the Jax offense stopping him from his usual flow. I don’t truly know what the issue is here, but it needs to be resolved. All indicators show that Dawson isn’t returning to the Sting at the end of this season, so the Jax might as well figure out how to use him properly since they’re keeping him or it is the biggest waste of talent you’ll *ever* see in lacrosse. My wife loves to watch DDD play, even when he tears up the Stealth he does it with such effortless ease it has to be appreciated. But stuck in the Portland offense he’s floundering. If I was really pressed to pick a reason I’d say it is being stuck with RP on the right side. Their two styles are like oil and water. Dawson needs a real indoor player to come set picks for him in 2 on 2 plays. Someone who is a just enough of a threat to receive a dump pass from Dawson in close quarters that the defenders steps away enough for Dawson to get his hands free and he’ll score. Or the other guy needs to get all the way out of the way and let Dawson dodge. Neither of these two scenarios are occurring for Dawson to be Dangerous. Once they do, watch out because Dawson has a backlog of goals built up inside him that needs to get out. Bump Powell to the second line and let Dawson dominate the first line. By the way, I’m more inclined to throw Powell under the bus this week than last week since Powell requested to be traded from the Dragons. Bad timing on his part.
As much as I’d like for the Jax to have a chance, and I’ll be cheering for the Jax like crazy, they’re screwed in this game. Last weekend Colorado rebounded from three straight loses to put a major hurt on the Calgary Roughnecks in Calgary. Gavin Prout lead the way with Dan Carey getting back on his scoring average as well. Prout was awarded Overall Player of the Week for his effort and I fully expect the same effort on Thursday in Portland. The Mammoth have had a rough stretch of schedule and have been waiting to play a pretender team like the Jax so they can really work a team over.
Prediction:
It’s going to be blood bath, Mammoth 17 and Jax 11.
Go Stealth!