A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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When we got to the airport on Saturday morning to return to Portland we should have just caught a flight to Denver instead. Portland had a wicked ice storm come in a couple hours before us and Interstate 84 was closed. The alternative route was backed up with overflow traffic. The first 60 miles took three hours to drive instead of one. That was brutal and the rest of the trip wasn’t much better. Kinda like the Stealth performance.
Not many good things to talk about in the 11-6 San Jose Stealth lose to the Colorado Mammoth. The Stealth defense really did a fabulous job holding Colorado to 11 goals, Anthony Cosmo saved just over 81% of the shots on goal he faced. But Gee Nash was equally up to the task, holding the Stealth offense to 6 goals while saving 82% of the Stealth shots on goal.
Speaking of Nash, I need to apologize about our analysis of the Mammoth vs. Lumberjax game. Chris Levis played the whole game for the Mammoth and we never even knew it. Our seats in Portland are about half way up the lower bowl and right in the middle of the field. From that position we can’t tell who’s in goal, especially when the Portland PA announcer never said anything. Also, Levis and Nash basically look identical in their gear since they have the same build and both have a jersey number that starts with a 3.
Now back to the Stealth offense. It was a total continuation of the woes we saw on Friday night versus Calgary. Missed passes and individual efforts on ground balls instead of team play dominated the action. Now I really wish I had seen the first Stealth game up in Calgary. Apparently the passing on offense was crisp and lethal. Now the passing looks forced because it is not being completed. It is rarely actually forced, but when the pass doesn’t connect that’s the easy consensus. The Mammoth power play has looked similar since the mid-point of last season. For both teams all five guys on the floor can shoot, but they fake, see how out of position the goalie now is and then try thread a pass for what is or would be a slam dunk. Both teams need their offensive players to call their own number a little more.
Between the Calgary game and the Colorado game I came to the opinion that the Stealth were looking past the Roughnecks in preparation for the big Mammoth game. But after watching the Mammoth game I don’t think this was the case, the offense was just horrible. There are lots of adjectives available to describe a horrible offense, but horrible is it. The season is young and the Stealth will peak in April and May when they need to.
Also, what happened to the Mammoth “Black Out”. They advertised it during the first two broadcasts and all of a sudden it’s been put off until the second Stealth @ Mammoth match-up. And they explained that when they do the Black Out the Stealth will where their home whites and the Mammoth will wear a special black third jersey. So they’ve accounted for my questions about a Black Out when the visiting team would wear black.
There are two good pieces of news coming out of this game. It was only the third game of the season and we’ve got 13 to go. There’s no concern to be had. And the other piece of good news that I learned from Josh Gross of the Altitude broadcast team is that there are only five players on the Stealth roster over the age of 25. I had never put this together, but the Stealth have an incredibly young team. And the old veterans are wise lacrosse elders, Cosmo who was the Goalie of the Year last season, Colin Doyle former NLL MVP and 5 time champion, Shaydon Santos the former coach and captain, Gary Rosyski the Stealth’s all-time points leader and Cam Sedgwick the 2007 MVP of the WLA. If any team could have only five players over the age of 25 and only one of them could be a 2007 NLL All-Star it would be difficult to pick a better quintet than this.
Finally, I hope the league reviews the high hits in the game, specifically the one against Todd Fairlie that was clearly an elbow to the head and knocked his helmet off. I mean, it knocked his helmet off, what do the refs need to see to consider it a blow to the head? I know the league can review this hit even if the refs didn’t call anything. So let’s hope they levy a fine or some other punishment that shows the league is out to protect the players.
Game MVP: It was a tough choice, but I pick Dan Carey (3 goals and 2 assists) over Gavin Prout. Gavin had a few more assists, but I just love to watch Carey shoot. It’s silky smooth.