A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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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!