A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
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Wow, not a lot of good things to be said about a blowout loss to a “last place” team.
Bob Hamley showed again that he’s got Colin Doyle and the Stealth figured out pretty good. It sucks that the Stealth have to play the Rush one more time still this season.
Aside from the loss on the standings, the biggest loss of the night was Luke Wiles going down with a broken foot during the game. Luke is going to be out for six weeks, which will carry straight in to the playoffs. Hopefully he recovers quickly and is able join the team when they play for the Champion’s Cup. I’m not sure who’s going to replace Wiles, normally I’d say a righty forward steps in, so that’ll be Peter Veltman. But Veltman hasn’t played a game in about two months and could be terribly rusty. If Wiles is replaced with a lefty like rookie Tom Johnson or a well rested Gary Rosyski then the offense becomes terribly unbalanced towards lefties and requires Jeff Zywicki and rookie Frank Resetarits to play each and every shift. The third option is for a defender to come up the floor like maybe Kyle Sorenson or Paul Dawson. Sorrie is much too valuable to lose shifts on the defense, but Dawson might be adequate for come be a big guy in two man games. We’ll find out on Saturday.
The Rush held Colin Doyle to just three assists in the game and that was the difference maker. Teams that keep Doyle from scoring goals are the teams that beat the Stealth. Plain and simple, the Stealth go as Colin Doyle goals. With Wiles out of the lineup, Doyle and all the forwards needs to step up and continue winning. Despite being a half game out of first with Colorado playing Rochester and Buffalo this weekend, by the time the Stealth take the floor for their first game on Saturday they would be a half game in first place in the Mammoth drop both games.
Now that the Stealth got the stink out of their game at Edmonton they can get back on track with home games every weekend in April. They’ll be rested from the lack of travel and they’ll get a good flow in their schedules and routines because they can bank on having a game or two every weekend.
The playoff positioning starts on Saturday in Portland. You’ll want to be there if you can.