A Washington Stealth Fan Blog
This project is maintained by tfitch
The big weekend is finally here. My mighty Stealth come to Portland and I can cheer for them on the road for the first time this season. Portland had last weekend off and probably had practice to get their two new players, goalie Matt Disher and new this season but returning Jax defenseman Bruce Alexander up to speed. Meanwhile, last weekend San Jose went to Edmonton and lost the game and lost third leading scorer Luke Wiles to a broken foot.
It will be a new look Stealth team with Wiles out of the line up. Despite not making any moves at the trade deadline they won’t be too far removed from Portland situation. The Stealth have some significant offense adaptation to work out this week while the Lumberjax have significant defensive adaptation being worked out as well. Stealth righty forward Peter Veltman should step in to replace Luke Wiles, otherwise the Stealth are left with just two true righty forwards and that isn’t enough. Veltman might be a bit rusty, he hasn’t played for the Stealth in about two months. But he’s a true Canadian and knows the two man game better than Frank Resetarits, so he’ll be a valuable contributor knowing that productivity is so greatly needed by the team.
We’re not sure if Sean Morris or Gary Rosyski are more likely to play on Saturday. Along with Tom Johnson they’ve all been fighting for one spot on the left hand side. Rosy plays tremendous games against Portland and he’s an outside shooter. I’ve seen enough Jax games this year to know that they’re defense is willing to give up those long shots to prevent people from taking the ball to the cage. Sean Morris on the other hand will take the ball to the cage against a bigger but slower Jax defender and create opportunities that Rosy wouldn’t. I don’t envy Coach Walt being in the position to make this decision.
Portland’s defense will probably consist of Brodie Merrill on Jeff Zywicki and I’m thinking the young and athletic Tyler Codron will be hounding Colin Doyle all night. Codron was all over Dan Carey in the Jax upset of the Mammoth two weeks ago, but Doyle is so much bigger than Carey I think Doyle will be able to get himself open to get the ball and quarterback the offense. A bigger Jax defender might be assigned the job instead and Codron will slide over to Morris if he’s playing.
Tensions ran high between the Stealth and the Jax last season and if any of that emotion carries and boils over the team’s Power Plays will be the final differential. Neither team has been lights out deadly on the PP but it’s imperative for the Stealth to keep out of the penalty box and not give the Jax any unnecessary advantages. Kyle Sorenson did a great job of antagonizing the Calgary Roughnecks and drawing roughing penalties without retaliating himself to create man up opportunities. Hopefully whatever Sorenson was doing or saying that day can be done again on Saturday to get at the Jax.
Prediction:
Colin Doyle and the Stealth are going to be fuming over losing to the Rush last week and won’t let it happen again. But Portland will respond to the roster changes and want to give the fans a win as this is the next to last home game. Stealth win 13-11 in a great battle.
Go Stealth!