NLL 2010 Blog #2 – Ted Montour
I believe I’m starting to get the hang of ‘this blogging thing’, so I’ll be shooting for shorter and more frequent, or at least more regular, entries here. The day after the weekly (Wednesday afternoon) NLL coaches media conference call seem like a good time. I want to focus today on two situations, the undefeated Washington Stealth in the West and the Toronto / Buffalo rivalry in the East.
The move from San Jose, California must be judged a success so far for the Stealth: — five victories in a row, including two 1-goal, intra-divisional road wins last week, and modestly better, and improving, attendance in Everett, Washington, home of the Boeing aircraft factory. Washington has three players in the league’s top 10 scorers, lead by Jeff Zywicki’s 35 points (are you paying attention, Dave Huntley?), No. 4 Lewis Ratcliff with a league-best 14 goals, and No. 8 Rhys Duch.
The reason I’ve referenced Philadelphia coach Huntley, twice now, is that he is also the head coach of Team Canada 2010 and the man responsible for cutting “Z” from the 30-man roster in favour of less internationally-experienced, and –accomplished, attackers, including son Kevin (currently 8th among Wings scorers with 2 goals and 3 assists in 4 games). 2006 All-World attacker Zywicki’s exclusion remains a mystery, and not just to us friends and fans on his home turf of Ottawa. I put this decision on a par with Team USA 2006 management’s decision to cut draw-man Paul Cantabene, and we all know the result of that.
Not to put too fine an offensive point on things; head coach Chris Hall is one of the best minds in pro lacrosse, keepers Matt Roik and Tyler Richards are both among the top 10 goalies, and they have a young defence keyed by Eric Martin, Jason Bloom, Kyle Sorensen and transition/defence/draw-man Jamison Koesterer. Paul Rabil WILL, by the end of this season, evolve into a transition/offensive stud to rival Mark Steenhuis.
It’s too bad that the Toronto Rock had to visit Rochester so early in the 2010 schedule. They might have stood a better chance of breaking their 14-game regular-season losing string if they’d gone in riding, say, a five or six straight wins. Instead the made it 15 in a row on the short end last week-end, and now they have to go into Buffalo. From longest losing streak to longest-standing rivalry, and I’m liking the Bandits in this one.
There has been some considerable chatter already this season about head coach Troy Cordingley’s pressure defence, and rightly so. Other than O / D platooning, “pressure D” has had the most influence in box lacrosse defence in the ‘modern era’ (however the heck you night define that).
Box lacrosse ‘pressure D’, give or take an X-and-O or two, is geared to steering the ball-carrier to one or another area of the floor, where the double-teaming and off-ball-side help can then be brought to bear. The Bandits have also played, and continue to play, pressure defence, and the coaching staff and several of the players, have played it (or against it) in Canadian and international (WILC) competition.
I asked Buffalo head coach Darris Kilgour how he would go about attacking Toronto’s pressure defence this week-end, and he responded that ball movement, and ‘not going where the defence wants you to go’ were keys. The problem is that, without John Tavares, Buffalo’s ball movement remains suspect, while Toronto, with Colin Doyle, has exhibited superior ball control and distribution at the other end.
The Bandits need a left-handed “O” guy to step up and distribute the ball — Steenhuis, for all of his scoring and ball-control prowess, not to mention being right-handed, is not that guy. As an additional sidebar, this game, according to GM/assistant coach Terry Sanderson, will see the first (re-)appearance of Kim Squire in the Toronto line-up. Squire and Doyle were the most effective practitioners of the two-man box game during the earlier days of the Rock’s run of championships.
Nonetheless, I like Buffalo in this contest: — home floor, plus the first real opportunity to demonstrate that they can run their offence productively without JT, gives them the edge.