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Pre-season game report: Colorado 12 @ Toronto 13

Sorry Mammoth fans, I've now seen your team twice this weekend, while you won't get to see them until the 28th. The Mammoth played their second pre-season game in as many nights at the TRAC, a 13-12 loss to the Toronto Rock. Similar to Friday night's game against the Swarm, the Mammoth dressed a whole bunch of players, some of whom only played one half. The Rock did the same, though despite the Rock tweeting before the game that goalies Nick Rose and Zak Boychuk would play a half each, Boychuk played the whole game. After falling behind 4-1 in the first, the Rock stormed back with a bunch of transition goals to pull ahead, and then it was a tight game after that. In the end, the Rock prevailed 13-12.

If you were looking for hot rookie-on-rookie action, this was the weekend for it as most of the Rock veterans and a couple of Colorado's were on the sidelines (or not in the building at all). For the Mammoth, Gavin Prout and Casey Powell were both MIA, as they were Friday night. John Grant played the first half only. For the Rock, all kinds of regulars were out, including Colin Doyle, Josh Sanderson, Kasey Beirnes, Sandy Chapman, Chris White, Scott Evans, Bill Greer, and Stephen Hoar. The Rock were looking at the kids and borderline players, checking out who might be included on the newly-reduced-in-size roster, who would end up on the practice roster, and who would be looking for a new team. For example, there was this Billings guy, could he finally get over the hump and realize the potential he's shown for the past few years? You heard it here first: I think he'll make it.

Credit where credit is due. I've ripped on Scott Johnston in this blog (and on twitter) a few times over the last couple of years for boneheaded plays he's made. But I thought he played a hell of a game on Saturday. Not only did he score two goals, but he played strong defensively as well. Last year, I thought he looked too much like one of those fighters who happens to own a lacrosse stick, but if he can change his game the way Billy Dee Smith and Rory Smith both have (not that I'd put Johnston in the same category as those guys quite yet), I'd be happy to have him on my team.

Even though I said before that you can't really do much team analysis in these pre-season games, you could certainly say that the Rock played a great transition game. At least 5 of their goals were directly on transition, and three of those occurred within about a minute and a half in the second quarter. As I mentioned, Zak Boychuk played the entire game, and did a great job. He made the majority of the saves he was expected to make, forcing the Mammoth to work hard for their goals, and made a few spectacular saves as well. He even managed to prevent a goal from behind the net, something Nick Rose hasn't quite figured out how to do. That said, Drew Westervelt scored Colorado's first goal of the game on a behind-the-net Air Gait-style shot. But when you have arms that are eight feet long, you can score goals from places most players cannot.

Once again, I have to apologize to the Mammoth fans. I was paying more attention to the Rock in this game and less to the Mammoth, so I can't really tell you how the Mammoth players did. I couldn't even pick who the best Mammoth player was. John Grant is usually a good choice, and he did have a goal and a few assists, but he only played half the game. I don't remember a particular name jumping out at me like "Man, that guy's everywhere tonight!" like Johnston did for the Rock. I'm going to semi-randomly pick someone as my Colorado player of the game: Cameron Mann, only because Mann is the perfect name for a Canadian box lacrosse player.

Game notes:

• As I said in my game report, Friday night's game had no music, no PA, no national anthems, no cheerleaders, and no replay. Saturday night's game had all of these except the replay – the only one of that list that I really wanted (though the PA announcing of goals and penalties was a welcome addition). Maybe when MLSE decides to buy a new Jumbotron for the ACC (to rival the amazing new scoreboard in Denver), Jamie Dawick can grab the old one and put it up in the TRAC.
• In the 4th quarter, Tye Belanger made an outstanding save while falling. The rebound went right to Stephen Leblanc, who deposited it over Belanger into the wide open net. I almost felt bad that Belanger got scored on immediately after (and as a result of) making such a great save. Almost.
• It looked to me like Jesse Gamble might somehow have gotten faster during the off-season. I'm pretty sure that due to relativity, he actually aged less during the game than the other players. That's science. Look it up.
• Not trying to get anyone in trouble here, but Mammoth defender Ben McCullogh was wearing Nike shoes and Reebok pads.
• At one point, someone got a penalty which was announced as "unnecessary roughness". They moved the ball 15 yards, but nobody could figure out what do to about the first down. 
• You know what that game needed? Less cowbell. Much, much less.
• First person in the handshake lineup for the Rock? Nick Rose, who didn't play.

Preseason game report: Minnesota 14 @ Colorado 10

Lacrosse season is back! The 2014 NLL pre-season began on Friday night, with the first inter-team scrimmage. The Minnesota Swarm took on the Colorado Mammoth at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, Ontario. Being the lucky bastard fellow I am, I live about 30 km from the TRAC, so I attended this game with my son and several hundred other lacrosse fans. For an exhibition game in the Toronto area with no Toronto team involved, there was a pretty good turnout; the facility holds about 800 people in the stands, and it was mostly full. Of course, I imagine if they announced "everyone who is a relative or close personal friend of one of the players, please leave", the place would empty out pretty quickly.

While this was an exhibition game and the final result really didn't mean anything, most of the players knew they were being evaluated and so they were playing pretty hard. There were hits and penalties but no fights. It did look like a preseason game in some respects, in that we saw more dropped passes, passes made to nobody, passes missed because the receiver wasn't expecting them, things like that. I even saw John Grant attempt an over-the-shoulder shot from in close and miss the net. (That was during the pre-game warmup; Grant did not play in the game.)

I don't have a problem with music at lacrosse games, in fact I've been a supporter of it through the years. But the more games I see without it, the more I think I prefer the game without the music. As with all games at the TRAC, this was even more bare-bones than that – no music, no PA announcements of goals or penalties, no national anthems, no cheerleaders, no instant replay. Just pure lacrosse. It was great.

The Swarm decided to go with the 18-man lineup, as they will have to in the regular season, while the Mammoth seemingly had bucketloads of people dressed, some of whom only played one half or the other. Both teams swapped goalies – Tyler Carlson and Tye Belanger started and played the first half, and Zach Higgins and Dan Lewis played the second half. A few players on the Mammoth were notably absent: as I said Grant did not play though he was there, while neither Casey Powell nor Gavin Prout were anywhere to be seen. I was specifically looking for Prout, after the rumours of his release by the club. I also don't remember seeing Jarrett Park or Mat MacLeod, though it's possible I simply missed them. But just about everyone else on the Mammoth roster (listed here) played.

For the Swarm, it was harder to tell. Not only did they not have names on their (ugly gold practice) jerseys, but at least some of them were wearing the wrong number. I specifically tweeted the Swarm asking about a big impressive-looking guy wearing #19, who I figured was probably a rookie since nobody on the Swarm wore #19 last year. I thought this kid was looking pretty comfortable – was it maybe Logan Schuss? But he's not that big, is he? Turns out it was Kiel Matisz, just wearing a different number. (Matisz is 6'5", Schuss is 6'0".) I didn't see #98 or #20 out there – did Callum Crawford and Andrew Suitor actually play? I have no idea. Obviously since the Swarm only dressed 18, there were a few people left out, and it's not like Crawford or Suitor will have trouble making the team. I imagine they'll be playing tonight in their game against Rochester while others sit out.

It's hard to talk about how the teams looked as a whole since it was pre-season. Were the Swarm the better team? How did the Mammoth defense look? Who's going to take over for Ryan Benesch on the Swarm's left side? Each team was trying out different players and different line pairings and different offensive and defensive strategies, so such an analysis would be meaningless. Both teams were missing some top players (I think that's true for the Swarm, anyway), so a crippled Swarm team defeated a crippled Mammoth team.

Some other game notes:

• Mammoth forward (and former Bandit) Carter Bender was wearing a black helmet with orange on it. I imagine they'll get him a new one if he makes the team.
• Bob Snider had a few of the signature Snider face-off wins (simply grab the ball with the back of your stick as if the other guy isn't there), but Jordan MacIntosh certainly gave him some trouble on most of them.
• Drew Westervelt looked pretty good for the Mammoth, though he only played the first half. It was amusing to see the 6'5" Westervelt next to the 5'8" Cody McMahon.
• Joey Cupido looked pretty quick on transition – he had at least one breakaway chance, and a couple of other times sped up the floor, leaving the Swarm people covering him in the dust.
• Dan Lewis looks too skinny to play pro lacrosse, let alone be a goalie. But he was pretty effective last night, looking to make the team ahead of draft pick Dillon Ward.
• All four goalies played very well. Each one of them made some pretty impressive saves, though it was hard to tell if they were close to mid-season form or if the shooters were just not.
• When there's no music and the ball hits the goalie in the chest, you can really hear how hard it hits. Props.

Gavin Prout - the Knighthawk?

Gavin Prout spent two seasons in New York and then six in Colorado, the last five as captain of the Mammoth, averaging 84 points per season. So it was a bit of a shock in Colorado, and throughout the NLL world, when he was traded in 2009 to the Edmonton Rush. He played with the Rush for the 2010 season and about half of 2011 before being traded back to the Mammoth. But something that many people, myself included until recently, don't remember about Prout being traded from the Mammoth to the Rush was that it never happened.

Prout, along with Andrew Potter, was traded from the Mammoth to the Rochester Knighthawks in 2009 for Ilija Gajic (some draft picks were involved as well). Potter had been sent to the Mammoth from the Knighthawks the previous year in the deal that brought Gary Gait out of retirement. Interesting that a guy that played all of five games in his NLL career was involved in two such significant trades. Anyway, two weeks later, the Knighthawks sent Prout and Dean Hill to the Rush for a first round draft pick. But the fact that Prout was a Knighthawk for a couple of off-season weeks is usually forgotten.

A number of other players also spend time on teams for which they never played. Here are just a few:

After the Boston Blazers folded, Anthony Cosmo and Josh Sanderson were both selected in the dispersal draft by the Minnesota Swarm. Before the first round of the draft had even ended, Sanderson had been traded to the Rock, while Cosmo sat out half of the next season before being traded to the Bandits.

Shawn Williams is another player who, like Sanderson, can measure the amount of time he spent on the Minnesota roster with a stopwatch. In July 2012, Williams was traded from the Rush to the Swarm for two second-round draft picks. The same day, he was sent off with Brendan Doran as well as the #5 overall pick in the 2012 draft and two other 2012 draft picks to Buffalo for the #3 overall pick. That seems to me like an expensive way to move up two positions – and in fact, it really only moved the Swarm up one position since they went from having picks #2, 4, and 5 to having picks #2, 3, and 4.

Paul Rabil might be the only player to have joined two separate organizations consecutively and never play for either of them. But this story begins six months before Rabil got involved. In the summer of 2011, the Wings traded Athan Iannucci, Alex Turner, Brodie MacDonald, and three first round draft picks to the Rush for Brodie Merrill, Dean Hill, Mike McLellan, and a couple of later draft picks. Nooch never signed with the Rush, and a month into the 2012 season, he was traded to the Stealth for Paul Rabil. Rabil also refused to sign with the Rush and sat out the rest of the 2012 season.

Almost a year after the original Iannucci trade, the Rush sent Rabil to the Knighthawks for Jarrett Davis, but Rabil never reported to Rochester either. Only a couple of weeks before the 2013 season began, he was sent to Philadelphia along with Jordan Hall, Joel White, and Robbie Campbell in exchange for Dan Dawson, Paul Dawson, and a first round draft pick. Rabil is now happy in Philadelphia, and I'm pretty sure the Knighthawks were OK with what they got out of the deal.

But not every player was traded to a team they never played for. Here are some players who were drafted by teams they never played for:

• Ilija Gajic, Rochester, 2009
• Joel Dalgarno, Toronto, 2009
• Craig Point, Boston, 2007
• Ryan Benesch, San Jose, 2006
• Blaine Manning, Calgary, 2001
• Geoff Snider, Vancouver, 2001 (he opted to return to university and was drafted again by the Wings in 2006)
• Tom Marechek, Buffalo, 1992
• John Tavares, Detroit, 1991 (and not until the third round!)

I'm sure there are plenty of others. Leave a comment if I missed any!

Let the trash-talking begin

I love me some trash talk. But it's even better when it's this early in the pre-season since I'm getting pumped about the upcoming season, so it's good to see the players are too. Usually when you see trash talk, it's game-related, but since the players are all friends off the floor, it doesn't have to be. We even see some between teammates.

Here's one twitter exchange between Buffalo Bandits David Brock and Kurtis Wagar:

And another that began with Shawn Evans wishing his former Knighthawks teammate John Grant a happy birthday. Grant's response was funny, but Curtis Dickson's was even better:

The secret clauses of the new CBA

As we all know by now, the NLL and PLPA have reached an agreement on a new CBA. A number of parts of the agreement have been released by the league, but not all.

The document itself is not available to the public (I asked), but I managed to get my hands on a copy. Here are some of the parts of the document that were not included in the NLL's press release.

• Rosters are cut from 23 to 20 players. Teams will dress 18 players instead of 20 per game. In addition, pizzas ordered for the team will contain no more than three toppings, or two toppings plus extra cheese. The equipment manager will go and pick up the pizzas to avoid delivery charges.
• The requirement for each team to have at least five players from their home state or province has been dropped, at the request of the Minnesota Swarm and Colorado Mammoth.
• League expansion will be considered, but prospective owners are warned that the league will not consider expanding to a city that has more than six or seven previous failed NLL teams.
• Conference finals and Champions Cup finals will be decided by a two-game series with a 10-minute "mini-game" if the games are split. Wait, that's not a joke, that's actually in there.
• Ontario-based players who want to finish their career with the Toronto Rock must fill out a form available from the Commissioner explaining in 500 words or less why they would be a good fit for the Rock. They must then apply in person at the TRAC where they will meet with both Jamie Dawick and Terry Sanderson for interviews. Wristband policy is in effect.
• GMs who make trades that include nothing but draft picks where all of the picks are third round or later will be assessed a two-minute Waste of Freaking Time penalty.
• Players over 30 (down from 32) with enough NLL experience can opt for free-agency. Except if a team designates them a Franchise Player, in which case they can't. Except if they are over 34 and reject the Franchise Player designation, in which case they can. Except if the team designates them a Special Franchise Player, in which case they can't. The next CBA will contain the ability for the player to reject the Special Franchise Player designation.
• The regular season is extended by two games, and the playoffs will consist of as many as five games for the Championship winner, up from three. This should have the desired effect of extending the NLL season a little further into the MLL season. [This entry has a handwritten note next to it which says "make sure that last sentence is removed before this document is released to anyone"]

The top 10 one-team NLL players

Last week, Down Goes Brown did a post (actually on Grantland.com) called The 10 Greatest One-Team NHL Players. Since DGB is unlikely to cover lacrosse anytime soon, I decided to do it myself. Given that there are fewer teams in the NLL, the history is much shorter, and there has been far more team movement than the NHL, there really aren't all that many such players. If we restrict ourselves to players with more than 50 games in their NLL careers, all with a single team, we find that there are only 54 of them. But there are still some pretty good names on this list.

Incidentally, DGB is one of the funniest sports blogs anywhere. If you're a hockey fan, I strongly recommend it.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 players who spent their entire NLL careers with one team. The number of games listed includes playoff games. I'm restricting the number of games played to 100 or more, since it's not quite fair to put people like Cody Jamieson (54 games) or Garrett Billings (72 games) on this list so early in their careers.

10. Jeremy Hollenbeck, Rochester Knighthawks (127 games)

Hollenbeck played ten seasons with the Knighthawks, winning a Championship in 1997. In 2011, he was inducted into the Rochester Knighthawks Hall of Fame.

9. Dan Ladouceur, Toronto Rock (150 games)

In the early 2000's, Laddy was one of the anchors of the best defense in the NLL, along with guys like Jim Veltman, Glenn Clark, Terry Bullen, and Pat Coyle. He even scored a goal or two here and there (I distinctly remember a breakaway where he ran up the floor frantically looking around for someone to pass to, then buried it himself), including one in the 2002 Championship game. At about 6'6" he was an imposing figure and a good fighter too (see above, having a chat with Shawn Evans), though I did once see him dropped with one punch. In a 2002 fight in Toronto, Matt Green hit him with a shot to the jaw that knocked him unconscious.

I have heard rumours that the Rock were not allowed to trade Ladouceur because of his job as a Durham Regional police officer (I believe he's on the SWAT team), but I confirmed with Laddy himself that it's not true. He said they could have traded him at any time but they were a classy organization and worked with him.

8. Peter Jacobs, Philadelphia Wings (158 games)

As good a face-off guy as Geoff Snider is, he's only matched Peter Jacobs' high of 318 face-off wins in a season once. (The all-time record is 319 by Bob Snider in 2012.) Jacobs is also the only person not named Snider to ever have a face-off percentage above 70% for a season. Jacobs played 12 seasons for the Wings, winning just shy of 60% of almost 3,000 face-offs. He didn't finish a single one of those seasons with a percentage below 50%.

7. Jake Bergey, Philadelphia Wings (142 games)

Bergey played ten seasons in Philly and won two Championships. He scored 50+ points six times, including 86 in 14 games in 2001. He's currently second all-time in Wings goals, assists, and points.

In the 2007 expansion draft, he was chosen by the Boston Blazers, but was traded back to Philly before the season started. Then the Blazers sat out the 2008 season so there was another expansion draft. Bergey was chosen by Boston again, and again was traded back to the Wings. He has to be one of the few players who played for a single team his entire career and yet was traded twice.

6. Andrew McBride, Calgary Roughnecks (185 games)

McBride has played 11 seasons in Calgary, and has been the captain since Tracey Kelusky was traded after the 2010 season. He's a defender, transition player, a fighter, an outstanding team leader, and you'll never hear a more well-spoken guy during an interview. And when is Movember time of year, he is look like Borat.

5. Rich Kilgour, Buffalo Bandits (225 games)

Darris' big brother was captain of the Bandits for 12 years, won four championships, had his number retired by the Bandits and is in the NLL Hall of Fame. Only one player personifies the Bandits better than Richie Kilgour and, well, we'll get to him later.

4. Regy Thorpe, Rochester Knighthawks (217 games)

Regy Thorpe was a big tough defender who played an amazing fifteen seasons with the Knighthawks, beginning in 1995, the team's first season in the league. He won two Championships and was captain of the 2007 Championship team. But most interestingly, he was the first player-GM in NLL history when he took the reins of the team and played in the 2009 season. His tenure as a GM only lasted one season before owner Curt Styres took over, but much to the chagrin of NLL scorers, Thorpe played one more season before retiring in 2010.

3. Blaine Manning, Toronto Rock (199 games)

Blaine Manning had a pretty successful start to his NLL career, winning championships in 3 of his first 4 seasons (2002, 2003, 2005) with the Toronto Rock. It kind of went downhill after that for a couple of years, but after The Rock GM Who Must Not Be Named was fired and Terry Sanderson was brought back, Manning was a big part of the rebuilding process that resulted in the 2011 NLL Championship. Long before Dan Dawson arrived in Boston, Manning was one of the original Big Three along with Colin Doyle and Josh Sanderson in Toronto. They peaked in 2005 when Doyle finished first overall in scoring, Manning tied with John Grant for second, and Sanderson tied with John Tavares for third – and all five of them finished with over 100 points.

I went on and on about Manning in an article right after he retired, so I won't rehash all his stats here. Suffice it to say that Manning should be a lock for the NLL Hall of Fame once he is eligible.

2. Tom Marechek, Philadelphia Wings (161 games)

Tom "Hollywood" Marechek won four championships in 12 NLL seasons and was inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2007. Marechek is the all-time Wings leader in both goals and assists, and is 8th all-time in the league in goals. But of the top goal-scorers in league history, only one player in the top 10 (and two in the top 25) have played fewer games than Marechek. The only players who averaged more goals per game than Marechek are Gary Gait, Paul Gait, John Grant, and John Tavares. Not bad company.

Hard to believe he's only the third-best lacrosse player from Victoria, BC.

1. John Tavares, Buffalo Bandits (313 games)

No-brainer. Tavares is one of the best players ever to play in the NLL (many argue he is the best), and after 22 seasons with the Buffalo Bandits, there's no argument who's at the top of this list. Or most lists, for that matter.

Tavares owns pretty much every offensive NLL record, most of them by a mile. As of the end of the 2013 season, he has 778 career goals, ahead of second-place Gary Gait by 130 and ahead of third-place (and the closest still active player) John Grant by over 200. He has 887 assists, 108 more than Colin Doyle. He has 1665 points; if he retired today, second place Doyle couldn't catch him even with four more 100 point seasons. He's scored an amazing 5.95 points per game over his career, second only to John Grant's 6.37. (Technically he's also behind a guy named Gary Edmands with a career average of 6 – he scored 6 points in his only NLL game with the Bandits in 1996.)

Since Tavares is still active, the amazing numbers will just continue to climb.

Honourable mentions

• Billy Dee Smith, Buffalo Bandits, 149 games
• Pat McCabe, New York Saints, 119 games
• Mike Carnegie, Calgary Roughnecks, 105 games
• Kyle Sorensen, San Jose / Washington Stealth, 105 games (I know, two different teams but they're the same franchise so it counts.)

Just under the radar

These guys didn't quite make the 100 game limit, but I wanted to acknowledge them anyway.

• Devan Wray, Calgary Roughnecks, 99 games
• Jeff Zywicki, San Jose / Washington Stealth, 99 games
• Sal LoCascio, New York Saints, 95 games