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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.