NLL Insider

Watching the first and second half of the Calgary Roughnecks and the Colorado Mammoth was like watching two different games. In the first half there was an aggressive and physical Calgary defense that stifled any offensive opportunities Colorado could generate. And in the second half, the Mammoth decided to show up, coming away with a come-from-behind 10-9 win. A lot has yet to be learned about these two teams as the season moves on but a lot was learned at the Pepsi Center tonight as well:

Steve Dietrich is Clutch

Calgary dealt star defender Taylor Wray in the off-season as part of a three-team trade that brought veteran defenseman Kyle Couling and goalie Steve Dietrich to the Roughnecks. Sacrificing a big, physical defender who plays an integral role in the success of your defense wasn’t easy but it will pay off for Calgary in 2008. Many people predicted Dietrich would be a huge positive addition to the Calgary defense, but tonight this proved to be true. Dietrich brings a sense of confidence to a team that has lacked in this area in the past. In his first game in a Roughneck uniform, Dietrich stopped many of the Mammoth gunslingers on point blank opportunities. Gavin Prout was denied right on the doorstep on an even man opportunity early in the game and Josh Sims was stopped on a breakaway in the third quarter. Dietrich was the reason Calgary led by as many as four goals in the first half, posting a .830 save percentage. “He is very pleased with the way he played tonight,” head coach Troy Cordingley said. “He kept us in the game and that is why he is the best goalie in the league.”

The Mammoth need to step up the power play…

The Calgary Roughnecks spent a lot of time in the sin bin but this was not reflected on the scoreboard. The Mammoth went 1-5 on the power play in the first half and 5-17 for the game, including two five minute non-releasable majors. Colorado kept the man-up unit of Gavin Prout up top, Dan Carey and Brian Langtry on the wings and used Jason Wulder and Jamie Shewchuck down low. Ball movement was slow in the first half and the Mammoth couldn’t find the net on the power play until Dan Carey scored almost four minutes into the second quarter. The story was a little different in the second half, as the Mammoth went 4-6 on the man-up. If Colorado can be consistently as good on the power play as they were in the second half, they will cause havoc for penalty-prone teams.

And finish their shots

The Mammoth outshot the Roughnecks 34-18 in the first half… yet they trailed 5-2. They had multiple scoring opportunities in even man situations, power plays and one-on-one breakaways and simply could not finish.

The Roughnecks need to control the amount of penalties

Calgary took 48 minutes worth of penalties. That’s eighty percent of the game that Calgary spent in the box. (Granted some of these overlapped when there were two guys in the box at once.) Spending that much time a man down does not put any team in a situation where they can be successful. However, head coach Troy Cordingley doesn’t seem to think this will remain a problem as the season progresses. “The unsportsmanlike conduct calls are the ones we need to curb, but we will continue to be aggressive in the way we play,” he said.

Student vs. Mentor

Both Bob McMahon and Troy Cordingley coached their first games for their respective teams. Cordingley played for McMahon five years ago in Albany and although the two remain friends, they clashed Saturday night in a battle of fierce rivals. The two coaches have very different styles: Cordingley is more intense and vocal while McMahon is more calm and quiet. “The keywords tonight were poise and condfidence,” McMahon said. “I knew we could come back from a few goals down so I told the players to have poise.”

Time to Gel?

The “new look” in the “new-look Roughnecks” is in the defense. Cordingley implemented a new style of defense that requires athletic, aggressive players and time to gel as a unit… or so he thought. The Roughnecks kept the Colorado offense virtually silent in the first half. They were physical and relentless in front of Dietrich, blocking shots and picking off passes. “Our defense played a lot.” Cordingley said. “We played short most of the second quarter and just ran out of gas at the end.”

Mammoth fans are still crazy

Colorado Mammoth fans turned out in mass Saturday night. An opening night record crowd of 17,811 people opted out of watching the New England Patriots make history to watch the opening of the 2008 National Lacrosse League season. The Pepsi Center indisputably remains one of the best houses in the league. When nearly 18,000 rowdy fans are equipped with cowbells and horns, it creates an incredibly loud and hostile environment for any visiting team to play in.

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