NLL Insider

By now we’ve all seen the final score from Saturday in Denver and are busy poring over the game stories and highlights to glean some more insight into how the Mammoth and the Roughnecks may fare over their next fifteen games.

Opening night of the salvaged season certainly lived up to everyone’s expectations: A frustrating and physical contest that ended with a furious comeback by Colorado to deny their most hated rival a victory on the road.

But, as usual, there’s more to the NLL than just the game.

I had the best seat in the house at the Pepsi Center – just a few feet away from Bob McMahon on the Mammoth bench – and was able to get unfettered access to just about every part of the night, from the pre-game turf installation to the post-game party (check out the photo gallery from opening night here).

After the jump, we’ll take you through the opening day and night of the 2008 NLL Season…

2:30 PM Mountain Standard Time:

After making the two-hour trek from the snowy mountains into Denver, I pull into the media lot at the Pepsi Center – just in time to see the Avalanche concede three late goals in the third period for a 3-1 loss to the L.A. Kings.

Surprisingly, the arena looks only two-thirds full, even in the third period with the beloved Avs battling a Western Conference foe. With the rumors of a near-sellout from Mammoth PR guys, it looks probable that lacrosse will outdraw hockey today.

3:15:

As the Avalanche game nears the end, I head out of the stands and down to the underbelly of Pepsi Center to get a good look at the transformation from ice-to-turf.

Hundreds of rubber squares are loaded on to forklifts and driven out on the ice, followed by a throng of facility workers who proceed to lay down the squares over the hockey surface as a barrier between the ice and the turf.

3:30:

One of the workers, a guy who’s taking hockey netting down from the above the glass, tells me that it should only take about 45 minutes from start to finish to get the surface ready. I’m starting my stopwatch…

4:00:

Well, it’s been 45 minutes and they’re starting to lay the turf, which is rolled up, over the rubber foundation. Maybe the union’s stalling for overtime…

4:15:

Most of the turf and the lines are all set – now they’re just putting in the sponsor logos in each offensive end. They’ve also been trying to fix the seams between the strips of turf by smashing their knees against these metal tools. This looks like it takes more strength than actually playing the game.

5:00:

Now the real fun starts. The players and coaches arrive and head for their respective locker rooms. Calgary heads for the NBA visitors’ locker room on one side of the arena, while the Mammoth dress in the NHL visitors’ room. The Mammoth digs are definitely nicer.

5:15:

Running around the bowels of the arena, I meet up with assistant general manager Bill Hall, who threatens to kick me out if IL Editor-in-Chief Jiloty doesn’t guarantee him the March cover of the mag. I think he’s joking, but I really can’t be sure. I’ll be on my toes the rest of the night.

5:20:

Bob McMahon, the Mammoth’s first-year coach, is in the house. He’s got this laid-back, aging arena rocker look tonight: A loosened tie, navy suit, shock of curly blond hair, and a diamond stud in his left ear. He looks like a mid-40s Rod Stewart (if Rod Stewart were a top lacrosse coach) with the attitude to boot.

Like most of the players and coaches, he’s upbeat about the season for the NLL following the bargaining agreement.

“It’s great for the league to keep its momentum going,” he says. “If we had gone dormant for even one year, it would have been extremely detrimental for the game.”

“These [players] feel fortunate and are happy to have the opportunity to keep playing,” he continues.

I ask him about the future of the league and expansion, given his experience with the NLL, and he puts everything into perspective.

“There will all ways be hiccups, but it can be a viable league,” he says. “Back when I was in Detroit (from ’92-’94), we only had eight teams. Now look at it.”

But he cautions against expanding too fast and searching for the right markets.

If anyone should know about failing markets, it’s McMahon. He’s spent time with four teams (Arizona, Albany, New York Saints, and Detroit) that have all moved or gone under.

“We need to be careful with expansion,” he says. “And when we expand, we have to come out strong.”

Aside from Colorado, he points to Toronto as a great example of marketing success.

“Toronto went after non-lacrosse people, because they knew that the lacrosse fans would come anyways,” he said. “They put an awful lot into radio and TV. I think they were even paying to get it on TV in the beginning.”

And he’s extremely happy to be in Colorado, where he says everything is “first-class.”

Sensing he needs to get ready for the game, I quickly shift discussion to tonight’s matchup with the rival Riggers.

“Calgary has a unique defense – they pressure, double, and trap the ball well,” he says. “We just need to move the ball around well and get everyone involved in the offense.”

“When I was in Arizona, we had Dan Dawson scoring a lot of goals,” he recalls. “Here I want to see more players getting one goal than one player getting a ton of goals.”

With that, he heads to the locker room and starts prepping with the assistants for the game.

6:30:

As the crowd filters in to the lower bowl of the Pepsi Center, I find Dan Carey, the Mammoth’s scoring leader in ’07 with 32 goals, who takes a couple of minutes from warm-ups to chat.

He’s excited about the prospect of opening up at home, where he’s ready to lead to offense in front of the always-boisterous crowd.

“Bob is really smart and has helped tailor our options for offense,” says the 25 year-old. “With Matt Brown and Jason Wulder joining us, our production is just going to be great.”

Jim Moss, a fellow NLL Insider and a Mammoth defenseman, sidles up towards the end of my chat with Carey to give his two cents on the matchup.

“These games are always a fight and we’ve got to find a way to win tonight,” he says, noting that he needs to keep his temper under control if they’re going to come away with a victory.

“We’ve got to respect this team and we can’t get caught up with anger,” he says.

With that, Moss excuses himself to go into the Colorado locker room for the ritual team pre-game meditation, a tradition started by Gary Gait that continues today.

I’m left on the field alone, with the ever-expanding crowd and music blaring.

6:55:

After rushing to the Calgary locker room for some shots of Roughneck goalie Steve “Chugger” Dietrich and company, I head over to the entrance where the Mammoth will be introduced.

Almost a dozen Harleys, bikers, and the Mammoth cheerleaders – the “Wild Bunch” – are waiting in the wings, ready to drive around the field before the game.

7:00:

Steve Govett, the Colorado GM, is preparing for the pre-game festivities and I get a quick chance to chat with him about the new Colorado offense.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen the offense move the ball as well as they have this season, but whether that translates from pre-season, we’ll have to see,” he says.

7:05:

I’m on the field as the pyrotechnics erupt and the ferocity of indoor fireworks shakes the floor below me. The Harleys file out and circle the field. It’s less lacrosse than it is Rollerball. All that’s missing is James Caan…or L.L. Cool J.

7:15:

Finally, it’s game time. I’m on the Mammoth bench and am crammed into the corner of the coach’s standing platform. It’s an amazing view. The noise from the 17,811 fans – the largest opening night crowd in Colorado history – crescendos as the officials oversee the draw at the center circle and we’re underway as Calgary takes possession.

7:20:

A quick penalty to Colorado’s John Gallant and the Riggers start on a powerplay. Calgary forward and NLL Insider contributor Lewis Ratcliff starts the scoring off with a quick shot past Mammoth netminder Gord “Gee” Nash for a 1-0 lead.

7:35:

Calgary is dominating the scoring here in the first quarter and Ratcliff has two tallies. Which is odd, because Colorado has had five EMO (sorry, powerplay) opportunities to Calgary’s two, but hasn’t converted yet.

7:40:

Brian Langtry, the NLL’s Clark Kent – mild-mannered school teacher by day and aggressive laxer at night, puts up the first Mammoth tally with about 3:30 left in the quarter.

7:45:

End of quarter one: Calgary 4 – Colorado 1. The Mammoth bench is kind of deflated, after failing to convert on so many opportunities. Dan Carey and Gavin Prout are talking about the stellar play of Roughneck goalie Dietrich and are trying to figure out how to break him down.

Carey suggests that Prout hold the ball a split second longer before passing it back to him, and he’ll try and move lower towards the net to get a quick-stick opportunity.

7:50:

Second quarter is underway. I’m playing musical seats with the team trainer and assistant coaches Bob Hamley and Russ Heard behind the bench, trying to get some photos while staying out of their way.

7:51:

One thing I hadn’t noticed before –the Mammoth have an emcee in the scorer’s box announcing the entire game and getting the crowd amped up during play. It’s like a Canadian version of AND1 MixTape.

8:00:

After Dan Carey notches his first goal of the season in a shorthanded situation, Calgary’s Kaleb Toth answers on a power play. Calgary is finishing much better than Colorado right now, much of which can be attributed to the stellar netminding of Dietrich.

8:05:

Uh oh. Mammoth forward Brian Langtry gets kneed in a very delicate area and is in a heap right in front of the Colorado bench.

8:06:

Second-year Calgary defenseman Ryan McNish gets nailed for a 10 minute Butt-End Misconduct for the “hit” on Langtry.

There’s some blood boiling between these teams now, but we’re nowhere close to a fight yet.

8:20:

End of quarter two: Calgary 5 – Colorado 2

As the quarter winds down, Langtry is assessed a two and ten Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty for arguing with the referees.

Both teams head for the locker rooms after a chippy first half that included a combined 18 penalties.

8:22:

Players mill around the Mammoth locker room as they try to make adjustments for the second half. Dan Carey and Gavin Prout continue to talk about strategies for scoring on Dietrich, while Jim Moss and Bruce Murray try to fire up the defensive troops.

With halftime coming to a close, forward John Gallant pipes up from the corner of the room, reminding the group that they’re only down a few goals.

Everyone congregates at the middle of the locker room for a quick team speech and then it’s back out for the second half.

8:35:

While both teams take the field for the third quarter, I head up to the press box to catch up with some of the San Jose Stealth management, including general manager Johnny Mouradian.

They’re in Colorado to get a feel for how the Mammoth run the in-game entertainment and see how they can improve their own product at HP Pavilion in San Jose.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we want to start to create our own identity,” says Mouradian, as Dan Carey quickly nets his second goal of the night to cut the deficit to 5-3.

The situation in San Jose could not be more diametrically opposed to Colorado at the moment.

They were uncertain of the status of the team over the summer, and as the CBA deadline loomed, the team was suddenly bought by a group of investors from Silicon Valley, headed by Steve Luzco and Bill and Denise Watkins.

“We went from not knowing about what would happen to having the team purchased,” says Mouradian.

They cut ticket prices and have been aggressively marketing the team to the community, hoping to follow the successful model of Colorado, Toronto, and Philadelphia.

“We want to be family entertainment and we want to rebrand ourselves as that,” he says.

9:00:

The third quarter is almost over as I excuse myself from the discussion with the Stealth.

One quick note about the tenacity of this new ownership group: If more owners get interested in promoting their team like this, we could really see an incredible increase in the game’s popularity over the next few years.

It’s like Bob McMahon said before the game – the league needs to expand aggressively from the start and do it in places conducive to success.

End of quarter three: Calgary 8 – Colorado 5

Teams have been trading goals, but Dietrich got knocked down by a Dan Carey shot and was out cold for a couple of minutes towards the end of the period. Could Colorado be poised for a fourth quarter run?

9:05:

I’m back on the Mammoth bench for the fourth quarter to see if they can stage a comeback.

Gee Nash has been playing better this half and so has the defense, so if they can get their transition game going, the coaches feeling is that there might be an offensive explosion from Colorado.

9:15:

Colorado scores three straight goals, two from Jamie Shewchuk on the powerplay and the equalizer by defenseman Josh Sims, to knot the game at 8-8.

The Mammoth attack starts to come alive, primarily from great ball movement on offense, but the bench seems to anticipate retaliation from the Roughnecks.

9:20:

After Brian Langtry tallies a score 6:48 into the period, Jason Wulder, the former Roughneck, nets his third goal of the game on a powerplay to increase the Colorado lead to two – it’s now 10-8 Mammoth.

9:25:

Calgary’s Curt Malawsky puts the ball past Gee Nash on a powerplay with about 3:15 left, which cuts the Mammoth lead to one.

The Mammoth bench is fired up and the assistant coaches are yelling at their units to maintain possession.

9:26:

Gavin Prout flips an ill-advised behind-the-back pass towards Dan Carey, only to have it intercepted by Calgary.

9:35:

Calgary has a couple final chances to score, but the Mammoth play stout defense and come away with the opening night win, 10-9.

Jim Moss said to me during pre-game warm-ups, “These games are always tight and they somehow find end,” and it looks like he was dead on.

Although the league always sees many close games, it will be especially true this year due to the dispersal draft that has sent starters from Arizona and Boston all across North America.

If this game is any indication, the parity in the league will be great this year.

9:45:

Coach McMahon makes a brief speech to the team following the game, saying that they need to come out with more intensity in the first half in their next game against Edmonton, but praises them for the ability to hang in and get the victory.

I take a seat in the locker room with Brian Langtry after the game, who’s obviously still steaming from the nasty hit earlier, although the victory has helped to mitigate his anger.

“It’s nice playing Calgary, although I think everyone hates me on that team,” he says. “I mean, I got kneed in the [crotch].”

Aside from that uncomfortable incident, he opens up about the patience of the offense during the game.

“Dietrich’s one hell of a goalie and it’s frustrating playing against him because he’s so good at anticipating,” he notes, “but it’s just a matter of time and we are a fourth quarter team.”

Colorado scored five straight goals from the end of the third quarter through the fourth, led by Jamie Shewchuk and Jason Wulder.

Wulder, who is fielding questions outside of the locker room, also tells me that the key to the offense’s success was keeping the ball moving and breaking down Dietrich.

“They play that tough defensive style, but we just had to keep the ball moving and finally we could connect,” he says.

I want to talk with one more member of the team who played a stellar second half after a shaky start in the first – goaltender Gee Nash – so I seek out the Toronto resident, who’s packing his gear up at his locker.

What happened in the first half?

“Chugger (Steve Dietrich) happened,” he says with a chuckle, “but in the second half we really had our 7th man, the crowd, get into it. They’re deafening and it helps us so much”

He then talks about how Bob McMahon’s coaching style helped to contribute to the victory and the team’s lack of panic at the half.

“Bob’s laid-back approach is a confidence booster,” he says. “It’s very much similar to [former player and coach] Gary Gait’s system, which a lot of us know well.”

With that, he goes back to packing up his gear and I find Assistant General Manager Bill Hall, who informs me that although the game may be over, the experience isn’t.

He hands me an invitation to the after party in the restaurant at the Pepsi Center, the Blue Sky Grill, and tells me that I need to attend in order to experience “the whole package of the NLL.”

10:15:

I step inside the restaurant and am immediately surrounded by what seems to be a 1970’s style hunting lodge, but instead of a bunch of guys with orange vests and guts, it’s professional lacrosse players in suits and ties, their families, and their fans.

I’d been wondering all night why so many Denver fans love coming out to games so much, aside from the pricing, the action, and the entertainment, and here in the restaurant I find my answer: Access.

In what other professional sports leagues can you go have a beer or two with the players you’ve just seen giving it their all on the field?

The NFL? Definitely not. NBA? Only if you’ve got dough. NHL? Is that even still around? The PBA? I don’t know, but maybe my Cleveland-bred colleague Terry Foy can answer that one for me.

In the corner of a part of the restaurant I spot Jim Moss, decked out in a suit and tie, surrounded by friends and some adoring fans.

Across the room, former Arizona head coach and GM Bob Hamley is having a laugh with a group of people – it’s just another day at the office for them.

I’ve had a long day at the office, too, but before I leave I head to the bar, grab a beverage, sit down, and admire the one thing that’s kept all these people (fans, players, employees) at a stadium restaurant in the outskirts of downtown Denver on a Saturday night: Lacrosse.

-JB

For more All Access, check out the photo gallery from opening night here…

Rate This Story:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...