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Only three games this past weekend but think there were some telling signs for a few teams in each game over week six.

New York’s O crumbled against San Jose, Minny continued to win the tights ones away from home base and Edmonton and even Portland have still not pieced together a full 60 minutes of lacrosse.

Minnesota Swarm (4-0 overall, 3-0 division)

Like I said yesterday, these guys know how to win this year. No matter the situation, no matter the barn, Minny is pulling out all the stops in 08. It’s tough to isolate certain guys on this team and screw with their on-floor chemistry, cuz they’re dangerous from all over the rug. There are no egos on this team and guys have a belief in absolutely everyone that steps on the floor with ‘em, including the five rookies they’ve worked into games, plus Kevin Croswell manning the door. They’ve been apart of some big games, especially away so far, so it’ll be interesting to see how they get up for a home date against a New York team they’re definitely expected to beat. Not surprised the top four scoring leaders on this team are all within four points of one another. Most other top teams in the L have like a ten point margin between their top guy and fourth top scorer.

San Jose Stealth (2-3, 1-2)

It’s been tough to get a handle on where this year’s Stealth fit into the rest of the league. They really handled New York easily on Thursday night. Their D let absolutely nothing through the middle and their O capitalized on any and every mistake New York slipped up on. And although they looked decent against Minny, they dropped another one against what looks like one of this year’s elite teams. Heading into the year, I really thought the Stealth were one of the top dawgs too. Are they? They’re power play has been all over the place (0-7 vs NY and then 5-7 vs Min). Anthony Cosmo is not playing at the same level as he was last year. They’re not getting consistent output from the new guys, rookies included, that they need in their secondary scoring. Outside of some mental lapses throughout the year, their D however has probably been their strongest suit, although they need to be making better decisions coming out of their own end. Bottom line, when Colin Doyle and Jeff Zywicki post a combined 20 points against, you gotta be winning those games. Unlike a team like the Swarm, San Jose hasn’t really been able to find a way to win when the chips are down. Until then, most are probably considering them a middle of the pack type team.

New York Titans (1-3, 0-2)

Man that was not a good showing on Thursday night. Truthfully, 12-7 was closer than it probably should have been. This team desperately needs a guy that will just plant his a$$ inside on O and create a hella lot of havoc. They need to start pulling D guys away, make room off the ball and be willing to sacrifice in tight, if not, their offense is really, really way too obvious. Their O was very mechanical on Thursday night which made for uber easy coverage for the Stealth. They need another pure defender that will make life a living hell for guys like Jeff Zywicki or Luke Wiles, who lit them up for a combined 6 goals at their home opener. Forget that these guys play a ton of away games. Who cares! Old news. They need some more grit and muscle at either end of the floor. Jaret Park and Jordan Hall should not be droppin’ the gloves. Seriously, sign Tim O’Brien. He’s not gonna bring the grit this team needs from a technical standpoint, but he’ll definitely police the floor better than they’ve been doing so far. Wonder what picking up a guy like Brock Boyle would cost ‘em? Ian Rubel? And although he’s an important piece of the puzzle in Rochester, Scott Ditzell?

Portland Lumberjax (1-3, 1-2)

They may have won, but that was far from a pretty win. Portland came out hard to start against Edmonton and then kinda let up for most of the rest of the game. If they hadn’t gotten to Curtis Palidwor early, it woulda been tough to have seen them beat Edmonton with Matt Disher playing a full 60. Five of their 11 came off of Dan Dawson or Derek Malawsky’s stick and as usual they sniped a couple a man-up. It was nice to see ‘em get a bit of production outta their own end, but they were lucky it was the Rush that were on the other side of the rug, cuz that performance isn’t gonna win ‘em many more games this year. Really surprised Scott Stewart hasn’t had a bigger impact on this team. They’ve got Colorado and Minny both away this weekend. If they play like they did on Saturday night, it’s gonna be a rough weekend for sure.

Edmonton Rush (0-4, 0-2)

Another lackluster performance by the Rush this past weekend. Yeah, I’ll agree that the effort was there past a wash of a first period, but effort is only one part of it. Not sure what else can be done here but at 0-4 and no real positives coming outta most games, a move has to be made to shake things up for sure. They are definitely one of the older aged O’s in the league and lack depth up front too. There’ll be some good western O guys available in this year’s entry draft, but this team needs more than some rooks to clean things up. They’ll have a much needed week off this coming, so hopefully they’ll have a chance to get their heads around what needs to be done when they see Portland again on the 17th. And the scary thing? Either Portland or Edmonton are gonna make the post-season!!

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