NLL Insider

Week 10 of the season recognizes the NLL’s Hall of Fame Class of 2008. The week also features five games, one on Friday and four Saturday night.

Schedule (All times Eastern)

Friday, February 29
New York at Philadelphia - 8:00 PM

Saturday, March 1
Calgary at Toronto - 7:00 PM
Philadelphia at Buffalo - 7:30 PM
Rochester at Chicago - 8:00 PM
Edmonton at Portland - 10:30 PM

Game previews after the jump.

Hall of Fame Inductees

The league is calling Friday’s night match the NLL Hall of Fame Game. As Bob Chavez already noted earlier this week and as Ty Pilson wrote today, Thursday evening in Philadelphia, Johnny Mouradian, Sal LoCascio and Tony Resch will be inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame. Neil Stevens will also be recognized by the Hall of Fame for his contributions to the game as a member of the media.

Congratulations to Mouradian, LoCascio, Resch and Stevens for helping to pave the way for this great sport. The Class of 2008 will also be honored at the halftime of Friday night’s game in Philadelphia.

New York at Philadelphia - Friday, Feb. 29

New York (4-4) comes into this game with three straight wins over Buffalo, Chicago and most recently Rochester. The Titans defeated the defending champs on the road last Saturday, 14-11.

“I thought last weekend was probably the best game we’ve played on both ends of the floor in our year and a half existence,” stated New York head coach Adam Mueller. “I want to see the same type of effort and hopefully that’s good enough on Friday.”

Matt Vinc had 52 saves in the Titans’ last game, and he’ll need to have another great performance this week.

The Philadelphia Wings (5-0) have been averaging over 87 shots per game. Philadelphia’s also averaged a league-best 16.2 goals per game.

“They’re pretty scary,” said Mueller, of Philly. “They’re awfully talented and they’re scoring in bunches. They’re flying high and they’re confident… Our guys need to come in and play confident and composed, and put their best game together.”

Down by one heading into the fourth-quarter last weekend, the Wings put together an 11-1 final frame to run away with a 17-8 victory over Minnesota. The Wings are led offensively by Athan Iannucci, Jake Bergey and Merrick Thomson, who will be back this weekend. Rob Blasdell has been steady in net.

New York’s led offensively by Casey Powell, Pat Maddelena, Mike McLellan and Jordan Hall. They have a league-best 36 powerplay goals. And in their last three games, the Titans have held opposing teams to an average of under 10 goals per game.

Can the Titans pull off another victory and win their fourth straight?

Calgary at Toronto - Saturday, Mar. 1

This cross-divisional rivalry can be seen on Sportsnet Ontario. Toronto (4-3) is coming into the game off of two straight bye weeks. They last played Feb. 15, when they defeated Buffalo, 11-8.

“We’re relatively happy with where we’re at,” said Toronto head coach Glenn Clark. “We’ve drawn some positives out of the first half. There certainly are some areas where we need to strengthen, but we’re in the mix in the East.”

Calgary (3-5) has been pleased with their play, too, at times. They’re now looking to string together some wins. The Roughnecks only have one road victory this season, and split their games last weekend, losing to Portland on the road, 13-9, before defeating Colorado at home, 12-9.

The Roughnecks’ did not dress regular starters Kaleb Toth and Devan Wray in their win over Colorado.

“Troy (Cordingley, Calgary’s head coach) stated right from the get-go you need to produce to hold on to your job,” said Roughnecks’ assistant coach Terry Sanderson, of the decision to sit Toth and Wray. However, rumor is Toth was actually injured. He’s expected back this weekend.

Tracy Kelusky and Steve Dietrich continue to be bothered by post-concussion problems. Kurt Silcott said both are likely out again this weekend, but don’t be suprised if Kelusky actually makes an appearance after already missing seven games this season. Pat Campbell will likely start if Dietrich misses action again.

Jim Veltman will be a game-time decision for Toronto as he too has missed games due to injury. Blaine Manning, Josh Sanderson, and all-star goaltender Bob Watson lead the Toronto Rock into action.

Calgary’s led offensively by Lewis Ratcliff and Scott Ranger. The Roughnecks’ are averaging 11.5 goals per game, while Toronto’s averaged 10.6.

“With the corner we’ve painted ourselves into, they’re all important,” added Sanderson, when asked to comment on the importance of Saturday’s game.

In the standings, both Calgary and Toronto currently sit in third-place within their respective Divisions.

The Roughnecks are in a tie for third-place in the West with Portland. Toronto is tied with Buffalo in the East, just a half-game up on New York and one game ahead of Rochester.

Philadelphia at Buffalo - Saturday, Mar. 1

Week 10 is the first week the Wings actually have to play twice in the same weekend. Philadelphia (5-0) will take on New York Friday night, then travel to Buffalo (5-4) Saturday.

The Bandits’ are coming off of a 13-8 win against Chicago, where third-string rookie goaltender Daniel Sams made 60 saves in his first NLL start. Sams may get the call again this weekend.

“He went out very calm and collected,” said Buffalo assistant coach Jeff Dowling, of Sams. “He was so calm in there, and didn’t let much get by him.”

“We don’t know,” said Dowling, of whether either of their regular goaltenders, starter Mike Thompson or back-up Ken Montour, will be able to play this weekend as they both continue to deal with concussion issues. “If not, then Dan will be the guy.”

Kevin Dostie is another game-time decision, and player close to getting back into the line-up for Buffalo. Dostie had four goals the last time these two teams met on Jan. 26, so his addition would be big. But Buffalo’s played through injuries all season and have handled the adversity well. They are led by all-stars John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis.

The Wings pulled out a 15-14 overtime victory the last time these two teams played. Buffalo scored five unanswered goals before Philadelphia’s Jamie Rooney tallied with two minutes to play to knot the score at 14-14. Philly’s Jake Bergey then won the game in OT for the home team.

“In a game with 30-second shot-clocks, they’re probably four or five face-offs that I guess really matter in a game,” said Wings’ head coach Dave Huntley. “Certainly, it helped us last time we played them because we won the face-off in overtime and converted that into a goal.”

“Every week is a different challenge,” added Huntley. “We have to get ready to play Friday. So, it’s kind of a short turnaround to then travel to Buffalo and play a team that we were very fortunate to kind of come back, tie and ultimately beat in overtime.”

“Playing them in their own building is always tough, but a fun place to play,” added Huntley.

Rochester at Chicago - Saturday, Mar. 1

The defending champion Rochester Knighthawks (3-4) are currently in sixth-place in the Eastern Division.

“It’s a tight league and every game is an unknown,” said Rochester head coach Ed Comeau. “We know that, and we’ve got to get going.”

Rochester’s normally high-powered offense led by John Grant Jr., Scott Evans, Shawn Williams and Shawn Evans has still been decent, averaging nearly 13 goals per game. But they can not seem to put together a complete game where their offense, defense and transition is all clicking at the same time. Pat O’Toole has looked good, but inconsistent.

“Being on the road sometimes, you can just focus on getting ready for the game,” added Comeau. “I’m hoping that will be the situation for us.”

“A couple of teams (in Philadelphia and Minnesota) have kind of pulled away, but everyone else is right there in the middle of the pack. If you’re going to make a move, this is the time.”

Chicago GM and head coach Jamie Batley added he’s still hopeful they can turn it around in Chicago (1-5).

“We have ten games left, and other teams in the division have four losses so there is still an opportunity for us to make playoffs,” said Batley.

Chicago’s offense has not been good, however. They’ve scored a league-low 65 goals and need more production from Mat Giles, Callum Crawford, Chris Panos and Lindsay Plunkett who have under-performed to date.

As a team, Chicago’s also looked bad early in games. They went down 9-1 at the half to New York, and then were behind 8-2 after one quarter in their last game versus Buffalo.

“It really comes down to mental errors,” said Batley. “We’ll have a different warm-up in place and by doing that we hope our players will be more focused for the start of the game.”

Chicago goaltender Brandon Miller allowed seven early goals on 12 shots last game.

Edmonton at Portland - Saturday, Mar. 1

Edmonton (0-6) is another team hoping to turn it around in time to make playoffs. After taking a 7-6 lead into the fourth-quarter of their game last weekend against San Jose, the Rush lost, 11-8.

Portland (3-5) is coming off a 13-9 win over Calgary. They’re led offensively by Dan Dawson, Derek Malawsky and Ryan Powell. Goaltender Matt King has been starting over Dallas Eliuk.

“We seem to be getting closer to putting all facets of our game together,” said Portland GM and head coach Derek Keenan. “Certainly, last weekend I thought we played extremely well against Calgary, but we still have a long way to go.”

“We need to focus on the task at hand this week and that’s playing what’s probably going to be a real hungry Edmonton team.”

These two teams have already met twice this season. Portland won the first game by one, 11-10 and then by six, 14-8 on Feb. 17. That game ultimately led to the dismissal of Edmonton’s Paul Day. Bob Hamley was hired less then a week later, and coached his first game behind the Rush bench last weekend.

When asked what needs to improve, Hamley noted he wanted steady goaltending and leadership from Matt Disher and Curtis Palidwor. He then pointed to the offense led by Mike Accursi, Jimmy Quinlan and AJ Shannon.

“Offensively we have to be much, much better and those guys know it,” said Hamley. “We’ve got to get our noses to the grindstone and try to get better every day.”

Hamley added he and his family look to make the move to Edmonton and he’s happy to have the opportunity to work with the franchise.

“I know Paul Day put a lot of work and energy into the organization. I think it’s a great lacrosse market and great organization, and I hope to be a part of changing it around on the floor.”

“I don’t think we’re as talented as other teams in the league,” added Hamley, about the overall picture in Edmonton. “We’ve got to acquire some talent and youth… We’re going to have to work at it. We don’t have any first-round picks in the next two years. It’s going to be tough.”

“I’m going to try to do what (Edmonton Rush owners) Duane (Vienneau) and Bruce (Urban) want me to do, and that’s to win games,” concluded Hamley.

Vienneau stated earlier that Edmonton made the change at the head coach and GM position to try and make a push for the playoffs this season. If that’s still their goal, then Saturday’s game has obvious significance. The Rush are at the bottom of the standings, two games behind Portland and Calgary in the Western Division playoff race.

A win would put Edmonton back in the hunt. Can they pull it together and pick up their first win Saturday?

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