NLL Insider

You may have noticed that I am not your regular game previewer, Mr. Steve Kojima was too swamped for the league conference call this week and unlucky for you I’ve got a phone and for the most part I know how to use it. (Except how do you type a zero in a text message? Do you just use a capital o?) Anyway, week 13 of the National Lacrosse League schedule features six games, including a game in Portland on Thursday and one in Toronto on Friday.

Schedule (all times EST)

Thursday, March 20
Colorado at Portland - 10:30 pm

Friday, March 21
Edmonton at Toronto - 7:30 pm

Saturday, March 22
Calgary at San Jose - 3:00 pm
Toronto at Buffalo - 7:30 pm
Philadelphia at New York (Trenton) - 7:30 pm
Chicago at Rochester - 7:35 pm

Coaches’ comments for the Thursday and Friday games after the jump.

Colorado at Portland - Thursday, 7:30 pm

We’ve got an important match-up in the west to start the week off, with the fourth-place Portland Lumberjax (3-7) struggling to stay ahead of the surging Edmonton Rush in the playoff race while hosting the first-place Colorado Mammoth (6-3). These teams have met up twice before with the Mammoth coming away with both wins including a 12-11 OT squeaker.

“We’ve had two very difficult games with them, I think that we stole the game in Portland,” said Mammoth head coach Bob McMahon. “I think Derek [Keenan] would agree that they were probably the better team that night. We got a good run in the fourth quarter and won in overtime. Even the game in Colorado was a close game right through.”

For Keenan, the seriousness of the playoff situation looms large but he’s not about to let the team’s focus land anywhere but the task at hand. “”All five teams are in [the playoff race], which is exciting, but again we just need to take care of our business. We can’t worry about what goes on in other games and with other teams, I’ve made that clear to our guys.”

Last weekend’s 11-6 win over the Calgary Roughnecks was a welcome relief to McMahon and the Mammoth, as prior to that game Colorado had been on a three game losing skid, including games against San Jose and Calgary in which they scored just 8 and 9 goals, respectively.

“I think the team was pretty anxious to stop the losing streak,” said McMahon. “We’d gone into Calgary I guess two or three weeks previous and basically had it handed to us, so they had to answer the bell against Calgary and I thought we played very well so we were pretty happy with our performance from last weekend.”

Portland will be looking to snap a losing streak of their own tonight, having dropped their last two games to Calgary and Edmonton and while the team welcomed their break last weekend, they’re anxious to get back into action.

“It was good to get a break, our schedule’s been pretty full since January,” said Keenan. “It’s a real dog-fight in the west division. We really feel that we’re not a 3-7 team. However, we are, and we need to fix that and it’s got to start tomorrow.”

“We don’t take anything for granted with them, they’re a very good lacrosse team,” McMahon said. “Dan Dawson, [Scott] Stewart, guys like that, they can score. They can score a ton of goals so we know we have to play well.”

McMahon indicated that while Jamie Shewchuk will be in the line-up this weekend, Matt Brown will be out due to obligations with the University of Denver.

Edmonton at Toronto - Friday, 7:30 pm

The lone Friday night game will be at the Air Canada Centre where the number four team in the east, the Toronto Rock (5-4) will take on the number five team in the west, the Edmonton Rush (2-6). The Rush are coming in on a two game win-streak that includes an upset win over the Rochester Knighthawks from last weekend, while the Rock are looking to rebound after dropping their last decision to the New York Titans. Standing in fourth place the Rock are currently in playoff range, but head coach Glenn Clark knows that nothing in the east is ever that simple.

“From our standpoint, especially with the way it’s shaping up in the east, for us we’re almost getting to must-win games because it’s going to be such a dog-fight to get into that top four,” said Clark. “Every game is a do-or-die life-or-death struggle for us.”

This Toronto-Edmonton match-up is just as important for Bob Hamley and the Edmonton Rush, as they are currently trailing the Portland Lumberjax for playoff contention, and though the win over Rochester was exciting, Hamley knows there’s plenty more work to be done.

“It was a fun weekend for everybody and anytime you get a W in this league it’s exciting,” said Hamley. “I’m happy for the organization and happy for the players. We beat a very good team on Saturday but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We’re focused on getting back into it here on Friday in Toronto.”

Last time these teams met the Rock came away with a 14-9 victory, led by Blaine Manning with six points and Josh Sanderson with seven. Clark will be looking to his leaders to stress persistency.

“The message needs to be sent that you get into this league with these one-goal leads, with these close games, that it’s persistency that we need to play with and consistency,” he said. “You can’t have lapses. Single lapses can hurt you and lapses for a period of time can definitely hurt you so the message has been the same but it’s got to be retained by the group of players that we just can’t have lapses or letdowns.”

While Clark will be looking to his veterans and long-time Rock players to lead, Hamley is counting on his new guys to keep stepping up. New addition Mike Hominuck had the OT game-winner last weekend.

“We’re very happy with our new acquisitions and we feel that we’re better than we were a couple weeks ago. Obviously we’ve made some changes on the offensive end, adding three guys. I just felt looking at the team after the San Jose game I didn’t think we were very good five-on-five in previous games, I looked at the stats and there weren’t many five-on-five goals scored so I think Hominuck, [Brendan] Thenhaus and [Lindsay] Plunkett are helping us with that. I thought we were very good five-on-five on Saturday and I don’t know if it’s true but somebody told me after the game that it was the first time ever that Edmonton ever outshot anybody so that tells a tale too.”

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