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Here are some quick notes from Insider sources on tonight’s up-coming games for the week 14 schedule.
Saturday, March 29 – All Time Eastern
Minnesota at Chicago – 8:00 PM
Philadelphia at Rochester – 8:05 PM
San Jose at Edmonton – 9:30 PM
Editor’s note: By the next time he writes a blog I will have his name in the author list.
Well they asked me back to have another go at ‘er, so here I am. I have to apologize from the start of round two because I thought I had more in mind for this blog but time sneaks up on you. As most of you know we play the Rochester Knighthawks this weekend and originally I was not in the line-up for health and coaching reasons, but with some last minute changes to the line-up I am back in! So with that sudden change, in a matter of seconds my weekend went from doing a motocycle riders course and going out with friends to getting my game face ready and packing my bags.
I have to admit it was a suprise to me. I had talked to coach earlier in the week and he had said they just wanted to change something up for the weekend and that I would be back in the line up the following week. Seeing as how I had injured myself the weekend before I thought I was okay with it and just thought if this is what it takes to win then so be it. READ MORE »
Just when you thought it was safe to get excited about the future of the Knighthawks in Rochester, here comes mayor Mike Duffy to throw up another road block. (Too bad that road block isn’t going up at the speed of regular city-commissioned road work, then we’d have about a year and a half before it got built, AM I RIGHT?)
Maybe we needed a bit of drama injected into this happy ending, so perhaps a bitter Donner vs. City feud over an arena lease is just what the viewing public ordered. Unless you’re someone who lives in Rochester, cheers for Rochester, plays for Rochester, or has any interest in seeing Rochester stabilize. Then it sucks.
But hey, at least the team is still playing like the champions they are really wants to win tonight. (As a sidenote: you’ve probably noticed that I found the least suitable picture of Steve Toll to accompany this headline. You’re welcome.)
As promised, here are the results from the guys on who they deem the top dawgs this year.
A little different than what the Insider’s went with, but nothing too outta left field. Looks like everyone is pretty much on the same page (media and players on the same page!!!).
Either way, right now at least, nothing short of John Grant scoring ten a game from here on out will keep Athan Iannucci from winning the big one.
What I did for the players, since the survey we do with them is always multiple choice, was offered them a handful of options of who I thought would be in the running. As always, there was room for write-ins too, so anyone was fair game. READ MORE »
Yeah, I get tired of reading, too. Sometimes it’s just nice to sit there and let others do all the work for ya. Especially today when I woke up to about 7 inches of snow in my driveway. Are you kidding me? Some college lacrosse teams have played 4 or 5 games already and I’ve still got to get my snow shovel out? It’s ass.
But, complaining will get ya nowhere and I know none of you are gonna offer to help shovel my driveway. So while I’m outside cursing the weather, you just sit there and click on this link that’ll take you to the Buffalo News. Staffers there have compliled a pretty neat video of a National Lacrosse League gameday experience in Buffalo from the March 22 game against the Toronto Rock. You’ll get to see fans, the dance team, an orange pair of sneakers on the turf (although they never reveal the identity of that player … but do they have to?), and an interview with Joe Smith. Joe Smith? Yup, and not only is he a Bandits defenseman, he’s the proud owner of the most marketable name in sports. It’s so unique!
Watch the video. It’s not even 2 minutes long so even the most ADD of you out there can sit still for this. As a side note, I attempted to embed the vid so all ya had to do was click on it, but no go. So suck it up and click your mouse (gasp!) twice because when you get to the page, you’ll have to click on the Bandits link on the lower right part of the page.
Another crazy week for the NLL Dance Team Pick’ems. Who would have thought Rochester was going to lose to Chicago? Or that Philadelphia was going to fall to New York the way they did. The Loses meant some tough 2-4, 1-5 weeks for many of pick’em participants during Week 13. One dancer who benefited? Kim, from Chicago, who’s home team love paid dividends with 5-1 record last week. Only three games this week, all on Saturday, but there are some important playoff-affecting matchups in tow.
On to this week’s picks: READ MORE »
So like I said yesterday, this week I really wanted to find out who everyone else in the game thought were this year’s favorites for all the year-end hardware.
What I did, was last Thursday sent the players out a poll asking them just that, and those results will be out later this afternoon.
I also wanted to check in with our crew here at the Insider (and we’re a nasty bunch so don’t F with us or Lauren will potentially hug you to death and Jenner might well… don’t even wanna go there but it involves him opening a door at just the right second and then claiming he didn’t know what he was doing).
Anyways, spent my morning tallying the Insider’s votes, which somehow became more difficult than it should have been, but that’s cool, just thankful all of them except Fixler got back to me (did Langtry gut ‘em already?!?!?). READ MORE »
Yep, that is the proper, complete name of what Rochester Knighthawks fans revere as the “Barn Down by the River” (thank you Chris Farley), home of the defending National Lacrosse League’s reigning champs.
I was trying to come up with a unique blog topic this week as I knew the Fall of the Champs topic would be well-worn by my deadline. I decided to go where not many Rochester sports fans have gone before. That’s right, behind the scenes at the Blue Cross Arena. Nope, I didn’t find Jimmy Hoffa or even George Eastman under the arena. I did however see a lot of Rochester history and took a lot of photos of places most fans probably will never access. First and foremost, thank you to Jeff Calkins, the General Manager of the Blue Cross Arena and his staff. They were excellent tour guides and let me go practically anywhere I wanted to that didn’t involve insurance liabilities.
First, some quick history of the BCA. The Kimball Tobacco Factory (with the Genesee River behind it in this photo) was built on this spot in 1880 and a 21-foot statue of Mercury was placed atop the Factory’s smokestack. It stood there until 1951 when the original Civic Center Arena was built. Today that statue is atop the Thomson West publishing building across Broad Street from the BCA. The BCA opened as the Rochester Community War Memorial in 1955, many native Rochesterians still call it “War Memorial” to this day.
So I found myself in a moral dilemma the other night. My beloved Oilers had dropped a huge game to the Minnesota Wild and I then forced myself to watch the Vancouver Canucks vs. Colorado Avalanche game on TV.
Herein lies the problem. With both teams tied at 86 points, 3 points ahead of the Oil for 8th playoff spot, I didn’t want either team to win, (but there was no way in hell I was cheering for Vancouver). So the Avs won and got some distance between themselves and the oncoming Oilers. That got me thinking. The Oil were predicted to finish dead last in the Western Conference. With the introduction of a new owner, the slew of injuries to key guys, and some amazing play from the young guns, this year can be seen as serious progression.
Then my thoughts immediately switched to the other Edmonton team right on the cusp of the post season after everyone wrote them off.
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