NLL Insider

Every team has that guy. That guy. The one who does it all one game and then does it all a little better the next but no matter what he does, it isn’t his name going up in headlines. It isn’t his name that gets rattled off when Alberta’s best are being discussed. And it sure isn’t his name in an NLLinsider breakdown of who you need to know from Alberta Jr. A because maybe somebody neglected to put it in there. Who would have done such a thing?

In order to atone for the errors that have been made and the overlooking that’s been done, here’s a rundown of the player from each team who’s finally getting a little bit of the credit he deserves.

EDMONTON ECLIPSE

Main Entry: clutch
Function: adjective
1. made or done in a crucial situation
2. successful in a crucial situation
3. Sean Reid

Not that I have some huge surplus of smart money, but last year I would’ve put it all on the Edmonton Eclipse powerhousing their way into the Minto. How could you not? It was a total package team built expressly for winning, and win they did for quite a while, racking up an undefeated season and a first round win over the Jr. Raiders. And then something went widely wrong, and in the Alberta finals in ‘08 the Eclipse imploded, collapsing four games to one to their Edmonton counterparts. A head-shaker of an ending to what should’ve been a season for the ages.

With four games left to play it’s coming down to crunch time for the Eclipse, and if they’re going to prove they’re a different team, now would be the time to do it. And chances are, this will be the player to do it. By now you’ve heard all about Simon Giourmetakis and how he can he can pick and roll on water — and you can take that hype to the cash register because he is that good — but a name that deserves to be right alongside his is Sean Reid.

Not only is he packin the stats (second in league scoring) but here’s a player that makes everyone around him better. With ten goals and a league-leading 48 assists, Reid has taken on the role of feeder for a team that has their scorers taking up the top four spots in Alberta Jr. A lacrosse. No shame in being know as the best set-up man in the league, of course, but don’t go thinking that’s all he does, and don’t be surprised when the dust settles on a game-winner for all the marbles and it’s Reid with his arms in the air.

CALGARY MOUNTAINEERS

You always hear people say that nobody’s perfect. That everyone makes mistakes. And after posting the Alberta Jr. A lacrosse names you should know, I now believe it because, uhhh, where was Brandon Miller? If you’d like to email me for an extensive list of excuses I’ve got ‘em, but the fact of the matter is that Miller slipped through the cracks like he slips past an opposing team’s fast-breaker to thwart yet another scoring attempt. He’ll knock your players down, he’ll knock their passes down, he’ll wreck you one-on-one or flub your two-man game, he’s not picky, and then he’ll go be a menace on the other end of the floor.

On Saturday night his third-place Mounties dumped the second-place Eclipse and if you can’t guess who scored a goal, held the Eclipse to just five while his own team scored nine, and was named the first star of the game then you’re even dumber than I am. Brandon Miller. Learn this name. The Mounties have six games to play and have won seven of their last eight, gaining ground in the standings pretty much every time they step on the floor. After an underwhelming start to their season last year they terrorized the top names in the Minto, and there’s a good possibility that they’ll do it all again in ‘09. And why is that? Altogether now, what have we learned: Brandon Miller.

CALGARY RAIDERS

The Alberta Jr. A lacrosse website is miles ahead of where they were a couple seasons ago. I’m very grateful, I am, but there are still a few stats that aren’t being tracked that I would be interested to see. 1) how many of Jake Hayes’s goals have gone in simply because the goaltender was diving out of the way of his shot. Just curious. If I saw that overhand cannon coming at me I’d be on the floor like a throw rug wondering if wikipedia lists the symptoms of a heart attack.

Hayes is a guy who carries himself with his shoulders up and out at all times, playing a lot bigger than he actually is, until it comes time for him to dodge your defenders, of course. From ‘08 to ‘09 he’s already doubled his offensive output, tallying 43 points so far in 14 games compared to last year’s 21 in 16. Teammates Casey McIntyre and Chad Mitchell have had similar statistical improvements, and with those three goes the team as the Raiders have flipped from worst to first and despite rampant predictions to the contrary, have shown no signs of slowing down as the postseason approaches.

EDMONTON MINERS

Don’t let AJ Pellis’s statistics fool you, please. If you do you’ll be walking around thinking he’s a middle-of-the-pack player on a team that’s past their glory years and flopping face-down into a rebuilding stage. What you may be forgetting is that the Edmonton Miners do the majority of their damage in one place: the playoffs. What you may not realize is that when he’s uninjured and playing the amount of minutes a player of his caliber should be, AJ Pellis is one of the best postseason performers the Miners have ever seen, most notably leading the team in scoring en route to their 2007 league championship.

A blue collar kind of player a la Craig Conn who does all the dirty work the stats don’t tell you about but his teammates sure will, one can only wish for accurate looseball totals on a guy like Pellis who spends so much time in the corners you’d think he has a dunce cap on. He’s spent his summer ball offseasons impressing the likes of Brodie Merrill at the Hill Academy, which he attended, and the scouts and coaches at Ohio Wesleyan, which he attends. The best from Pellis is yet to come.

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