NLL Insider

We’re only a couple days away from the Minto Cup dropping live in the city of Brampton, the Orangeville Northmen, Coquitlam Adanacs and Edmonton Eclipse joining the host Excels to make-up one helluva final four.

All four teams are coming off hard fought, gritty, back-and-forth final series that saw both Ontario and Alberta’s gold go a full seven games.

Can Orangeville be the first repeat champ since the 04/05 Burnaby Lakers? Can Brampton continue to show they’re more than just hosts? Will Coquitlam continue proving just about everyone wrong and keep pushing forward? And can Edmonton do what no Albertan team has done before them and win it all?

Check out the answer to those questions and more in NLL Insider’s Minto Cup Primer, ranked in order of our recent fan vote.

Orangeville Northmen

AKA: The Favorite / The Returning Champ
JOTY Nominess: Adam Jones (JOTY), Damon Edwards (Defender), Andrew Suitor (Defender), Nick Rose (Goalie) and Matt Sawyer (Coach)
Top  Money Baller: Adam Jones 24.5 Pts (6 game winning points)
Fan Vote: 54% think they’ll win
Why they’ll win: Experience
Why they’ll lose: Inconsistent O

The Skinny
They mighta dropped three straight to Brampton, but the Northmen showed just how hard their hearts pump with that improbable comeback, taking the series 4-3. They’re skilled, have some of the best pound-for-pound ball players in the country, but egos don’t play a part on this squad. How the hell do you beat them then? Their D and backstop Nick Rose very rarely have an off night, which happened maybe all of twice this year in regular season loses to St. Catharines and Burlington (gave up an uncharacteristic 29 goals in those two games). Don’t count on going that route. In their series against the Excels, Brampton was able to frustrate their O by really jamming up things in front of the cage (at least in the first half of the series), handcuffing their big names to the perimeter and letting rookie keeper Steve Fryer handle the stuff from outside. The Northmen of course readjusted and ran off those four straight wins, but if a team can hassle and make the lives of Adam Jones, Mat MacLeod and Jeremy Noble a living hell, the opposition might have a chance. Gotta throw something slightly different at their O, cuz although they figured out Brampton over seven games, with a round robin and best of three title fight, there isn’t as much room to fix things in this format. But with experience, heart, skill, toughness, speed, agility, smarts and a mental edge due to that Brampton series win, you’ll need one helluva game plan to roll them over.

Brampton Excelsiors

AKA: The Host / Better Than You Thought Four Months Ago
JOTY Nominees: Andrew Potter (JOTY), Kyle Rubisch (Defender), Steve Fryer (Goalie & Rookie) and Michael Burke (Rookie)
Top Money Baller: Andrew Potter 44.5 Pts (8 game winning points)
Fan Vote: 20%
Why they’ll win: D
Why they’ll lose: Chemistry

The Skinny
Before the year started, everyone was counting these guys out, saying they’d basically just be backing into the Minto due to their host ticket. Wrong (well, technically right cuz they are the hosts, but they were also Ontario runners up, so…). Even before a flurry of moves at the trade deadline, the Excels had arguably the best smash mouth D in the country, on top getting inspired performances from rookies Michael Burke and Steve Fryer, and pre-season Western pickup Dane Stevens. Picking up Andrew Potter gave them an O leader some felt they were lacking, while late-season BC grabs like Jason Jones and Matt Wray helped solidify other areas. Like Orangeville, if you can isolate their top O studs, the L’s usually follow. Prime example, Potter, Canada’s leading Jr. A scorer this year, scored just two goals and added a lone assist in the four losses to the Northmen. Previous to that he’d been averaging 4.5 points per game during this year’s playoffs. Ditto for rook Burke and the previously very clutch Ryan McClelland, Burke with two and McClelland with just one in the four Northmen L’s. They’ll definitely need to get steady production from their beefed up O depth, which went from getting goal production from up to seven different scorers in the O’Ville wins, to as little as just three separate scorers in the losses. You’ll still need to get by a D sporting OLA defender of the year, Kyle Rubisch, and equally hard hitting defenders Ben McCullough and Chris Corbeil. Their O is definitely miles better versus a year ago, but their bread and butter is still their intimidating D backbone.

Coquitlam Adanacs

AKA: The BC Kings / The Non-Choke Artists
JOTY Nominees: Robert Church (JOTY & Rookie), Trevor Moore (JOTY), Corbyn Tao (JOTY), Matt Beers (Defender), Brandon Turner (Defender), Dan Lewis (Goalie) and Dan Perreault (Coach)
Top Money Baller: Robert Church 35 Pts (5 game winning points)
Fan Vote: 19%
Why they’ll win: Pride
Why they’ll lose: Inexperience

The Skinny
Last year, NLL Insider got bombarded with emails from a non-Coquitlam “fan” (who’ll remain nameless), outlining to us what a choke artist squad the Adanacs group is and how they’ll never take the BC crown with the crew they have. Well that claim barely last 365 days, cuz the Adanacs were one of the most consistent, explosive, gritty teams in the country in ‘09, and the only thing they mighta been choking on this summer is all that hardware they’re piling up, both team and individual (Intermediates didn’t too bad either, huh?). Their D is on par with both Ontario reps and their O is capable of putting up huge numbers via their three JOTY nominees, Robert Church, Trevor Moore and Corbyn Tao, not to mention a post-season hot Ben McIntosh. Not much national tourney experience past Tao, who won a Minto with the Six Nations Arrows two summers ago. There’s a belief and energy on this team though that could see them playing past their new Minto digs. Lots of these guys have heard the choke talk all the way up to knocking off New West, and probably know most will have them as bronze winners this year too. They’re young, main stage inexperienced and don’t know they probably aren’t supposed to win this thing. It’s a formula that doesn’t usually win Minto’s, but Coquitlam is a pretty interesting dark horse heading cross country.

Edmonton Eclipse

AKA: The Underdog / The Best Alberta Minto Chance Yet?
JOTY Nominees: Simon Giourmetakis (JOTY)
Top Money Baller: Carson Barton 28 Pts (3 game winning points)
Fan Vote: 8%
Why they’ll win: Nothing to lose
Why they’ll lose: Same reason why every Albertan team has previously

The Skinny
This might be the most impressive Alberta rep we’ve seen at the Minto, the Edmonton Eclipse going through one helluva war to get to Brampton this year. The tag on teams from Alberta is that they’re always “at least” the equal to any Ontario or BC team in the athleticism department. This year things might change a bit though. The Eclipse is full of legit pure athletes, but also have a forward cast that has some serious skills and clutch snipers, one of the best up-and-coming two-way threats in Carson Barton, and one the post-season’s hottest keepers in Marc Nano, who’ll make his return to Ontario barns after spending the last year-and-half in Edmonton. If their athletic O and horses coming off the bench can put a freeze on all three other team’s speedy two-way game, the Eclipse should be able to hang around with any team if the rest of their game is clicking. This is a character group of guys, but they’ll still need an almost perfect stretch if they hope to create Alberta lacrosse history.

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