Go! ‘Necks! Go!

In a half time interview on Rogers Sportsnet during the Roughnecks vs. Rock game, Commissioner Jim Jennings gave the fans quite a scoop. When questioned about the rumors regarding the next 2007 expansion team for the National Lacrosse League, Jennings responded with a chuckle and coyly called the commentators on their putting him on the spot.

After a short pause, the Commissioner let loose the scoop stating that an official announcement hasn’t been made. Continuing along, Jennings said next year he may be “walking to a few games.” For those not in the know, the NLL office is located in New York.

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As always when the Calgary Roughnecks play the defending NLL champion Toronto Rock it’s going to be tight and it always excites.

Considering both teams are recent league champions and they’ve had a bitter rivalry for more than a few years, these games tend to get quite rough. Last years final regular season game between the Roughnecks and Rock took place in Calgary and I was there. At one point all the players on the playing field at the time, including the goalies, fought — back to back mind you, one fight right after the other.

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Up until a couple weeks ago I was under the impression that high sticking in lacrosse was comparable to the same penalty in Hockey. As it turns out I was wrong.

Whereas in hockey high sticking is a minor penalty, in lacrosse — more specifically the NLL — high sticking is a major penalty. This became very apparent to me during the last time Colorado came to Calgary and faced our Roughnecks.

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It was the first game of the 2006 season that Andrew Leyshon was given the nod to start. This, of course, was based on his stellar performance against the Mammoth in game 9.

After the decisive win in Edmonton the Roughnecks had an early wake up call to hop on the bus and head down to San Jose. Now, when I say early, I mean early. We’re talking 3:45am after a game night. Of course, this is the life that the boys choose and it’s just part of the game until the NLL gains more popularity and has more pull with the arenas. Anyway, on to the game.

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I was going to post a nice list of highlights in the game 10 recap but I decided there were enough of them to warrant a separate entry. On that note, I’d like to present my list of game 10 highlights.

To start off these highlights, how about a nice little quote from Brendan Shanahan of the Detroit Red Wings. Rogers Sportsnet managed to catch up with him early in the game for a quick interview. Apparently Shanahan is a former lacrosse player himself — as I’m sure quite a few hockey players are — and loves watching the games in Minnesota, Philly, and Edmonton. When asked why people should check out a lacrosse game Shanahan responded, in part, by saying, “[…] the only players tougher than hockey players, are lacrosse players.” How’s that for an endorsement.

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Oooooh what feeling, what a rush. At least that’s what Edmonton would probably be playing had they maintained their two goal lead in the first quarter. Unfortunately for them, they lost that two goal lead 11 minutes into the first frame and remained behind for the rest of the game.

I can finally say that last night the Roughnecks were actually looking like the championship team they are. It’s definitely been a long haul this season and many a fan has been with me on this roller-coaster. Posting their highest goals against for the year, the Calgary Roughnecks managed a decisive victory in the last battle of alberta for the 2006 season.

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After some consideration I’ve decided to update the way this site handles it’s pages. The changes make the addresses a little more pleasing to the eyes by removing the numbers in the
URL or address bar.

From now on links on GoNecksGo.com will be in this format; http://gonecksgo.com/category/title/. No need to remember dates of your favorite post any more, just the category — which is a hundred times easier.
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Trade deadlines, for hockey fans they are probably the most exciting part of the season. Ok, maybe not the most exciting but there is generally a flurry of activity right up until the last second of the deadline. Deadline day in the NLL is a little bit different.

In comparison to the NHL, today — which happens to be the trade deadline — was a pretty slow day. Toronto, Minnesota, and Calgary were a few of the teams making trades today while Edmonton and a couple other teams managed trades during the days leading up to the deadline.
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Ah, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like watching video’s of lacrosse. I also don’t know why my camera was acting up last night and not focusing when I was trying to take some still shots. Since that was the case, I thought I’d take video of last weekends game since my little Canon Powershot has the capability to do so.

Disclaimer: Although my hand was steadier than the McNish Stachniak fight video, there certainly isn’t any stabilizing mechanisms in my camera. Some of the video may be a bit blurry or seem a bit distant even though I’m in row 8 in section 122. Unfortunately my camera won’t let me zoom in after I’ve started recording.
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This weekend I fully expected to be greatly entertained by the Roughnecks as they played the Colorado Mammoth. What I wasn’t expecting to leave the arena feeling as physically and emotionally drained as I did.

Some people were considering this a very important game for both teams given the current parity in the league. Going into this weekend the NLL had a tie for first in the West and three teams within 1.5 games behind those leaders.
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