Highlights from game 10
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.
Getting into the game highlights, lets start off with the rookie Callum Crawford. In his first professional lacrosse game against the Colorado Mammoth, Crawford posted his first ever goal. Last night, in his second ever pro lacrosse game, Callum put up two goals. I was really hoping he’d get that hat trick but two goals is nothing to shake a stick at. At the rate he’s going — number of goals per number of games he’s played — we should see a hat trick from him tonight though.
With the comfortable lead Calgary had early on it looked like the players started sharing scoring opportunities a little more. This is evidenced by both Ryan McNish and Andrew McBride both scoring their first goals of the year. McNish’s first was shorthanded and McBride capped off a beautiful breakaway with his goal. Not to be outdone, Rob Kirkby also scored his first goal of the year late in the fourth. Congratulations guys, let’s keep them coming.
In an interesting turn of events, Andrew Leyshon was absent from the bench while Ryan Avery backed up the stellar performance by Curtis Palidwor. Avery did see some play time but I’m still debating the current stats on NLL.com — Avery is given credit for the win as well as the majority of playing time. Feel free to correct me but I’m pretty sure I saw a lot more of the 00 than I saw of Avery.
More along the same lines, NLL.com is reporting that Pat Campbell of the Rush recorded the loss for his team. This is a little odd considering he was taken out by a shot to the throat from Kaleb Toth early in the third quarter. Seems to me someone at the stats center was drinking on the job.
It was later revealed that Andrew Leyshon and Andy Ogilvie were both already in San Jose, awaiting the game against the Stealth tonight. Leyshon had already been given the nod to start against the Stealth after his performance in the game against Colorado.
My final highlight before getting into some other news is the amount of time Edmonton went scoreless. From five minutes into the second frame until the final minute of the third, the combination of Curtis Palidwor and the Roughneck defense managed to shut out all attempts by the Rush. That’s almost half the game that Edmonton didn’t make a goal.
Injury news
While watching the game last night, some light was shed on the Ted Dowling situation. After apparently having his knee scoped it turns out he’s a little more injured than originally anticipated. Now it looks like Dowling will be out for at least 5 months. A small consolation to this seemingly bad trade would be that we are now entitled to Portland’s 2nd and 3rd round draft picks in the 2006 entry draft.
Interesting tactics
Something that really caught my interest was Edmonton’s strategy during the majority of the fourth quarter. Almost each time the Rush had possession they would pull their goalie. I can understand taking the offense to a higher level when you’re down by 10 but it seemed almost reckless. Kudos to them for having the balls to do it. It only ended up burning them in the ass a couple times but when you’re down by that much what else have you got to loose.