Random Thoughts: A New Years Resolution for Every Team

My random thoughts…

Since the New Year is upon us and also I was the guest co-host of Lacrosse Classified this week, you’ll be able to hear my take on each of this week’s games there.  So I figured I would do something different and put forward what I thought should be each team’s New Year’s resolutions.

Georgia Swarm

Start winning some lopsided games.  They’ve won 4 games by a combined total of 6 goals.  Only their win against San Diego has been by more than one goal.  It can be beneficial to win some close games so when you’re in a tight situation when it matters most, you have the experience to pull through.  But if you’re constantly winning tight games, you’ll eventually get burned, just like Saskatchewan did this past week.  Georgia is certainly the team that has surprised me the most so far this year.  Can they continue that ability to surprise?

Buffalo Bandits

There’s only one resolution I can think of here.  Keep doing what you’re doing.  None of their games have been close.  They’ve been dominant offensively and defensively.  Matt Vinc showed us once again how youthful he is with a top 5 all-time save performance.  If they keep playing the way they’re playing, the three-peat will be on.

Philadelphia Wings

In late November, this resolution would have been to give Brennan O’Neill time to develop and for the Philly fans not to be too hard on him.  But Brennan O’Neill has picked up the box game a lot faster than I could have imagined, so he and Philly fans will be just fine.

Its tough once again to properly assess the Wings’ start, with two wins over Vegas, a well-deserved win over Saskatchewan and an opening loss against San Diego.  If there is a resolution to be had, its something that will be repeated for several teams, get wins in the next 3 weeks.  It’s a tough three games coming up with Calgary, Vancouver and Buffalo.  They’ve already played two of their longest three road trips of the season.  If they can go 2-1 over those three games, they’re in great shape as their next five games after that are all against teams currently with one win.  The next three weeks will tell us if the Wings are for real.

Saskatchewan Rush

Show up earlier.  The Rush have a problem in falling behind in the first half and then clawing their way back in the second half.  Like Georgia, their four games have been decided by just 5 goals combined, and three have gone into overtime.  So far this season, they’ve been outscored 22-14 in the first half and outscored their opponents 28-18 in the second half.  Its going to be critical for them to get their offence going quicker, because their first half goal production works out to the equivalent of 7.00 goal per game.

Vancouver Warriors

Need to take the next step.  Vancouver has been the team for the last two seasons that has a lot of promise but hasn’t delivered.  While there is a nice young core developing with Grant, Peshko, Charalambides, Laity, Bowering and Cormier amongst others, the veterans on this team are getting old.  The window for them to be able to produce will be limited.

Their fan base has been amazingly patient, but its time for them to show they can take the next step, make the playoffs and make some noise in the post season.  Aden Walsh is better than he was last season, but is it enough to carry them to the post season?  Can Del Bianco be acquired, and if so, at what cost?

The back end of the Warriors’ season is heavy loaded.  Starting February 21, they play Saskatchewan, San Diego, Buffalo, Georgia, Philadelphia, Albany and Toronto twice.  They need to rack up wins in the next 6 weeks to avoid having to make up games when the competition is much tougher in the back half. 

Calgary Roughnecks

Solve the Christian Del Bianco situation.  The Calgary offence is good enough to make a strong playoff push, and maybe even get somewhere in the playoffs.  The defence isn’t strong enough and Cam MacLeod has not played to the standard that Calgary needs to be a contender.

You have an amazing asset in Christian Del Bianco.  If there’s no way to settle the situation that you can get Del Bianco signed, there’s the opportunity to get a trade done somewhere and improve your goaltending, even possibly your defence as well.  There’s only two trades that make sense.  One would involve a swap of Del Bianco and Chris Origlieri as well as other assets.  The other would involve a swap of Del Bianco for Aden Walsh, a few defence and draft picks.  Perhaps Walsh’s improved play this season will make him more valuable to Calgary than he was in the summer.

But this shouldn’t be just a resolution for the Roughnecks, this should be a resolution for the league.  Not having the former league MVP playing isn’t good for the league as a whole.

Ottawa Black Bears

I’m not certain what to make of the Black Bears’ season so far.  They have two wins against the 0-4 Toronto Rock and a lopsided loss to the 3-0 Buffalo Bandits.  Their next two games are both on the road in San Diego and Georgia, neither of them an easy matchup.  If there’s any New Year’s resolution, its to keep feeding the ball to Jeff Teat, and good things will happen.  His shooting percentage isn’t great, 7 goals on 35 SOG, but you’ll need to rely on Teat to put up 120+ points for the Black Bears to have a shot at the playoffs.  But given the sample size of what we’ve seen from the Black Bears, its tough to say what the resolution is, other than perhaps, keep the momentum going with the new fan base and get into the playoffs to keep their engagement high.

Colorado Mammoth

Break away from the pack in the net month.  Colorado has a tough end to its schedule, Saskatchewan, Buffalo, Saskatchewan, Calgary.  But their next four opponents, Albany in a home and away, Rochester and Toronto, have a combined 3 wins so far.  If they sweep those games, they are 7-2 and have a nice comfort level when tougher opponents come in April.  If they split these games, their road to making the playoffs becomes far tougher.  They also need to tighten up their defence.  This was their trademark in years past, to win games 10-9 or 9-8.  The GA has risen the last three games (13.67 average), and that needs to change.

San Diego Seals

Get some critical wins in the next few weeks.  Its tough what to make of the Seals’ opening four games.  They’re 2-2, but both losses were to Georgia.  Their January schedule consists of Ottawa, Vancouver and Vegas.  Their February schedule… Buffalo twice, Saskatchewan and Toronto.  San Diego is a older team and whether they can stay injury free later in the season remains to be seen.  Also, getting Trevor Baptiste back is important.  With Baptiste taking draws, they are 100%.  Without him, they’re 48%.  The other critical issue, Chris Origlieri needs to get back to his play of the last few years.  There are only two goalies with a lower GSAA than Origlieri this season, Landon Kells and Cam MacLeod.  Unless San Diego can pull off a double in trading for Del Bianco and convincing Del Bianco to come to San Diego, they’ll need Origlieri to be on top of his game.

Halifax Thunderbirds

Give Drew Hutchison a shot as the starting goaltender.  Outside of a good opening half in Saskatchewan, Warren Hill has struggled.  This struggle isn’t anything new.  Hutchison held the fort with a 21-minute shutout at the end of the game against Albany that gave Halifax the window they needed to complete the comeback.

At this stage, Halifax doesn’t have anything to lose by giving Hutchison a shot.  Halifax’s next two games are against Rochester, a team that is also struggling.  They need to go into the game with the hand that is hot and try to get the two game sweep.  Two wins in those two games, you’re at 0.500 and you’re in the thick of the playoff race.

Albany FireWolves

Make sure your young forwards still get their touches.  Albany made the move to sign Callum Crawford as a street free agent with Travis Longboat out of the lineup on the PUP.  While Callum has played for Glenn Clark before when the FireWolves were located in New England, the concern with this move is that whether this addition will be beneficial or disruptive to a young offence.  Crawford is the type of player that needs the ball in his stick a lot.  The question becomes how disruptive this may be when you have a good, young offensive core in Alex Simmons, Tye Kurtz, Ethan Walker, Sam Firth and Dyson Williams.

Interestingly enough, Crawford may have tied or broken the record for most teams played for in a career, depending upon how you look at it.  He has played for Calgary, San Jose (current Vancouver), Chicago (defunct), Edmonton (current Saskatchewan), Minnesota (current Georgia), Colorado, Buffalo, New England (current Albany), New York (current Ottawa), Panther City (inactive), the new Philadelphia (for 1 game) and Albany.  He was also technically a part of San Diego for an hour when he was acquired in the Panther City in the dispersal draft, 1 hour before he became an unrestricted free agent.  Depending how you look at it, he’s been a part of 12 franchises in 13 cities, and he’s played for 11 franchises in 12 cities.

Rochester Knighthawks

Get the offence going and get Connor Fields open.  In Rochester’s lone win this year, Fields had 3 goals and 7 assists.  In their four losses, Fields has averaged 1.25 goals and 3.5 points per game.  As a team, they’ve averaged 8 goals per game in those losses.  If there’s good news, the goaltending has average numbers, with GSAA’s of 1.94 for Hutchcraft and 0.49 for Orleman.  The difficulty with that stat though is its based off of their save percentage.  Their goalies have faced 286 shots in 5 games, or 57.2 per game.  That number isn’t sustainable.

If there’s good news, three of their four losses came against Buffalo and Saskatchewan.  They have a tough battle against Georgia this weekend, but after that, it’s a home and away against Halifax.  Those two games are going to be critical if Rochester is to have a chance at making the playoffs.

The original New Year’s resolution I had down, find a faceoff specialist, has been fulfilled.  Mike Sisselberger was signed this past week.  Rochester has only won 32% of its faceoffs so far this season.

Toronto Rock

Hold onto your draft picks.  This is a question Jake and I discuss in this week’s Lacrosse Classified.  The team is 0-4 and it needs a turnaround soon if the Rock want to make the playoffs.  Jamie Dawick is in an unusual situation.  Historically he has traded most of his top draft picks away.  This year he has his own 1^st and 2^nd rounders, plus Vegas’ first round pick.  Those are some enticing draft picks that he could trade to pick up some pieces to try to salvage this season.  The problem isn’t that Toronto doesn’t have the talent, they’re simply too injured.  That tells us two things.  One is that if those players can get healthy, they’ll be just fine.  Secondly, it tells us that the team needs to get younger.  As of now, with the #1 and #2 draft picks, although there’s a lot of time for that to change, plus Sam English still coming to the team once his NCAA eligibility is complete, and Josh Dawick starting to come into his own, there is a lot this team can do if its patient.

The best move is to stay the course, see if you get those guys back from the IR, and if you don’t, you probably can’t trade for anyone that will win you the title anyways.

Also, for all the Nick Rose haters that were on Facebook this past weekend, no Nick Rose didn’t have his best game this past weekend, but calling for him to be pulled as the starting goaltender is craziness.  You won’t find a better starting goaltender out there right now that’s located out east or is willing to travel.  The issue isn’t Nick Rose.  The issue is how many top defence are hurt right now.  Teams are getting easier looks on Rose because of that factor alone.

Las Vegas Desert Dogs

Give their defensive system a shakeup.  I recall several years ago, I asked Graeme Perrow the question of how many goals are needed to win a game based strictly on statistics.  The answer was 11.  The Desert Dogs are averaging 10 goals per game.  Its not the 11 they need, but its not far off.  On the flipside, they’re allowing 15.75, a number that isn’t sustainable to win games unless you’re the 2017 Georgia Swarm.

I’ve discussed the goaltending situation before, and Justin Geddie being elevated to the evaluation list means that he’s not far away from returning, which gives the Desert Dogs two options in goal, and the competition should be a good thing that improves the position as a whole.  They need defensive help, and with no viable trades to be had, it’s a system change that is necessary.

Until next time…