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It’s Calgary Roughnecks gameday as the Riggers get set to take on the San Jose Stealth for the second time this year, at the Saddledome (7:30 pm, FAN 960 and www.FAN960.com). The 3-0 Roughnecks have showed marked improvement through the 2 weekends they’ve played so far, and were completely dominating over the Toronto Rock last week in a 16-9 win. The Stealth sit 1-2 and look to avenge their 12-10 home opener loss to Calgary back on January 9th.
The Roughnecks have impressed all over the floor. On the defensive side of the ball, it’s been stifling at times, as Bruce Codd, Kyle Couling, Andrew McBride et al have flown to the ball like no other defence in the NLL. They’ve only surrendered 10 goals on 1 occasion (to the Stealth), and last weekend in Toronto, held the Rock scoreless in the 4th quarter while protecting a lead. Both GM Brad Bannister and Head Coach Troy Cordingley described this defensive system as “tenacious” at the beginning of the season…it’s lived up to that billing so far.
With double digits in every game, the offence has held up their part of the bargain as well. It just seems like too much of a task for any NLL defence to completely shut down the wave of skill the Roughnecks can throw at you when they have possession. With Josh Sanderson, Tracey Kelusky, Kaleb Toth, Dane Dobbie, Scott Ranger, Dane Dobbie and Kurt Malawsky all able to score at any given time, it’s hard to gameplan for them. The mantra of this team this year is “we don’t care who scores, as long as we score.”
But what is sometimes forgotten is the Roughnecks in transition. I’ve been blown away by Nolan Heavenor this year, as he’s been so good on the fast break. He scored twice that way against Toronto, but more impressive is how quickly he’s able to find open floor and get things set up in the offensive end. Jeff Shattler has been just as impressive and shows more scoring flare everytime you watch him play. And McBride continues to evolve his role in the transition game, as we see him more and more involved every game. The efficiency Calgary has shown out of their own end is as big a part of a 3-0 start as anything else.
Tonight against the Stealth, it’s no easy task. Lead by Captain Colin Doyle and prolific Jeff Zywicki, this Stealth team can score. NCAA All American Paul Rabil continues to adjust to the box game while Rhys Duch and Frank Resetarits have given this team a little secondary scoring. Calgary showed in their first game they can stifle this up-tempo attack for a good portion of the game, and their ball-hawking defence is the perfect match. However, with Doyle running the floor, this Stealth team is going to get their points…it’s on Calgary to limit things for long stretches, as they did on January 9th in San Jose.
Join us on the FAN 960 for the pregame show starting at 7. We’ll give you our second installment of Lacrosse 101 with Andrew McBride, with this edition focusing on ball control and ball movement. The Roughnecks franchise leader in every offensive category stops by as well, we’ll chat with #9 Kaleb Toth. My colour guy will be Grant Farhall, who hosts a show following every game on www.calgaryroughnecks.com. Roughnecks Radio on the FAN 960 goes this afternoon at 3 pm featuring Riggers captain Tracey Kelusky and Stealth captain Colin Doyle. Game time tonight is 7:30 with tickets still available at the Saddledome box office.
It was an awesome game on Saturday, nice to see Jolene get into the act as the reporter on the floor (Many were disappointed that she chose to wear a jersey instead of a drill crew outfit…oh, well). San Jose did a nice job of keeping the Riggers offense to the outside during the 3rd and made for a pretty intense match-up. 4-0 is great..disappointing crowd of under 10,000. A have concern over the future of this team…it’s a great game and we have a great bunch of athletes who play it, but so few come to see them.
PS: I guess it’s probably better she wore the jersey…it may be hard to concentrate on her questions otherwise. I agree, San Jose did a good job in frustrating Calgary offensively in the 3rd quarter, but at the same time, I thought Calgary was a little too cute at times with their passing. But it was the defence that stepped up, along with Paddy Campbell in net, in that second half. We’ll see what happens leading up to February 6th in terms of promotion for that game…it’s a Friday night, and if they do it right, the Roughnecks could draw well for that one.
- Bob in the Abbey