The Calgary Roughnecks couldn’t have asked for a better start to their 2009 National Lacrosse League season, as they sit 4-0 to start the year.  At the quarter mark of the season, they join the Buffalo Bandits out east as the only undefated teams in the NLL.  With a 2 week break between games, the Riggers get a nice little break, and we get a little time to check out what’s went wrong, and what the coaching staff might be looking at improving.

On this weeks edition of Roughnecks Radio I spoke to captain Tracey Kelusky.  I asked him about the start and what’s different from this squad as opposed to last years team, which was very similar in makeup.  “Buy-in” was the word used repeatedly by Tracey, as in buying in to what the coaches are preaching in terms of a gameplan.  It’s been pretty impressive so far…unselfish offensive play by the forward set, and the defence continues to play a pressure oriented style.

Those are the obvious ones, but the 2 things that have impressed most through the first quarter of the season are more of the “little thing” variety.  First, the transition game, and how well Calgary has got the ball up the floor.  First and foremost, Jeff Shattler is turning into one of the most reliable, and exciting, transition players on the team.  His 2 goals (should have been 3) Saturday night were good evidence of this, especially the first, where his accelleration did the entire job.  But Shattler has done a great job in turning loose balls into quick breaks, and the patience shown by the transition group has been really good.  Rarely do you see them trying to force things, and instead we’ve seen a lot of patience with guys letting up as personnel changes up.

The second thing that has struck me is just how impressive Calgary is at responding to adversity.  Look at 3 of the 4 games they have played this year, and you’ll see things the Roughnecks have not been happy with, and things that could sink teams on some nights.  However, there never seems to be any panic, and the guys get back on track very quickly…we never see things go off the rails, like we did last year at times.  We talked to Shattler after the broadcast Saturday, and what was really cool was how he explained the theme of this team right now…”what’s next?”  The team wasn’t thrilled with their 3rd quarter Saturday, yet instead of dwelling on it, they said what’s next and took control back in the 4th.  Devan Wray joined us on RoughnecksRadio.com following the game as well, and the feeling was very much the same.  His thought was basically that the team knows what they’re capable of, so there is no point in getting worked up about negatives.  Instead, it’s all about returning to the positive, and Calgary has done a great job of responding to in-game adversity throughout the season.

Now, you can imagine Calgary would like to improve on a few things.  There has been a tendency to see teams creep back into games so far this year.  Both games against San Jose, and the Edmonton game as well, saw the Roughnecks clearly outplay the opposition for most of the game, yet the Stealth and Rush just kept hanging around.  It doesn’t seem like a huge worry with the Riggers though, which goes right back to the confidence they have in eachother to get things done.

4-0 is great, but Kelusky’s words before the game against San Jose were, to paraphrase, “don’t get too comfortable, we can’t let up now.”  That’s as much the task now for Calgary, but for the reasons stated above, I don’t really see it as much of a worry.  Yes the Riggers will probably lose a game this year, mabye even 2 or 3, but if Kelusky, the rest of the leadership group, and this coaching staff can keep the focus there for Calgary…only good things are on the horizon.

Next up for Calgary is a home game against the 2-1 Minnesota Swarm on Friday, February 6th.  It’s a 7:30 pm start, with tickets still available at the Saddledome box office or at ticketmaster.ca.  Serioulsy, I urge you to get on out there and check this team out, this is the funnest to watch I’ve seen.

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