The Buffalo Bandits sure know how to get a rise out of the Rough House … Read More
NLL’s Riggers need to limit goal-less runs to round themselves into championship contender
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NLL’s Riggers need to limit goal-less runs to round themselves into championship contender
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The Buffalo Bandits sure know how to get a rise out of the Rough House …
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Even if visits to play the Calgary Roughnecks come few and far between on the National Lacrosse League schedule.
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The fans were loud and proud again Saturday night for a St. Patrick’s Day Party, hoping to will their team to a win — just as they did the last time the Bandits were in YYC. That was nearly six years ago during a Dome lid-lifter with a packed house celebrating a clinch of the NLL championship in May 2019.
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The victory didn’t happen, though, on this night, even with 16,443 fans paying for tickets and praying for that to come to fruition.
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“That’s too bad with the crowd we had,” said Roughnecks head coach Josh Sanderson, after the 11-6 loss to drop the Calgary club back to .500 on the campaign. “I thought we started off alright getting a few goals there and trying to get some energy in the building, but we just weren’t as good as we were last week (during a win in Buffalo).”
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And Sanderson’s squad wasn’t nearly as good as they need to be to cop another championship.
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It’s that situation they’d love to be in again come this May for a shot at the franchise’s fourth league title.
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But do they have the horses?
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The answer is a resounding ‘yes’, despite Saturday’s decision.
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The move that gives them license to say that was the one made by GM Mike Board to bring in goaltender Nick Rose — a highly decorated NLL veteran, with only a worthy championship missing from his mantle.
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They had the defence already ahead of the season.
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Board went out and got the offence — highlighted by acquiring legends Curtis Dickson and Dane Dobbie.
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And with Christian Del Bianco in a hold-out state, the only thing missing was a championship-worthy goalie — and Rose fits that bill.
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Now if they can only find consistency down the stretch to sew up a playoff spot in the highly competitive NLL standings and take that forward into a post-season run.
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The biggest problem has been even with a star-studded offence, it goes to sleep for long periods.
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Take Saturday night for instance.
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Dobbie had the first two goals — copycat counters on the power play — before Haiden Dickson counted his first of the evening. But that was all the production the Roughnecks could muster in the first half.
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Bandits goalie Matt Vinc, 42, went ahead and shut them out for 15 minutes while his mates went on a five-goal run that turned the game in favour of the visitors.
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The Riggers ended that early in the second half, with captain Jesse King’s goal and followed by young Dickson’s second of the night.
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Trouble is the offence dried up again, as they scored just once more over the final 21 minutes — a long, hard shot from Tanner Cook to give the home side life at 9-6 with plenty of time left in the fourth quarter.
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But it wasn’t nearly enough offence, especially against an all-world ’tender, who made 44 saves in the victory.
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“It’s head-scratching to fans, because you don’t always get to see everything that’s going on on the bench,” said captain King, when asked about the long goal-less runs during games this season. “We lost a guy (Tyler Pace) halfway through the second quarter (to a leg injury), so we were down to two righties on offence. So that means our two righties are playing the entire game, and if not, we’re playing with one of our defensive guys as a righty, who have no idea what they’re doing. And that happens.
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“And then there’s strings of plays where there’s a lot of penalties, so we don’t get into our flow or our chemistry,” continued King. “And you don’t touch the ball for five or six minutes.
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“So it’s a lot of things that a lot of people don’t realize that on offence, and it all takes a tax on you. You’re going out on your next shift and you’re like, ‘I gotta score.’ And that’s when you start making sloppy decisions.”
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It’s those mistakes they need to rectify down the stretch to make the run they dearly want.
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“Our job as an offence is to battle through that and make plays and go onto the floor with a good plan and make sure that when we do get our opportunities, we finish them,” King said. “You’ve got to watch some film. You’ve got to watch what’ll make you better for an offensive guy, how you’re shooting the ball, how you’re changing your angles …
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“I think our effort level on offence could have been a lot better. I was saying it during the game. We were going into tendencies of just running up and down the alleys of the play, and that makes it really easy for them. When you’re getting to the middle and moving guys, you open up the floor, so you’re getting shots that (goalies don’t) want to see.
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“Our job as an offence is to make it difficult for a defence, and if we don’t do that, we’re going to see games where we’re going to only put up six goals.”
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All that said, credit the first-place Bandits for their part in being party-poopers.
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Perfect on the road this NLL season and smarting from last weekend’s drubbing on their home floor at the hands of the Roughnecks, you knew it would be a challenge no matter the effort of the home side, which wasn’t the worst, for sure.
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The win lifts the Bandits to 10-2 and proved they are clearly the team to beat in this year’s NLL. Only the Saskatchewan Rush are perhaps in the same class, with a 10-4 record in second spot.
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The Roughnecks, meanwhile, drop to 7-7 in the midst of the dogfight for the final six playoff spots.
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So the loss certainly does hurt them.
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“We were stale for a good chunk of those possessions, and we wasted some possessions,” Sanderson said. “But it just wasn’t good enough. But we were really good last week, and I know we’ll bounce back next week. So we don’t want to hit the panic button.
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“We move on.”
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The San Diego Seals (6-6) are at the Rough House next Saturday night to play the host Roughnecks in a key battle of the playoff race (7 p.m., TSN).
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“We’re getting close to (needing) playoff lacrosse before we get to the playoffs here to make sure we get in,” added Sanderson. “We didn’t play that bad (Saturday).
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“We just have to fix a couple of things.”
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