With some really great feelings after the first weekend of camp, there is a lot of momentum going into our second weekend. The time line for this weekend is much the same as the previous one without the long trip to Rochester.
At Friday’s practice coaches pushed us pretty hard, and with a few cuts already made it meant extra reps for everyone. Coach Sully’s practices are up-tempo and do a great job of keeping the players accountable with their offseason training. If you come to camp out of shape Sully will expose it quickly and Friday’s practice was a great test to that. He’s not one of those coaches who just puts you on the boards and makes you sprint. He gets his conditioning in lacrosse specific and in game situation drills. Our coaching staff as a whole pushed us early and often, leading into systems and game planning for us to continue to move forward and be ready for tomorrow’s game.
After practice the boys all got together and headed over to Boston Pizza in Oakville for a little team dinner and the Ultimate fighter finally.
Saturday’s game against Colorado was our final preseason game and the last true measure to where our team is at before the season/home opener. This game was back and fourth the whole night and had a little bit of everything in it (Highlight real goals by Grant, a couple of huge hits, some big saves by all the goalies and some rookies proving they belong). We ended up tying the game with 0.4 seconds left by a pretty goal from Matisz. We ended up taking the game in the shootout to accomplish our goal of winning all of our preseason games.
A couple of highlights that really stood out to me was obviously how John Grant Jr. is still such a special player, even playing against him you have to step back and just appreciate a player like that. The other to me was the play of rookie Shane MacDonald. I really like the way this kid plays as he brings a new element to our offence. He has a lot of grit and battles non-stop. It is easy for us to focus on a player like Miles Thompson as he is one of the biggest names in lacrosse right now and is an incredible player. This may lead to a player like Shane to fly under the radar a bit but I really think the fans in Minnesota will love the way he plays. I am looking forward to see him grow through the course of this season.
We finished up with a shoot around Sunday morning then off to the airport with the Minnesota guys and Suitor. We got to watch most of the Bills game and enjoy them beating the Packers. Suitor and I had a couple of interviews and events to attend in town then finally back home to the family Tuesday morning.
One more camp to go before the start of season.
