The 2015 NLL season is just days away and the Edmonton Rush appear to be tuned up and ready to go.
The Rush played two scrimmages in the preseason and won them both decisively. They beat the Vancouver Stealth on Dec. 8 by a 13-6 score, then took out their cross-provincial rivals, the Calgary Roughnecks, by an 11-3 score last weekend.
All signs are currently pointing to the Rush looking as strong or better this year than they were last year when they went 16-2 during the regular season. Giving up just nine goals in two preseason games, the defense appears to be in midseason form.
Rookie Ben McIntosh seems to be fitting in well, having scored a couple goals against the Stealth. Corey Small also seems to be rounding back into his 2013 form after missing the 2014 season with a knee injury. Small chipped in with a goal against the Roughnecks.
After finishing the 2014 season with the second-best offense in the NLL (220 goals for), the return of Small and the arrival of McIntosh appear to be enough to make up for the loss of Curtis Knight, who is on the PUP list with a knee injury. If Mark Matthews and Robert Church continue to progress, the Rush might actually be more dangerous.
But the real talk has to be how good the defense is looking already. Already the best defense in the NLL, if they’re holding teams to four or five goals per game, they’ll have a very real chance to run the table this year and erase the memories of their early exit from the playoffs in 2014.
