Any discussion about the Rochester Knighthawks involving the word defense needs to immediately start with Matt Vinc. The net minder has been the foundation of their three year championship run and was rewarded with his fourth career NLL Goaltender of the Year award; doubling the number anybody else has ever won. The Knighthawks tied for the second lowest shots against count in the league and Vinc was able to translate that into a league high 80% save percentage with the occasional help from Angus Goodleaf. It was fitting that the Knighthawks’ championship celebration started with the ball in Vinc’s possession after making 3 saves in the final 15 seconds of the game. Looking towards the 2015 season, Vinc will once again be a force in the net. In 2014, he recorded the third most minutes between the pipes of any goalie in the league and shows no signs of slowing down.
Goaltending is just one piece of the defensive puzzle. The five players in front decide how easy or how hard of a night the goalie will have. For the Knighthawks, Vinc has also been left in a great position due to the play of those other five on the floor. This defense is guided by the quiet leadership of Sid Smith. He doesn’t lead the team or even the defense in any particular statistical category, but he’s always in the middle of anything going on in the defensive end. There’s a reason that he’s been signed through the 2020 season. Smith has won championships at nearly every stop along his career. He has collected rings for NJCAA, NCAA (2), NLL (3), Minto Cup and Mann Cup (2) victories. His point totals will never be high, but he’s also rarely going to have a failed clear to his name having only eight turnovers last season.
Along with Smith is Paul Dawson who provides the Knighthawks’ size down low. The rest of the regular crew is Mike Kirk, Scott Self, Scott Campbell, Mac Allen, Jon Sullivan and Ian Llord. Dylan Evans also play out of the back door and takes nearly all of the team’s face-offs, finishing just under 50% on the year. Brad Self adds to the defense as a transition player who consistently provides a spark for the team on fast breaks. Both Selfs and Evans are the only Knighthawks who broke the 100 loose ball count over the last season while Campbell was the turnover leader for the team. The main sticking point for this group is that if you ignore the transition players, no defender cracked the ten point threshold on the season. This isn’t a defense designed to run, it’s meant to control their half of the floor and then let the offense do their job.
The only major departure from this unit was transition man Joel McCready. His 29 points was the most for any non offensive player while his loose ball and turnover counts were right on par with the rest of the defense. Trying to replace him are a few rookies in Zac Reid, Anthony Patterson, Brier Jonathan, and Zach Willliams. Those are a lot of names trying to break into this veteran unit, which will make this a very interesting camp to watch. The average experience for their regular contributors is 9 seasons in the NLL The shortest tenure is 4 years for anyone with significant playing time. This does make things ripe for a possible youth movement in the Knighthawks defense, but past history wouldn’t suggest that this is likely.
The Knighthawks’ three year championship run has been dominated by consistency. Each year they have one of the best defenses in the league while only changing a few pieces at a time. 2015 gives no reason to suggest that this will change based on the roster moves to date. They definitely won’t be turning in near shutouts each night, but they’ll continue to play Knighthawks lacrosse; grinding out wins and making opposing teams work hard for every point the get.
