The Rochester Knighthawks are opening on the road against the Washington Stealth in a very interesting matchup. Rochester won the 2012 NLL Championship while Washington was the one team to not make the playoffs.
Recently it was announced that Sid Smith will serve as the captain of the team with the retirement of Pat McCready. For Washington, they also have a new captain in Kyle Sorensen. Both teams have new look groups with Dan Dawson and Casey Powell joining Rochester and Washington losing Jeff Zywicki and Kyle Hartzell.
Rochester hosted Washington in 2012, where the Hawks won 15-12. Rhys Duch and Lewis Ratcliff had three goals each for the Stealth while Craig Point and Mike Accursi led Rochester with three each.
Over his career Dawson has 12 points against the Stealth, more than anyone on Rochester. Powell has 8 career points against Washington. Meanwhile, several Stealth players have strong careers against the Knighthawks. Leading the team is Ratcliff with 42 points in eight games. Athan Iannucci has 36 points while Duch has 24 in four games.
Obviously players like the ones mentioned above should be watched, especially for chemistry. Powell and Dawson played together in Boston, can they bring back that chemistry? Can Iannucci and Ratcliff share the ball like they did this summer in Langley?
Rochester has a lot of strong offensive players so it will be interesting to see their ball sharing. Of course they have Dawson and Powell, but they also have last season’s Championship MVP Cody Jamieson, not to mention young guns Stephen Keogh and Johnny Powless along with veterans Craig Point and Mike Accursi.
The key to this game is chemistry for both teams. Washington has some issues that did not get addressed, but they still have some stud scorers. Meanwhile, is the defense in front of Tyler Richards enough to shut down the potential powerhouse in Rochester? We will have to see.
Washington’s offense was their specialty when they went to back to back championship games and they still have the core in that. If they can score they can win games, even against a team that looks as solid as Rochester.
One important thing for Rochester is the veterans. They are a young team but with veterans like Dawson and Powell now there that makes an impact to have smart and savvy players distributing the ball.
Game time is at 10pm eastern tonight on YouTube in the NLL’s regular season opener.
