Off-season changes for the Vancouver Warriors didn’t pan out in game one of the 2022-23 NLL season, a devastating 19-8 loss to the Toronto Rock on Saturday night at FirstOntario Centre.
The Warriors, who have finished last in the West Division each year since 2016 (when they were still the Stealth and playing in Langley), made changes this summer that they hoped would turn the team’s luck around.
Mitch Jones returned from a season lost to injury. They brought in free agent Shawn Evans, who at 36, is still one of the best playmakers in the game. They fired head coach Chris Gill and assistant coach Kaleb Toth and brought in Troy Cordingley and Phil Sanderson.
But none of it mattered against the high-powered Toronto Rock, who made the Warriors pay on both offense and defense. Jones was held to a single goal (though he added four assists); Evans didn’t suit up as it was revealed he’s still nursing an ankle injury suffered during summer ball; and well, Matt Sawyer and co. had the upper hand coaching on their home floor with a roster barely tweaked from last season’s East Division final.
“A little slice of humble pie at the beginning of the year could be a good thing for us,” said Logan Schuss after the game. “You have to look at the positives when you can.”
The Rock got the jump on the Warriors early, leading by six before Riley Loewen ducked around a defender to get Vancouver on the board.
Adam Charalambides scored twice in the second and Jones wired in a power play goal, but the Warriors were down 13-4.
Schuss is glad to have his friend and teammate Jones back on the left side of the ball.
“Mitch just brings a whole different level to our offense,” he said. “Our team in general is great on loose balls, and he works so hard for loose balls and gets back on defense sometimes. Having a guy like him back is great for us.”
Jones led all Warriors with 10 shots and 11 loose balls.
Things didn’t improve in the third, with the Rock scoring three to Owen Barker’s transition goal. In the fourth, each team scored three times including one power play goal each.
The Warriors were granted four power play opportunities but only managed to score on one, though they did tie the Rock 3-3 in the period. Schuss scored the team’s eighth goal, setting a pick and then taking Jones’ flip pass and extending his arms to put the ball past Nick Rose’s right arm.
In addition to the offense, Vancouver struggled on the power play at 2/9 and at the face-off dot, winning just seven of 32 draws with Tyrell Hamer-Jackson on the IR.
Steve Fryer made 38 saves on 51 shots, while Aden Walsh made 10 saves on 16 shots. Fryer started the game was pulled after the Rock’s fifth goal, but then replaced Walsh after the 11th Toronto goal.
The Warriors are right back in action this Saturday, December 10th when they visit the Calgary Roughnecks, who will then visit Rogers Arena for the Warriors home opener on Friday, December 16th.
“We had a lot of things we can clean up,” Schuss admitted. “This just makes us want to work harder and do more film before the game, and work out harder before the week starts.”
