It has always been said that defense wins championships. Well, someone should inform the Colorado Mammoth of that. The Mammoth made it into the first round of playoffs last year with an unimpressive 7-9 mark to eventually lose to Calgary who has been the kryptonite that past couple of post seasons. Last year Colorado’s’ defense and goaltending was mediocre at best. Not at of it was necessarily their fault either. With a couple of big season ending injuries early in the year the Mammoth were losing an uphill battle.
Out of the trades that the Mammoth pursued this year one of the bigger ones that sticks out in my mind would be the Drew Westervelt acquisition where I believe the Mammoth team made out like Bandits! With Jr. on the left and Westy on the right this is a one two punch that teams should be afraid to face. Going back to last year a trade that didn’t necessarily make a whole lot of sense to some is the Casey Powell trade. While no team is ever going to complain about having one of the Powell brothers on their roster they gave a solid defenseman in Jon Sullivan and defense is where they struggled. Casey did bring a great amount of effort and put a little pep in the step of the Mammoth, I would rather have a defensive leader then a morale leader especially if it is a position where my team is really struggling.
In one of the biggest trades in recent NLL history the Mammoth acquired their team-leading scorer John Grant Jr. Jr is just a prolific scorer who can put the ball in the net from just about anywhere on the floor. Was it worth what the Mammoth gave up mostly in standout goalie Matt Vinc? While Rochester just won back to back titles it may look like they had gotten the upper hand in the trade. Only time will tell, and lets hope the Mammoth can come back with a couple more trades to bolster up that mediocre defense of theirs.
