Tonight the Toronto Rock and Rochester Knighthawks will face off in the Air Canada Centre seeking their first victories of 2016. Rochester fell at home in week two to the Colorado Mammoth, while the Rock lost in the first ever home game for the Georgia Swarm.
Rochester saw plenty of positives in its loss, including 14 goals despite losing and also a strong night from Cody Jamieson returning from a torn ACL.
“That first one was a big one, it’s a confidence builder,” said Jamieson via knighthawks.com. “I have been waiting a long time for that. I told all the guys you want to get comfortable early, so I knew what I was going to do the whole time.”
Dylan Evans and backup goalie Angus Goodleaf should both be ready for tonight’s game for the Knighthawks. Toronto is still banged up, with Damon Edwards, Scott Johnston, Kevin Ross, and Josh Sanderson all on the PUP list. Bill Greer, another defenseman, was added to injured reserve this week so practice player Brad Kri was added to the active roster.
Each team boasts three first year players, and they all made an impact for the Knighthawks in week one.
“Bomberry, Hossack and Gillies all played well,” said Knighthawks head coach Mike Hasen in the team press release. “Our biggest thing for them was to just go and play. ‘Abbey’ (Bomberry) logged a lot of minutes taking faceoffs; Gillies had a good game in our end and transitioned the ball for us with confidence, and Hossack played very solid ‘D’ and scored two big goals. It was a good start for all of them.”
For the Rock, it is expected that first round pick Dan Lintner will make his NLL debut tonight, and Turner Evans and Luc Magnon will see their first home game.
Last week the Rock struggled to score with just seven tallies on the night. Fifty goal scorer Brett Hickey scored just once and Colin Doyle struggled, ending with a major penalty at the end of the contest. Rochester is a much tighter defense, despite giving up 16 goals to a potent Colorado team, so Toronto will need players like Hickey and Rob Hellyer to step up.
“Our offence is a bit of a concern right now,” said head coach John Lovell to the Toronto Star. “But we have the pieces . . . it’s just a matter of gelling together a little bit better.”
Ross coming back soon should aid the team’s offense, which is one of the oldest in the league. Lovell has stated that he believes the team isn’t too old, but there have to be concerns after being defeated by a young Georgia roster.
“Anybody who is a fan of lacrosse and knows the league knows it’s a difficult league and any team can beat another team on a given night.” Lovell said to the Star. “We won a lot of tight games last year, and that’s the nature of the game sometimes.”
