The Toronto Rock are 0-5.
Wait, what?
Nope, it’s true. The 2015 Eastern Division champions have yet to win a game less than a year removed from their last trip to the NLL final.
The games they have lost so far have all been divisional games versus Georgia, Rochester, and Buffalo. The Rock are dead last in the NLL.
In their first four games, the Rock didn’t score more than seven goals while allowing 12 in each game. Seven goals won’t win you many lacrosse games.
Seventeen should though, which is what the Rock exploded for on Friday night at the Air Canada Centre vs the Georgia Swarm. Seventeen goals should be more than enough to send an opponent home in tears.
But it wasn’t. The high flying Swarm potted 20 against the Rock who struggled mightily on defense. There were countless lead changes, with the Rock unable to hold momentum for more than four goals at a time while Georgia went on a seven goal run to sandwich halftime.
They’re halfway there. After a week of intense preparation, they found their offense. Rob Hellyer had 10 points, Colin Doyle 8, and Stephan Leblanc 7. Their big guns came to play.
Transition was the best it’s been this season. Defensemen Brodie Merrill and Rob Marshall chipped in goals while Brock Sorensen had four assists, and two great chances in the Georgia end.
“We need to play at a faster pace,” Sorensen said. “Our offense plays best when we’re attacking quickly and that starts with our back end. Billy Hostrawser had a couple big goals last game and we had Merrill tonight, Rob Marshall tonight. Things are coming together, we’re getting there slowly.”
“It makes a big difference when those guys get moving and we have four or five that can do that,” captain Colin Doyle said about Friday’s transition effort. “I even noticed last game Sorensen doing a better job getting up the floor for us. When we’re not scoring goals like we weren’t, every little bit helps. I think they took note of that and they brought their game and yes, it made a huge difference because it enabled us to get some guys free off the bench for some easier looks.”
Defense hasn’t been terrible. Goaltending has been perfectly acceptable. Giving up twelve goals a game, while not ideal, is basically normal in lacrosse. That Toronto doesn’t seem to have a number one goaltender yet is not a problem for the players because they know just how good Nick Rose and Brandon Miller can be, and will be.
“We’re confident in both of our guys regardless of who’s going in every night,” Sorensen said.
“I don’t think we’ve been particularly good in front of them,” Doyle expressed. “I said going into this game that it’s unfair to ask our defense and goaltenders to hold teams for 15-20 minute stretches. They just can’t do that in this league, players are just too good, so realistically it’s been on us. Were they at their best tonight? No, absolutely not. How good were they a year ago when they carried us? So they can still do this, they had an off night. They’ve been the backbone of this team and I think they will be again.”
Prior to the game, players were energized and speaking of new beginnings after a week of hard work in preparation.
“Practice Tuesday was just on a different level,” captain Colin Doyle said. “We were getting after each other and the emotion was back. We really play hard and it carried in to today’s shoot around and right into the game today. “We showed a ton of guts… This result is going to turn around at some point. We have to make some changes obviously to make sure the losses don’t keep happening.”
“They shot the ball very well around screens,” Sorensen said of the Swarm. “I thought we closed the gap and jumped out on shooters a little bit better. If you go back tomorrow and look at that tape a lot of those goals are going bar and in or very close to it so that’s something that we know we have to improve on, we cant let them set their feet and shoot.”
The Rock have a bye week coming up which they’ll use to work on changing the tone of the season. The break couldn’t come at a better time. After such an emotional game the players will take the week to reflect on what went right and what they still have to improve.
“We’ll taken any positive we can get,” Doyle said. “We can get some guys healthy and back and that’s a good thing. It gives us a week to get better, a week to look at things and find some meaning in this. I felt we had some tonight but it gives us another week to prepare for a team we need to beat two weeks from now.”
The Rock face the 2-1 New England Black Wolves next on February 14.
