The Toronto Rock will look to get a second win this weekend, after beating the Buffalo Bandits at home on Friday night, and stay undefeated on the season as they travel to Rochester to take on the Knighthawks. The Knighthawks have yet to win a game this season, and actually already lost to the Rock in Week One, 13-12.
Toronto lately seems to be a team that just can’t be stopped. They won last night 13-11 over Buffalo, and the week prior had a convincing 20-11 victory over the Vancouver Stealth. Many people doubted this Rock team coming into the season, after both Colin Doyle and Garrett Billings went down with injuries. However many players stepped up to the plate, and excelled in their roles. A player I thought so far has done a really great job in this is Josh Sanderson.
Sanderson has always had a really good reputation around the league, and has had some very good seasons. A lot of people have been questioning if he’s going to retire soon, but so far, he’s proven he can be as dominant as anyone in the league. While he can put balls in the back of the net, his strong suit is feeding the ball. As of now, he has 26 points on the season in only three games, making him the league leader in points (4G+22A). This would put him on track to score 156 points by the end of the season! Rob Helleyer has also proven he can put up the points, and is going to be a real key player in this game.
As for goaltending, Brandon Miller showed in the first two weeks that he is a brick wall between the pipes, but Nick Rose had a good showing in the game last night. My guess is that they’ll put Miller in, as Rose played the first of the back to back, but whoever they put in, should put in a great game.
Rochester has struggled a lot. They need to start picking up the slack, or they’re going to be in trouble. The Hawks are no strangers to having bad first couple of games. In 2013, the Knighthawks started the season out 0-3, and turned it around to get their second straight NLL Championship. In 2011 they had a similar deal, going 1-4 to start the season, but again turned it around to win the Championship. This game however I think should be the turning point, they’ve had time to fix what went wrong in the past three games, and are at home, which always is a plus. The biggest improvement the Hawks need to make, is in their offense.
In their New England game, the offense just could not pass the ball. They’d make two or three passes, then someone misses the pass, or it was a bad pass, and suddenly the other team has the ball and is on a fast break. They need to slow the game down and shoot from prime scoring areas. While a goal form the restraining line might look a cool highlight reel goal, those shoots only go in maybe one in every twenty shots, and are easy saves for goalies. They need to have guys like Jamieson or Dawson get closer near the net, cutting in through the middle to get a good angled shot. If you shoot from the far corner of the crease (unless it’s a quick stick) is a bad angle, and you should look for cutters through the middle, because that’s a great place to feed from.
Matt Vinc also needs to get back on his game, and look like the defending NLL Goalie of the Year that he is, because the past couple games, he was letting in some soft shots. Albeit, the defense also needs to help him out is he is struggling, and can’t let guys walk in. The Hawks have a pretty good defensive unit being led by guys like Sid Smith and Paul Dawson, and need to play aggressively against a team like the Rock if they want to win.
Overall this will be a very close game I believe. The Rock have proven they can play high quality lacrosse without Doyle or Billings, while the Hawks have a proven track record that they start rebounding after the first couple of games. I predict the Hawks take this game 14-12.
