While it’s still early in the NLL regular season, the Vancouver Stealth aren’t doing themselves any favours with a lacklustre performance in a 20-9 loss to the Colorado Mammoth Saturday night.
The Mammoth scored 17 of the final 22 goals after being down 4-3 three minutes into the second quarter, paced by four goal games from Adam Jones and Alex Turner. The more troubling fact is the uninterrupted runs the Mammoth continually went on to put the game out of reach – they went on runs of six and five goals in the second and third quarters, respectively. Moreover, Colorado outscored the Stealth 12-3 in the middle frames of the game and dominated Vancouver in important facets of the game such as shots on goal and face-offs.
Stealth general manager Doug Locker said he “didn’t like the compete level” of his team in talking to The Province reporter Steve Ewen on Sunday. Despite not having key players like Rory Smith and Tyler Garrison in the lineup, the Stealth either need some heroic goaltending performances or some serious refinement in their defensive structure to keep games closer. The Stealth have allowed 17 goals a game and at least 55 shots in every game this season – not exactly a recipe for success.
Maintaining a lead would go a long way for both the confidence of the team and the offense. If they can get into balanced sets and work the ball around, they’re a dangerous team that offers both a cutting motion game and several sharpshooters on the perimeter. Some of this can come from adjustments – the Stealth coaching staff haven’t been all that proactive in ushering in any changes beyond the acquisition of Corey Small.
However, it simply cannot be broken down to the Stealth not competing hard enough. The offense doesn’t get enough second-chance opportunities and the ball stays on the perimeter far too much, leaving the defense to clean up the mess. But the defense is still conceding far too many shots and they don’t have the requisite goaltending at this point to keep them in games.
It begs the question as to why another offensive player was brought in, particularly for such a high price tag. Scoring has not been an issue for Vancouver this year with games of 18 and 13 goals. An upgrade in the crease would be a much needed upgrade. Tyler Richards is struggling and it’s not fair to neither team or player that Eric Penney is the backup when he clearly is not ready to play NLL ball.
Excuses only have so much run for the Stealth, especially after things spiralled out of control so quickly last season.
They have a rare second chance to find a much needed win Saturday when the Mammoth are at the LEC for the second half of their home-and-home series.
