The Vancouver Stealth will host the Edmonton Rush Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre in a pre-season scrimmage that will pit the best regular-season team in the NLL last year against the worst.
The Rush compiled a 16-2 record in the 2014 season, including a record-setting 14-game winning streak to start the year, before getting stopped in their tracks by the Calgary Roughnecks in the West Division Finals. The Stealth meanwhile stumbled to a 4-12 season and last place.
Vancouver will be trying out a new-look lineup after making a number of key roster changes during the offseason. The offensive unit has been bolstered by the acquisition of Johnny Powless from the Rochester Knighthawks. At the ripe old age of 21, Powless already has three championship rings and is coming off a season where he scored a career-high 30 goals, indicating that he’s just getting better and better.
Powless joins an offense that features star righty Rhys Duch, along with solid secondary scoring in Lewis Ratcliff, Cliff Smith and sophomore Tyler Digby. The Stealth combined for 181 goals last year, just a fraction more than 10 per game, so they’ll be looking to Powless to add some firepower.
Vancouver also picked up transition Joel McCready from the Knighthawks. McCready joins Tyler Hass, acquired from the Minnesota Swarm, and Kyle Belton, acquired from the Connecticut Black Wolves, to form a completely new right side transition unit.
The defense will be dealing with the absence of their captain, Kyle Sorensen, who is injured, but they’ve also been bolstered by adding Rory Smith from the Buffalo Bandits.
The bulk of the goaltending duties should once again fall on the shoulders of Tyler Richards, who is a proven winner in this league. However, in this scrimmage, expect to see Matt Roik log some time, as well as newcomer Eric Penny and possiblt also Cody Hagedorn.
Incredibly enough, Edmonton might actually be better this year than last year.
Corey Small will be back in the lineup after missing last season due to injury. The Kitten’s presence on offense will add depth to a group that was second in the NLL in scoring in 2014 (220 goals). In addition, first-overall draft pick Ben McIntosh will add yet another weapon to squad that includes snipers Mark Matthews, Curtis Knight, Zack Greer and Robert Church.
Jeremy Thompson is developing into one of the top faceoff men in the NLL and can be a game-changer at both ends of the floor as Edmonton’s top transition player.
The Rush’s smothering defensive unit includes Defensive Player of the Year Kyle Rubisch, runner up Chris Corbeil, and loose ball machines Brett Mydske and Jeff Cornwall. PLUS they have five other men who would be front-line defensemen on every other team in the league. Getting a good look at the Edmonton net will once again be a challenge at the best of times.
And in that net once again will be Aaron Bold, who was among the league leaders in most every goaltending category. Backing him up this year will be former Swarm goalie Tyler Carlson who should see his fair share of minutes in this scrimmage.
