In spite of having one of the top three goaltenders in the NLL and a veteran backup, the Edmonton Rush selected two more goalies in the entry draft last month. With their second pick, 13th overall, the Rush chose Alberta native Adam Shute. Shute played junior box for the Coquitlam Adanacs where he helped get the team to the postseason after a slow start. Interestingly, he also played attack for…
The Edmonton Rush gave up the fewest goals (157) in the NLL last season en route to a league-best 16-2 record. Although they came up shy in the playoffs, getting bested by the Calgary Roughnecks in the West Division finals, the Rush looked invincible at times, especially on the defensive end. Scarily enough, they could actually get better on the back end in 2015. Edmonton had at least one representative…
Edmonton Rush forward Corey Small missed the entire 2014 NLL season. During the WLA playoffs in the summer of 2013 Small tore his ACL while playing for the Victoria Shamrocks. As a result he had to sit on the sidelines while the Rush set an NLL record by winning 14 straight games to start 2014. Things should be a little different in 2015. Back with the Shamrocks over the summer,…
With the 2014 NLL Draft now in the books we can start speculating about which of the rookies will stand out among the rest. Interestingly, only four times in the last decade has the Rookie of the Year also been the first pick overall: Logan Schuss this past season, Mark Matthews the previous year, Ryan Benesch in 2007 and Brodie Merrill in 2006. So getting picked first is no guarantee…
The Edmonton Rush set an NLL record for consecutive wins during the 2014 season, but faltered at the end and found themselves eliminated from the playoffs during the West Division Finals, leaving them short of their goal of getting to their second Champion’s Cup. So although the season has to be thought of as a successful one, it looks like there may still be some room to improve going forward….
In his rookie season, Riley Loewen made an immediate impact on the Edmonton Rush’s offense. He contributed 17 goals and 19 assists to a team that needed help after the loss of Corey Small to a knee injury in the offseason. Small had been third on the team in scoring in 2013 with 64 points so there were question marks about whether Edmonton’s offense could remain competitive in 2014 without…
This off season we plan on going one on one with every general manager in the National Lacrosse League to discuss the latest news. We spoke with Derek Keenan of the Edmonton Rush this week. Below are notes on four main areas of preseason talk with NLL teams. Free Agency: They are both important [John Lafontaine and Adrian Sorichetti] young players to our team. Both just 24 and although experienced I believe still have…
After a very disappointing season by the Minnesota Swarm, in which the team went 4-14 and scored fewer than 200 goals on the season, the Swarm have been one of the more active teams in this offseason. They have already thrown out their usual playbook of acquiring as many draft picks as possible and started to trade away some of their horded surplus of picks. Sticking to the game plan…
For the third time in franchise history the Calgary Roughnecks are headed to the Champion’s Cup after coming back from a massive deficit to eliminate the Edmonton Rush. The Rush, who finished the regular season with the NLL’s best record at 16-2, won the early game on Saturday night by a 15-13 margin, but the Roughnecks dominated the mini-game that followed, taking a 2-1 win and the series. Things didn’t…
Photo Credit: Calgary Roughnecks The Calgary Roughnecks haven’t been to a Champion’s Cup in five years. They’ll be trying to break that dry spell Friday night in Edmonton when they face the Rush in Game 2 of the West Division Final series. The Rush meanwhile, will be looking to get back on track after being upset 12-11 in overtime by the Roughnecks last weekend. At 16-2, they had the best…