This season was not a great year for the Toronto Rock. Coming into the 2014 season the Rock were looked at as one of the favorites to win the eastern title and dethrone the Rochester Knighthawks. The Rock finished with a 9-9 record and made the playoffs but were defeated by their rivals the Buffalo Bandits in the first round.
The story of the Rock season had to be blown leads, especially late in games. As the Rock all season long would get off to great starts in the first half of games but then completely fall apart in the second half of the game which allowed teams to comeback and steal victories. The Rock’s inability to close out games cursed them all season long. If the Rock would have been able to keep a consistent effort for 60 minutes, the season may have been a different story.
The other huge problem for the Rock was goaltending. Nick Rose struggled all year and finished with a 6-8 record along with a 12.28 Goals Against Average which was a step down from his 2013 form. The Rock tried to fill the hole in net using goalies Stephen Fryer, Zak Boychuck and Brandon Miller. Out of the four goalies Miller had the best season going 3-1 with an 8.85 Goals Against Average after being acquired from Philadelphia. Miller, while older and a free agent, will have a chance to return to Toronto and pick up more starts in 2015.
The Rock’s offense was their greatest strength all season as Garrett Billings once again shined scoring 32 goals and notching 69 assists for 101 points before being placed on the inured reserved list after tearing his ACL on Saturday April 5 in a game against the Vancouver Stealth. Two players who stepped up for the Rock this year were Stephan Leblanc and Rob Hellyer. Leblanc improved from his 2013 season where he put up 58 points to putting up 88 points in 2014 as he scored 45 goals and had 43 assists. Hellyer as well had a massive improvement from his 2013 season where he only had 11 points in nine games to 2014 where he had 79 points in 18 games scoring 29 goals and notching 50 assists. The Rock offense, if it can stay healthy next year, will be a force to be reckoned with.
The biggest thing that the Rock look at this offseason is their defense as they need to find some way to improve it for next year. They even attempted to bring Cam Woods out of retirement, the defense struggled so badly. The Rock’s defense was their Achilles heel all season and if Nick Rose can regain his form in 2015 they will be in a good spot to win some games. All in all 2014 was not a horrible season for the Rock but it definitely was not the one they were expecting.
