IL Indoor

Matt Vinc and a youthful Knighthawks team look to slow down the steaming hot Colorado Mammoth Saturday night. (Photo: Martin Allison)

The action is heating up in the 2012 National Lacrose League season, and this weekend is likely to be one of the best yet, as all nine teams take the floor this weekend. It sure isn’t easy picking the winners in a league as competitive as this, but we trudge on.

Thus far, Ty Pilson is still in the lead here, and we’re gaining on him a little bit. But that’s only because Week 3 turned out to be a tough one overall for the Staff Pick ‘Em.

This week, we asked our crew to toss out some comments on each of the games, and you can see how some of our staffers see this weekend shaping up. Check it all out after the jump. (Read More…)

There's a group of Calgary fans that want Derrick back for the Riggers. (Photo: Bring Back Derrick Driller Facebook page)

Junior found his game, but the Roughnecks found some controversy in the most unlikely of places. Brett Bucktooth found a National Lacrosse League job, and the North American Lacrosse League found the start of a season. And what’s going on in the NLL with all these talented rookies? It’s not like we didn’t tell ya these kids have some skill. Another week, another line of stories to look back on in the world of lacrosse. Oh, and not only did John Grant Jr. find his game, he found a new seat among the greats of the game. It’s not like he needed this particular plateau to validate his career, but being alongside some of the game’s legendary names certainly doesn’t hinder his status as one of the game’s greats, if not the greatest. (Read More…)

Mark Matthews (right) and Cameron Flint (centre) are among the players protected by MSL teams before the 2012 draft. (Photo: Aaron Ontiveroz, Denver Post)

Major Series Lacrosse holds its annual draft of graduating junior players this Saturday, January 28 and teams have announced their protected players. Each team is allowed to protect two players from the OLA Junior team with which it is affiliated. The biggest name in this year’s pool will not be available to be drafted, as Mark Matthews of the Whitby Warriors has been protected by the Brooklin Redmen. That’s no surprise, given that Matthews is the favourite to be the top pick in the 2012 National Lacrosse League draft. The other top candidate for this year’s NLL talent lottery, transition player Brock Sorensen, was protected by Peterborough in last year’s draft. After the jump, see the full list of protected players for all six teams. (Read More…)

Colin Doyle and the Rock hope to turn around their 0-2 start with a pair of games this weekend. (Photo: Martin Allinson)

The Toronto Rock have said it more than a few times in this young National Lacrosse League season. They’re not panicked by the 0-2 start just a few months after winning the NLL championship, but they also realize that with 2 games this weekend, it’s an important weekend. At home Friday against Rochester and at Calgary on Saturday, the Rock know an 0-2 weekend will put them in a very difficult 0-4 hole. “We would realize if we don’t grab a win this week then, yeah, maybe we ask a few more questions than we have up to this point,” GM Terry Sanderson said on this week’s conference call. “It’s too early to panic with a veteran team like this. It’s not as if we were playing poor teams. We played two very good teams. We could be at the top of our game and still get beat by those two clubs.” (Read More…)

Big news from the National Lacrosse League office today. Nine regular season games and the 2012 All-Star Game will be carried live on ESPN3, the league announced this afternoon. The agreement begins with the Rochester at Toronto matchup tomorrow night at the Air Canada Centre. Saturday’s Rock game in Calgary will also be shown, along with seven other Toronto games. A total of 5 Rock home games and 4 road tilts will be aired, along with the All-Star Game from Buffalo on Saturday February 25. See the full release after the jump. (Read More…)

Eric Hoffman gives Kevin Crowley a celebratory ride after the rookie's overtime goal against Washington. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

With the new rules encouraging transition scoring opportunities in the National Lacrosse League this year, there was a lot of talk about defenders getting up the floor, and we’ve seen that happening frequently in the first 3 weeks of the 2012 season. What we didn’t anticipate was forwards heading back to play more D in an attempt to limit odd-man breaks. While there hasn’t been a flood of shooters scrambling back to their own zone, there’s been enough of a trickle to make us wonder if it’s a trend in the making or just some responsible players doing what they thought needed to be done. The IL Indoor Roundtable panel of Stephen Stamp, Bob Chavez, Ty Pilson and Teddy Jenner talk about what’s going on and things even get a little feisty, after the jump. (Read More…)

Drew Petkoff

DREW PETKOFF ACTIVATED FROM INJURED RESERVE
Rookie Jesse Gamble Released

Toronto – Toronto Rock General Manager Terry Sanderson announced today that Defenceman Drew Petkoff has been activated from the Injured Reserve List and placed on the Active Roster.  To make room on the Active Roster for Petkoff, the Rock released rookie Jesse Gamble.  The transactions are pending league approval.

Petkoff is now eligible to play in his first game since injuring his knee on April 1, 2011 against the Washington Stealth.  The tenacious defender required season ending knee surgery but feels he’s made a positive progression through training camp and the early part of the season. (Read More…)

Will John Grant Jr. and the Colorado Mammoth keep their impressive pace going this weekend? Tell us what you think.

Week 4 of the 2012 National Lacrosse League season brings numerous contest that should be great match-ups, and perhaps we’ll learn a lot more about the character of the nine clubs, as each will play at least once over the course of the weekend.

The slate is really an exciting one, with the Rock and the Khawks meeting for the first time this season, the 2-0 Bandits taking on a Philly crew with some momentum and a rematch on Saturday night between a so-far-winless Toronto club and Calgary. Then on Saturday, there’s an intriguing contest between the red hot Colorado Mammoth and Rochester.

As you can probably tell from the staff pick ‘em, if you’ve been following, there’s not too many easy picks this season, at least not yet. It seems, like has been the case in recent seasons, anything can happen on a given weekend.

So fans, who ya got?

(Read More…)

Lewis Ratcliff and the Stealth offense are still searching for their groove in an 0-2 start. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

So Colorado is 3-0, Washington and Toronto, the participants in the last 2 National Lacrosse League title games, are a combined 0-4, and your fantasy team is losing again. Such is the nature of the beast for an NLL season. Just when we think we know what’s going on, we’re taught a lesson much like Knighthawks coach Mike Hasen said was offered to his team against Buffalo last week. But if things were predictable, we’d lead boring lives, right? Right. Onward we head into the new weekend of the NLL and if you’re wondering what’s on the minds of the brain trust for your favorite team, click on the “read more” tag and we’ll fill ya in as best we can. (Read More…)

Brett Bucktooth is joining the Washington Stealth (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

One of the most surprising names to appear on the list when teams announced their final cuts in December was Brett Bucktooth. Although he hadn’t quite lived up to the advance billing yet, Buffalo’s third overall pick from the 2006 draft is a talented forward who appeared in the 2011 National Lacrosse League All-Star Game. He was a victim of the concentrated talent of the nine-team NLL. So it’s less surprising that he has  surfaced as one of the first players to join a new club as injuries begin to affect rosters. With a struggling Jeff Zwycki being placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list because of a nagging injury from last summer, the Washington Stealth have signed Bucktooth and hope he will help an offense that hasn’t been firing on all cylinders as it scored just 19 goals in a pair of losses to start the season. After the jump, read more about Bucktooth’s arrival in Everett plus the links. (Read More…)