IL Indoor

Rochester's Pat McCready, left, will play in his seventh Champion's Cup game on Saturday. (Photo: Ward Laforme Jr.)

The Rochester Knighthawks last won a National Lacrosse League title in 2007 and from that team, forward Mike Accursi is the only player on today’s Knighthawks roster. Current coach Mike Hasen and assistant Pat O’Toole were members of that 2007 title team, but their roles obviously are different today. The interesting twist here is that the Edmonton Rush have 3 players on their current roster who were on that 2007 Rochester team. Shawn Williams and Steve Toll are expected to suit up for the Rush, and Scott Evans, who has been inactive through the playoffs for Edmonton, have 2007 Rochester rings. And as long as we’re talking championship game experience, don’t count out the Rush simply because it’s their first appearance in the Champion’s Cup game. By our count, 7 different Rush players have 15 man games on the NLL’s grandest stage, including forward Tom Johnson playing in his third straight. Rochester has 5 players with 14 man games. Just something to consider as we head into our final Team Reports for the 2012 season. (Read More…)

Colorado's John Grant Jr. leads the parade of NLL All-Pros for the 2012 season. (Photo: Ward Laforme Jr.)

Defenseman Kyle Rubisch and goaltender Aaron Bold of the Edmonton Rush and forward Cody Jamieson of the Rochester Knighthawks were among 13 players named to the National Lacrosse League’s 2012 All-Pro teams on Thursday. All three are looking to add “2012 NLL Champions” to their resume. The Knighthawks and Rush will play in the NLL Championship Game, presented by Reebok Lacrosse, 7:30 p.m. Saturday night from the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y., in a game that will be televised live on CBS Sports Network. (Read More…)

Dave Pym of the Calgary Roughnecks gets ILIndoor's nod as top coach of the 2012 season. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

The Calgary Roughnecks had the talent. It was just a matter of getting it to work together. And that’s easier said than done in a lot of cases. Egos can get in the way, the ball’s not big enough for all the sticks, and this play should be for me, not him. So having that talent on a single page to the point that it translates into team success in the National Lacrosse League is the key. And finding the captain to steer that ship isn’t an easy task, but the Roughnecks have just that captain in Dave Pym. And it’s Dave Pym who this season, in guiding the Roughnecks to a 12-4 record in the regular season and the top overall seed for the NLL playoffs, is ILIndoor’s Coach of the Year. (Read More…)

Check out the promo CBS Sports Network is running to hype up Saturday’s National Lacrosse League Champion’s Cup game between the Edmonton Rush and the Rochester Knighthawks.

Sniper Garrett Billings returns to Langley as the Thunder eye a return to the Mann Cup finals. (Photo: Jeff Vinnick)

Garrett Billings is heading back West. The scoring star for the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League who played MSL last summer with Six Nations, has re-signed with his old team, the WLA’s Langley Thunder. And he expects to be dressed for Sunday’s opener against the Nanaimo Timbermen, where he’ll join an offense that already has Lewis Ratcliff and Athan Iannucci. The Thunder, who lost to Brampton in last year’s Mann Cup finals, are understandably excited. “You pair Garrett with Lewis (Ratcliff) and Athan (Iannucci) and we have a potentially devastating offensive line-up,” Langley Thunder governor Rob Buchan said in a statement. Billings, who works in Ontario, will continue to live there and will fly back for games with plans to be living out West by the time the playoffs roll around. “I know the minimum games (to qualify for the postseason) is four and I’ll play a lot more than that,” he told The Province.

NLL boss George Daniel, left, helped introduce Senator Al Franken, center, to the NLL this season. (Photo: Swarm)

If it’s competition the people want, then it’s competition the people got. “It was a terrific season,” National Lacrosse League commissioner George Daniel said on the NLL’s weekly conference call on Wednesday. “It was perhaps the most competitive season in the 26-year history of the league. And I don’t remember 2 teams playing hotter than these 2 teams (Rochester and Edmonton, heading into the Champion’s Cup).” Indeed, the NLL for 2012 was full of twists and turns and it was nearly impossible to find a consistent feel week to week. But that was hardly a bad thing. On the contrary, it was a great thing in the NLL as parity and rosters full of talent from top to bottom kept every team on its toes from start to finish. (Read More…)

Jim Veltman was the last captain to hoist the Champions Cup for a team that had a worse record and scored fewer regular-season goals than its title game opponent. (Photo: Graig Abel)

It’s always difficult to predict who will win the National Lacrosse League’s Champions Cup final. Or is it? Looking back at the past eight years, a pattern emerges based on an analysis of three simple statistics. Considering won-lost record, goals for and goals against in the regular season suggests a strong correlation with winning the title. In seven of those eight championship games since 2004, the team that has finished higher in either two or all three of those categories has emerged victorious. Looking at the matchup in 2012, that does not bode well for the Edmonton Rush. (Read More…)

While he may not win a supporting actor nominee award from the SAG or Foreign Press, Jamison Koesterer has played a huge role in helping to make the first every lacrosse movie a legitimate project that will help show the true history and passion of the game. Crooked Arrows hit the big screen last week and is slowly making the rounds to theatres across North America starting this Friday then opening world wide on June 1. If you are unaware of this movie, get out from the rock you’re under cause this is huge for the game. It’s been a long time coming and thanks to people like Koesterer, its taken the right path and under the proper supervision has done a fantastic job portraying  the historical importance of field lacrosse to the Native Americans.

Crooked Arrows is no Might Ducks- but while it does have comedic side to it, the story is what makes this movie so special as it is all about the roots of the game and how impactful lacrosse is to the Native American Culture. This week on the OTCB Podcast, Koesterer, who plays the head coach for the “powerful Coventry Academy”- let’s call them the enemy for dramatic sakes, talks about how he got involved in the movie, the growth of the film and what it’s like to be on the red carpet. The game of lacrosse continues to grow and a main stream movie like Crooked Arrows is just the next logical step. So turn the page and have a listen and remember, we are all Crooked Arrows.

(Read More…)

Where would you like to see Nic Grasby and company bring exciting CLax action next year? (Photo: Tim Prothero)

Last week IL Indoor gave readers a chance to vote for the cities where they would like to see CLax place new franchises. The new cities would either get teams moving from either Oshawa or Brampton, which each had two franchises in the league’s first year, or expansion clubs. As the voting made evident, folks would like to see teams go to the traditional lacrosse hotbeds in the province of Ontario. St. Catharines led the way with 103 votes, just edging Peterborough at 98. The Golden Horseshoe didn’t do well: Toronto, Oakville and Hamilton all finished in the bottom five among the 14 options. The far west of the province did surprisingly well, suggesting there may be a movement afoot for a West Division including third-place Windsor (72 votes), London and Kitchener-Waterloo (tied for fourth, 64 votes) and Sarnia (sixth, 60 votes). We’ll model this after the awarding of the Olympic bidding process, waving adieu to the bottom eight and letting the top six battle it out for the final two spots that you’d like to see taking part in CLax in 2013, after the jump. (Read More…)

Swarm goalie Evan Kirk was named to a spot on the NLL's All-Rookie team for the 2012 season. (Photo: Minnesota Swarm)

The National Lacrosse League has announced the All-Rookie Team for the 2012 season. Rookie of the Year Adam Jones of the Colorado Mammoth is joined by Kevin Crowley of the Philadelphia Wings, Jordan MacIntosh and Evan Kirk of the Minnesota Swarm and Johnny Powless and Stephen Keogh of the East Division Champion Rochester Knighthawks round out the remainder of the squad. The third overall selection in the 2011 NLL Entry Draft from Canisius, Jones led all rookies with 76 points on 29 goals and 47 assists to win the Rookie of the Year Award. Jones’ 29 goals broke the Mammoth’s single-season rookie record set by Brian Langtry in 2003. (Read More…)