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Inside Lacrosse Classics, Toronto Rock

Toronto or San Jose: Who came out on top?

It is pretty much 24- hour hockey for Canadian’s this time of year so when the ticker on my television screen announced that the Toronto Rock had traded Colin Doyle to San Jose this afternoon, you know it’s a big deal. My first guess was that Toronto had made a trade for goaltender Anthony Cosmo. It’s not that Toronto needed Cosmo – Bob Watson is still one of the best goalies in the world – it’s just that like Colin Doyle, Anthony Cosmo is a world class player and he had requested a trade from San Jose last summer. I also thought of Luke Wiles, a great young talent who scored 17 goals and 49 points in his rookie year last season. Wiles is from Orillia, Ontario (one hour north of Toronto) and helps run the family business in Orillia. Maybe San Jose had agreed to trade him so he could play closer to home.

I was shocked when I saw that Toronto had traded the NLL’s 5th all-time leading scorer with 685 points for three players who have amassed a total 63 points in their three combined seasons. In return for Colin Doyle, Darren Halls and a 2007 first round pick, Toronto gets third year player Chad Thompson (46 career points), sophomore Kevin Fines (17 career points) and rookie Ryan Benesch (San Jose’s number one draft pick) and San Jose’s first round picks in 2008 and 2009.

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Inside Lacrosse Classics

Trying too hard

Earlier this summer I got a phone call from a friend who wished to share some interesting news. She had stumbled upon the name of the NLL’s Chicago expansion franchise, before the news was public. I, of course, was all ears. And when she told me what it was, I was fired up. Shamrocks is a great idea. Finally an expansion team that got it. Finally a franchise that wasn’t going with some cheesy, manufactured nickname. Finally a team with some class and foresight.

Ever see the Victoria Shamrocks’ jerseys from the Western Lacrosse Association in British Columbia? Among the sweetest unis I’ve ever seen. And in a city where they turn the Chicago River green every year on St. Patrick’s Day, what a money idea.

Then she told me how it was spelled: Shamrox.

I was crushed. It was like your buddy talking up this beautiful, smart, hilarious successful girl, and then saying she’s married — to a Yankee.

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