IL Indoor

Futures Report, Inside the Numbers

NLL Entry Draft: Built through the draft

Athan Iannucci is one of the few left in Philadelphia that was actually drafted by the franchise. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

How important is the entry draft to National Lacrosse League general managers? In the lead up and perceived prep work, it seems it would be critical, but in the NLL, few teams maintain the prospects they garner on draft day.

After reading The Hockey News’ indepth 2011 NHL Draft Preview in recent weeks, we mirrored one of their rundowns – entitled “Built through the draft” – against the NLL, a piece looking at teams’ draft pick retention. Who builds through the draft? Who lets their roster saturate a bit before making wholesale changes? Who looks elsewhere? Find out after the jump (you’ll likely be surprised who sits #1). READ MORE »

Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup

Last Night: St. Catharines Athletics snap skid and beat up Whitby Warriors in OT

Tyler Walsh had a pair of goals and three helpers in the A's OT win over the Warriors last night. (Photo: Ward Laforme Jr.)

In yesterday’s latest edition of IL Indoor’s Junior ‘A’ Power Rankings we said the St. Catharines Athletics, who at the time were riding a five-game winless skid (0-4-1), needed a quality W in the worst way. They got it, in thrilling fashion even, last night against a previously very hot Whitby Warriors side. Although Whitby’s Dan Lintner knotted the game with a last minute tying goal to send the contest to OT, the A’s stormed out of the gates with an unheard of 5 goals in the additional period, who else but current Money Baller leader Mike Melnychenko credited with the extra frame winner. The Warriors were without Mark Matthews, who missed his first game since his mid-season return to the club, now officially out of Junior of the Year contention for having missed too many regular season contests. Whitby coach Derek Keenan confirms that Matthews is currently in Denver (attends DU) taking care of some school matters, but will be back next week. Check out the rest of last night’s results, including the Langley Thunder upending the Victoria Shamrocks in the WLA (now just 2 points behind them in the standings), after the jump. READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

BCJALL Notebook: Trade Deadline Day in BC, get your snipers here!

Will final year Junior Jackson Decker in Burnaby be on the move at the deadline today? (Jason Lang, Burnaby Now)

Midnight tonight is the trade deadline in the BCJALL and while coaches have probably been up since 5 AM racking up the cell-phone bill, I thought we’d take one more peek at a few moves that would make sense today. With the Minto Cup being held in Alberta this year with 2 Albertan representatives, we won’t see as much shuffling going on in BC today as we did when Coquitlam hosted last year. IL Indoor confirmed a pair of BC boys already heading to Calgary to suit up for the Raiders, and don’t be surprised if we see a few more BC bodies crossing the Rockies before day’s end. As it stands now 7 of 8 teams are technically still in reasonable playoff contention, which leaves a few possible sellers that could make great trading partners today. The vultures are circling their prey; let’s look at three teams that could get picked apart today. READ MORE »

Alberta Junior A, B.C. Junior A, Ontario Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Junior ‘A’ Power Rankings: Who is still post-season capable in Canada?

Rob Hellyer and the Northmen continue to win, but coach Matt Sawyer isn't satisfied with recent play. (Ward Laforme Jr.)

Not a ton of time left for teams to pull their seasons together and figure out a way to crash this year’s playoffs. Who’s already punched their post-season ticket? The Coquitlam Adanacs, New Westminster Salmonbellies, Six Nations Arrows, Orangeville Northmen, Whitby Warriors and, well, everyone in Alberta is in (all 4 teams in the province qualify for the post-season). Can Coquitlam remain perfect with Robert Church out? Can St. Catharines get back into the W column? Is anyone running hotter than the Brampton Excelsiors currently? And can we expect more trade action in Alberta before Thursday’s deadline? Check out this week’s Junior ‘A’ Power Rankings after the jump. READ MORE »

Alberta Junior A, Road to the Minto Cup

Raiders add PoCo pair before deadline, Edmonton sides talking potential trade too

The Calgary Raiders have picked up Port Coquitlam Saints forward Jimmy Delaney.

The Calgary Raiders have gone back to a familiar place to add some depth for a Minto Cup run.

Already locked into first place in the Alberta Junior Lacrosse League, the Raiders grabbed goaltender Carson Michaud and right-handed forward Jimmy Delaney from Port Coquitlam before the nationwide transaction deadline Tuesday night.

A year ago, the Raiders were pleased with their addition of Jesse Rougeau from Port Coquitlam, but when they added Rougeau and three other players late, it was a bit too much change at that point in the year.

Head coach Bruce Codd is confident the moves this season won’t tinker with the chemistry of the Minto Cup hosts. Michaud is the younger brother of Calgary Roughnecks defender Dayne Michaud, who was a teammate of Codd’s in the National Lacrosse League. READ MORE »

Uncategorized

Tight race from top to bottom shaping up in Western Lacrosse Association, plus links

Goalie Tyler Richards and defender Scott Rouse may have a tight grip on the WLA points lead today, but nothing is easy for any team in the loop this season. (Photo: Greg Sakaki, News Bulletin)

Can it get much tighter in the Western Lacrosse Association? Just 7 points separate the 7 teams from top to bottom with New Westminster on top with 15 points and 3 teams, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge and Nanaimo picking up the rear with 8 points. And even then, just 1 points separates the 5 teams behind New West and second-place Victoria. Check it: Already, there have been 3 tie games in 2011. By comparison, there were 0 draws last year and 4 total for 2009 followed by 3 (2008), 2 (2007), 1 (2006) and 2 (2005). There have been 7 overtime games already, just 3 shy of last year’s 10 total OT matches. Before that, we saw 9 OT games in 2009, 8 on 2008 and 10 in 2007. Of course, all these close games are good news for fans and bad news for coaches and the hair on their heads. But with most teams having at least 8 games left in this regular season, it’s shaping up to be quite the sprint to the line. And if a couple of these squads learn how to win on the road, Langley is 0-4-1 and Maple Ridge is 0-5, it could be even more exciting. READ MORE »

Road to the Mann Cup, Road to the Minto Cup

Last Night: Six Nations Chiefs trade again, pick up Ian Llord, then beat Peterborough

With just two regular season losses in 2010, the Lakers lost their third in 2011 last night against the Chiefs. (Larry Palumbo)

The trading frenzy continues in Six Nations, the MSL’s Chiefs adding Ian Llord via Brampton earlier in the day on Tuesday, the Excelsiors getting Kyle Neufeld and what was described by the Excels as “the MSL rights” to goalie Jake Henhawk. After a series of other trades made by the Chiefs recently, the team – an early season Mann Cup favourite – have struggled to live up to the pre-season hype. Last night, however, the Chiefs would not struggle when they travelled to Peterborough Memorial Arena to face the defending Mann Cup champion Lakers. With Llord already in their lineup on Tuesday evening, Six Nations would dump Peterborough 11-8 with arguably their best performance of 2011. The Laker loss is their third of this year’s campaign, last year losing just twice all regular season. Also during a quiet night across the board, the Whitby Warriors (Junior ‘A’) won their 8th straight thanks to their 17-6 thumping of the Akwesasne Indians, now just two points behind the 2nd place Orangeville Northmen.

Toronto Rock, Washington Stealth

The National Lacrosse League Is Coming Back to BC

Well kind of. At an announcement this afternoon at the Langely Events Center via a conference call, NLL Commissioner George Daniel, Toronto Rock Owner Jamie Dawick and Washington Stealth President David Takata made it official that the NLL will once again be played in the second largest lacrosse bed. On December 10th 2011, the Toronto Rock and Washington Stealth, the reigning and former NLL Champions will face off in a preseason exhibition match at the fantastic Langley Event Center.

The Rock and Stealth have met for the past two consecutive seasons in the NLL Championship Game so there’s little doubt that this preseason game will be an intense tune-up for the 2012 NLL regular season.

Tickets go on sale July 5th at 10am and will range from $18-28 and its expected that all 5200 seats will be sold for the game as there has been plenty of interest all ready.

After the jump check out the official press release from the folks at the Langley Events Center and hear the full press conference.  READ MORE »

Road to the Mann Cup

Kodiaks looking up — in the standings but also on the floor; Goalies making a splash

Tied for last in the MSL, the K-W Kodiaks are trying to get in a groove before the playoffs. (Pictured - NLL prospect Evan Kirk)

The Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks are 2-10, tied for last in MSL and already virtually assured of not finishing top-four in the six-team league and thus not having home-floor advantage in the first round of playoffs. They’ve scored less than 7 goals a game and four times have been held to 5 or fewer. The only team they’ve beaten this year is Ajax, the second-year club with which they’re tied for last. And they just traded their NLL goalkeeper away. After the jump, though, see why all isn’t doom and gloom in KW, plus notes from around Major Series Lacrosse. READ MORE »

B.C. Junior A

Bad news in BC: Lacrosse player busted for selling steroids, plus alleged head stomping incident

Isaac Haack, Nanaimo Timbermen

A pair of really unfortunate and unneeded lacrosse connected incidents involving an arrest in one and a potential arrest in a separate story in British Columbia occurred this past weekend.

Nanaimo Timbermen Junior ‘A’ player Isaac Haack and his girlfriend were arrested this past Saturday evening and charged “with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking” reports the Nanaimo Daily News.

The two were busted after selling steroids to plainclothes police officers, who learned of their mini-operation after Haack and his partner were advertising their for sale stash using various social networking websites. READ MORE »