IL Indoor

Edmonton Rush, NLL Notebook, National Lacrosse League

Seamless transition for Mark Matthews, but more growth is ahead for Rush rookie

Mark Matthews is benefitting from familiarity with the Edmonton Rush players and staff. (Photo: Dale MacMillan)

If it seems like things are coming easy to Mark Matthews in the early goings of his NLL career, that shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.

The NLL’s Rookie of the Month for January and the leading first-year points producer through Week 5, the No. 1 overall draft pick is benefitting from his familiarity with members of the Edmonton Rush roster, and the bench, too. As a Junior A player who got around a bit, Matthews played alongside the likes of Curtis Knight and John LaFontaine in Whitby, with Jeff Cornwall in Coquitlam (winning a Minto Cup in 2010, to boot), and he’s played against guys like Kyle Rubisch, Chris Corbeil and Corey Small.

“There’s a lot of guys here that I’ve played with, some guys I’ve played with or against my whole life,” said Matthews, a Team 22 sponsored athlete. “Having played with some of the guys has helped my transition. … It’s nice because you get a couple practices in and you start to become familiar with one another and start to know what to expect out of other guys.” READ MORE »

IL Indoor, NLL Notebook, National Lacrosse League

ILIndoor Roundtable: Do 2-0, 0-2 weekends say more about a team or the NLL overall?

Nick Rose and the Rock made it through the weekend at 2-0, not an easy feat in the NLL.

NLL teams can find themselves in a
much different spot in the standings from one week to the next. That was proven this past weekend, which saw Toronto and Calgary go 2-0, while Philly went 0-2, in back-to-back or quick-turnaround games. But how much does that speak about each team, or the league overall?

The high skill of the NLL is forcing teams to be on their best game more than ever before and is also requiring coaching staffs to make quicker decisions when things might not be going so great in the cage. It also requires more athleticism and mental toughness, but how much can that help you if you’re in a precarious position in the standings? ILIndoor staffers Bob Chavez, Marty O’Neill, Teddy Jenner and Casey Vock dissect these issues here. READ MORE »

NLL Notebook, National Lacrosse League, Philadelphia Wings

Brendan Mundorf eyeing March return for Wings, Max Seibald hopes for February

Wings forward Brendan Mundorf, right, had 'pretty serious surgery' to repair ankle ligaments. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

Brendan Mundorf, the 2012 Major League Lacrosse MVP and the leading American scorer in the NLL last spring, is aiming for a return to the floor with the Philadelphia Wings sometime in March, he says. After tearing ligaments in his left ankle leading up to MLL’s championship weekend last August, and just days after being named the league’s most valuable player, Mundorf spent the majority of the title game on the Denver Outlaws’ sideline. After the MLL season, he underwent what he described as a “pretty serious surgery” to essentially reconstruct his injured right ankle. Mundorf was placed on Philadelphia’s physically-unable-to-perform list. READ MORE »

Calgary Roughnecks, NLL Notebook, National Lacrosse League, Rochester Knighthawks

NLL Notebook: Riggers starting out strong; Year of the Hawk?

Geoff Snider likes where the Riggers' heads are at leading up to Week 3 of NLL action. (Photo: Martin Allinson)

The NLL Notebook hits you up in time for some of the big games taking place this weekend, including two match-ups likely to be great battles: Buffalo at Rochester and Colorado at Calgary. We reached out to Riggers face-off master Geoff Snider and Knighthawks power forward and second-year star Cody Jamieson to get their input on how things are going for their respective clubs thus far.

Snider shares his thoughts on taking out the Rock and the Stealth in the first two weeks of the season, as well as the addition of a popular former Knighthawks forward. Jammer shares his take on the dominating win over Philadelphia last weekend and gives some perspective on the young and explosive Rochester squad.

Check it out after the jump. READ MORE »

Edmonton Rush, NLL Notebook, Toronto Rock

Week 2 of Paul Stewart’s ILIndoor ‘Mailbag’

How quickly can Matt Roik become a strong presence in the cage for the Toronto Rock? (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

Welcome to week 2 of The Mailbag. There is certainly no shortage of things to talk about after this weekend with games full of goals, saves, and even brawls. So here we go.

As promised, I said I would acknowledge any good discussion on the NLL Forums. There was not much chatter last week, but what I read was good. I am not sure I agree that the new rules are designed to create more jobs for American players. But I do agree that specialists will always be needed in order to make it, and in the future, players will have to be more of a total player and athlete. READ MORE »

NLL Notebook, National Lacrosse League

Introducing the ILIndoor.com ‘Mailbag’ with Paul Stewart

Hello lacrosse world, and welcome to the Mailbag. Each week I will select a few questions submitted by you and offer the best answer I can. As always, the answers and opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ILIndoor.com or Inside Lacrosse. I am also aware that on occasion my opinion or answer will be considered wrong by the fans, so each week I will include a section for that, too. If you feel I am wrong or missed something please go on the Indoor Forums and tell me why. If you make a valid argument, I will acknowledge it. If you just post about how stupid I am, I will probably just ignore it — unless it is really funny! READ MORE »

IL Indoor, NLL Notebook

Rochester Knighthawks keep themselves busy with camp and charities, plus the links

Tyler Burton, left, Jordan Hall and Stephen Keogh can build stuffed bears for charity, but Burton and Keogh also build Hall of Fame mustaches for the Movember movement.

The Rochester Knighthawks are back to work this coming weekend, not unlike other National Lacrosse League teams, with a training camp session all set and ready to go at Total Sports Experience. The Knighthawks also will be out and about in the community, most notably on Saturday from 2-4 p.m. when a few players gather at the Build-A-Bear Workshop at Eastvew Mall. It’s an event the Knighthawks have been involved with for a few years now as the bears the players build stuffed bears then auction them later in the season with the proceeds going to CURE Childhood Cancer Association. If some of the players could auction off their mustache, who knows how much money they’d raise? READ MORE »

NLL Notebook, National Lacrosse League, Toronto Rock

Doyle, Sanderson looking to pick up where they left off

Josh Sanderson and Colin Doyle are ready to pick up where they left off in 2006. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

It seems like just about every National Lacrosse League team made significant moves in the offseason, or at least the teams looking to right the ship after a disappointing 2011 season.

After finishing 5-11 at the bottomof the East Division in 2011, the Philadelphia Wings recently signed dominant forces in Brodie Merrill and Dan Dawson and then snagged potential Rookie of the Year candidate Kevin Crowley in the entry draft. READ MORE »

NLL Notebook, National Lacrosse League

Roughnecks McBride, Carnegie and Snider swap shoes for a good cause, plus the links

Calgary's Andrew McBride, Scott Carnegie and Geoff Snider helped raise funds for the Calgary YWCA. (Photo: Roughnecks)

Like other pro athlettes, National Lacrosse League guys are quick to help the community. But Andrew McBride, Scott Carnegie and Geoff Snider have taken outreach to a whole new level. As tough as these guys are, they traded their turf shoes in for high heels last week to help raise money for the YWCA of Calgary. At Calgary’s Olympic Plaza, the Riggers trio kept their balance and took part in the Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event to raise funds for the organization, which helps to make positive changes and break the pattern of domestic violence. The event that included other notable Calgarians raised $278,000 for the cause. What else is going on around the NLL? READ MORE »

NLL Notebook

Devan Wray watching his Roughnecks play Toronto from hospital bed, plus the links

Roughnecks defender Devan Wray has had better weeks, but his spirits are up. (Photo: Roughnecks)

It wasn’t that long ago that Devan Wray was traded from Calgary to Edmonton. Then he was back in Calgary, signed away from Edmonton’s practice squad. Today, Wray’s in Foothills Hospital in Calgary, rooting for his Roughnecks teammates from a hospital bed. What started as a cut on his leg turned into a life-threatening infection and his leg was swollen to twice its normal size, writes Ian Busby in The Calgary Sun. The 8-year veteran was admitted to the hospital on Monday, falling in and out of conciousness. Still, the defender was asking doctors if he could play in tonight’s game in Toronto. “They all looked at me like I was crazy,” Wray said of the doctors, who initially had trouble locating a pulse for him. READ MORE »