Toronto Rock
Just when things were really starting to look up for the Rock, the just had to face a home and away weekend with red hot Rush to which they dropped both games. Weirdly enough, they’re only 2.5 games back from the playoffs and they have six games to use to their advantage. Toronto is still desperately looking to find a win on the road with a nasty 0-5 away record hanging above their heads.
Between the pipes, Nick Rose is playing arguably some of the best lacrosse we’ve seen out of a goaltender this season. He’s leading the NLL with a pretty.792 save percentage and a GAA under 11, which is no easy task for a goalie backing a 3-9 team. Working hard to be #1, Billy Howstrawser is leading the league with 54 PIM, standing up for his boys at any chance he gets, and then some. Brock Sorenson’s 1 goal and 9 assists aside, not much has happened on the scoreboard from the defense and transition groups. They leave it up to the offense, but when the group can’t stick to their set plays, they completely fall to pieces.
Even when they were straight up bad, Rob Hellyer was still putting in the work and now he’s up to a team-high 75 points. Stephan Leblanc, Brett Hickey and Kasey Biernes have all found success on the score sheet as of late, combing for 58 goals while Colin Doyle and Josh Sanderson stay busy hooking all of them up. Sanderson and Doyle combine for 56 assists just between the two. Their going to need help from the defense to make the push through the last 6 games. Nick Rose has been great and they can’t ask anymore from the big man. The offense needs to keep the ball moving and try different sticks. Heller is going to do his thing but they can’t count on just 1-2 big individual efforts to win these late games.
