2015 Calgary Roughnecks and NLL Thread

[FlamingHomer]

Jiri: I hate to be thinking this way so early in the season but do you have any idea what the amateur draft talent is like this year?

[Da_Chief]

^ Looks like a good one. We have two picks including NE's first.

http://pointstreaksites.com/view/nll...47/news_243967

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by FlamingHomer

Jiri: I hate to be thinking this way so early in the season but do you have any idea what the amateur draft talent is like this year?

Best draft to come along for a number of years. The Roughnecks paid a premium to get another 1st this year - they think they can get 2 impact players in the draft.

Good at the top end and deep as well.

So I suspect if the Roughnecks feel they need to re-shape their roster, they will do it in the off-season. They will need to free up a couple roster spots for the new draftees.

It's tough to assess if they decide to move someone, who it should be
- Dobbie is a pure sniper and has matured into a real leader on this team.
- Evans is one of the top 3 players in the league and absolutely clutch
- Shattler back checks has hard as anyone and has such a great skill set
- Dickson has way too much upside and is the best 1:1 player in the league
- Veltman is a glue guy. This stuff he does off-ball, gives us the big guns the room they need.

So I love that forward group - but you may need to part with one of them to provide you with some help either in transition or D. I expect Brider could retire at the end of the year - they probably need to think hard about draft a rear guard with one of the picks. They've gone heavy on transition the last couple of drafts (Leung looks like a STEAL) - but the D is getting a little long in the tooth. McCrae is still getting better - but the rest are kind of at their peaks already.

Goaltending may also need to be address depending on what happens with Poulin the rest of the way.

I think they will draft a forward with one first, and then try to deal one of their top guys for help out of the back door. And then they will likely draft a D with the other first.

[FlamingHomer]

Thanks to both of you. If they continue to struggle it's good to know there may be a silver lining. I would much rather see a turnaround to their season though.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Football has just about the lamest jerseys in all of pro sports, so that is not a flattering comparison, imo.

How so? I don't really think one can compare style across different sports.
Each jersey functions to what is needed by the athletes in that sport.

[Resolute 14]

If one cant compare style across different sports, why did you compare style across different sports?

[craigwd]

I compared colour not style. I just said the shade of black was similar and I liked it.

[FlamingHomer]

Another loss. This time 13-9 to the Stealth. Based solely on the gamesheet it looks like they are getting frustrated. Fifty minutes in penalties to the Roughnecks including a match penalty to Dobbie. Calgary had 2-0 and 3-1 leads early in the game but Vancouver went on a few good runs. Frankie went the distance other than one shot on Poulin.
Huge hole to climb out of now.

[dirk diggler]

good game tonight, the reffing on both sides was awful... the goaltending interference calls were especialy pathetic..

[taffeyb]

Yeah. A couple of questionable calls on both sides. Overall, a good game. Most people stayed right to the end to celebrate Win #1.

[dirk diggler]

Dickson scored some beauties tonight among his 7 goals

[craigwd]

I don't think the officiating was bad. The only penalty I couldn't see was the Crosscheck called against McBride.

[dirk diggler]

i thought a couple of the goalie int. calls were very weak.... on both teams. regardless a good win

[Resolute 14]

The style of officiating last night had all the look of two referees under orders to call certain penalties - namely, any contact on the goalies and coincidental roughing behind the play. I thought it was balanced though, which is all you can ask for.

Our play last night was how we started the home opener. Take away that 11-goal run against, and this entire season would have gone an entirely different direction, I think.

Also, awesome to see 11,600 for a 0-6 team. Attendance has been noticeably higher since the Flames took over. I'd guess we were usually around 7500-8500 in the building in the Bannister days, even as they announced a hair over 10,000 every week.

[JiriHrdina]

Strangest play of the night was Corey Small scoring a goal (that stood) and getting called for a 5 minute goalie interference penalty on the same play.
The interference happened after the goal for sure, but still strange to see that call made, while allowing the goal to stand.

[InglewoodFan]

Much better effort last night, good hustle and much less pissing and moaning after a play. Snider was solid on draws, I'm guessing his best face off percentage of the year. Frankie had a great game. There was a guy in our section calling for them to put in Poulin at one point, I can't imagine Poulin making some of those saves. McRae had a fantastic outing, strong on D, forcing turnovers and gobbling up loose balls.

Dickson was spooky good, the sixth goal behind the back was stellar but that seventh goal was unreal. I don't know why they never showed a replay. Evans and Dobbie helped a lot getting space for Dickson. Dobbie could have had a couple more, caught a couple of posts.

They did a reasonable job of shutting Duch down, save one goal where Moleski went briefly brain dead.

Reffing was a bit spotty, and the 30 second clocks were flaky for the first half. Nice to see that doesn't only happen in minor lacrosse.

All in all, a fun night at the Dome. Was great to see such an amped up crowd for an 0-6 team.

[Resolute 14]

Well, from what I understand, an 11,000 strong Roughnecks crowd routinely drinks a 19,000 strong Flames crowd under the table. Amped and rowdy are par for the course for the Necks.

[Kerplunk]

Well, looks like they lost another one, this time by 1 to the Rochester Knighthawks...looks like they were dunked in the first and never caught back up. With half the season done and only one win, I think they would pretty much need to run the table for a playoff spot, and get a lot of help from the other West teams along the way.

[Boblobla]

The team is so similar to what it has been for the last few years that other teams have figured out the formula. With the Roughnecks small size it makes it tough to do anything else. The offence really seems to miss Ranger.

I would also be a fan of stopping all the diving, it gets a bit frustrating to watch. Dobbie and Evans are really bad for it.

[JiriHrdina]

Ranger missed most of the last-season. I don't think his loss is the problem. Dobbie missed this past weekend and will miss the game against Edmonton.
I continue to say that the team won't do much in-season. It is hard to make deals in the NLL because for many teams they won't fly-in many players. Calgary will and does meaning they are able to take on guys from the East - it's one of the reasons they were able to bring in Shawn Evans.

But more importantly, as it stands now, they would own the top 2 picks in what is considered to be the best draft in a long time. Remember - they own the NE pick too.

So this off-season they will have a massive opportunity to re-shape the roster.