Minnesota Swarm (0-0 H 0-0 A 0-0)

Rochester Knighthawks (0-0 H 0-0 A 0-0)

Saturday, January 8, 2011 - 7:30 pm CST
Xcel Energy Center
Treasure Island Field at The Hive
St. Paul, Minnesota

Live Statistics

Minnesota Swarm Game Center

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Series History:

Your and mine favorite local professinal indoor lacrosse team's, the Minnesota Swarm, off-season has been a quiet one in comparison to the rest of the National Lacrosse League. With little roster turnover and no training camp locally, the Swarm are a bit of mystery as that we really haven't seen them up close since the playoff loss to Washington on May 1 but they look the same pretty much roster wise. Fans will hope the results are different for 2011 after six one-goal losses, a seven game losing streak to end the season and a home losing streak of four at The Hive.

Will ominous streaks and trends like this end this Saturday as the Swarm host the Rochester Knighthawks to open the 2011 season? They have to or the Swarm will be entering a third season of being mired in mediocrity.

After the last two seasons of six and five wins, all under the ownership of John and Andy Arlotta, who bought the team prior to the 2009 season, 2011 could be a pivotal year concerning the employment status of Swarm General Manager Marty O'Neill. If not for the Colorado Mammoth last year and a Tim Campeau goal to win against the Mammoth on February 27 in Denver, the Swarm would have missed the playoffs for a second straight year. That is in a division in which the top four teams in a five team division make the playoffs. 5-11 was just barely good enough, if good is 5-11, to make it last year and 5-11 is the worst record of any team in the NLL since the 16 game schedule started in 2002.

A 3-5 home record last year and 5-11 at home under the Arlotta ownership is also a sign of concern. After every game, the Arlottas are in the concourse talking to fans about the game and encouraging them to come back. Yes, the action on the floor is the best you will see anywhere in the Twin Cities, but it is a tough sell for the Arlottas if they try to convince fans to come back when the home team rarely if ever wins.

How is Marty trying to change the Swarm's fortunes and keep his job? It looks like to keep the core from last year and to add some grit to the back end.

Lsst year, we learned the Swarm can score a lot with 189 goals, fourth in the league. Callum Crawford, Aaron Wilson and Ryan Benesch were in the top 10 league wide in scoring, so that is a good base to continue with. The word in camp is that the Section, Zack Greer, has shown great improvement over last year, but it will have to bear out in games. Mat Giles has been brought in by Marty to add his 6' 4" frame and 12 years of experience to the offense. That hopefully will clear some more shooting lanes for the rest of offense. If they stay healthy, the offense should be just as if not more potent in 2011 and that should bring a bit more scoring at the end of the game to win those close games the Swarm lost last year.

The grit that Marty is bringing in to rub the opponent the wrong way comes from two newcomers to the Swarm and a player making a comeback from injury.

The last two years, the Swarm's last home game has been against the Titans and both have been losses. The Titans moved to Orlando last year but the team has suspended operations for 2011 meaning don't look for the Titans to come back. The players on that team were dispersed throughout the NLL which is down to 10 teams for 2011 from 11 last year. The Swarm got their Titan and his name is Rory Smith and he led the NLL in penalty minutes with 104 in 2010. Smith is a tad ornery and generally every opponent he meets, he tends to find them highly disagreeable and starts and often finishes a fight with them. He also is a very good defensive player but really for fans it comes down to fights. This is a type of player that the Swarm really have never had in their first six years, so keep on eye on #24 because he will be shedding the blood of opponents throughout the season. I would say there is a high probability that Smith will get entangled with either #15 Shawn Evans or #19 Scott Evans from the Knighthawks on Saturday night. Yes they are brothers, they tend to get in fights and probably with themselves. Rory probably will nail one of them maybe even both into the Treasure Island Field floor.

Marty then looked to the NLL Entry Draft and found a stellar two-way player from Orangeville, Ontario with a chip on his shoulder and lots of winning in his back pocket. The player's name ia Andrew Suitor and Marty took him with the fourth pick in the draft. He has been the face of the Orangeville Northmen over the last few years as they have made the last three Minto Cups, Canadian Junior A lacrosse championships, winning in 2008 & 2009 and making the final last year. Last year, Suitor was named the NLL Insider Junior A Defender of the Year. He can play both ends of the floor and expect him to do so this year. He is a winner and has leadership qualities in the locker room that will probably translate into the NLL. He can also take face offs and has been known to throw down in his career. He even has fought Smith, take a look at this fight in 2008. I just hope they don't fight each other during the game.

Just when you think you have it all going so well in your NLL career, you get a knee injury and it's back to working even harder to get back to where you were. This is the life of Travis Hill the last couple years since he hurt his knee in the summer of 2009. After his two best seasons in '08 and '09, Travis had finally broken through but the injury clouded his future. He tried to make a comeback mid-2010 but decided not to rush it and be fully ready to go in 2011. Now, Travis is back to take face offs and he brings back that spark the Swarm may have missed last year.

The Swarm will need Smith, Suitor, Hill and the rest of defense to step up. With Ryan Cousins out til mid March for fire fighting training and missing the last half of last year for the same, the defense suffered giving up 201 goals, tied for most in the league. Scott Self, Jay Thorimbert, Colin Achenbach and Josh Funk have been moved with NLL rookies like Tyler Hass and Matt Kelly coming in. Along with Smith, Suitor and Hill, the Swarm think they have upgraded this area led by Jon Sullivan.

If the opponents get by Sully and the D, they will deal with the duo of Nick Patterson and Kevin Croswell for a fourth straight year, Patteson rebounded in 2010 after a rough 2009 and looks like he will remain the starter. I worried a bit when he was benched for nearly the entire WLA Final this summer by Victoria after starting the entire year but that may have not been necessarily performance based or due to injury. Also, Patterson used a wooden stick this summer for the first time in a while so I wonder if that will have an effect this winter. Probably a bit of paranoia on my part, so expect Patterson to do well this season.

While the Ssarm had a relatively quiet offseason, the Rochester Knighthawks were moving players in and out and back in and out, basically things were and probably are constantly changing. They missed the playoffs last year and change was necessary in their minds. In the past when the Knighthawks came to town, there was a player wearing #24, who tended to score at will against us. That guy was John Grant but he was unbelievably traded to Colorado. The good news is he won't kill us this weekend but the bad news is we play Colorado three times. Grant was traded to Colorado so the Knighthawks could acquire their future goaltender for years to come in Matt Vinc, who earned his spurs with the suspended Titans. This was such a big deal that long time Knighthawk goaltender Pat O'Toole retired to become their goaltending coach.

The Knighthawks traded Grant because they and many others believe they have their new franchise player in Cody Jamieson, who was the first pick in the 2010 NLL Entry Draft. Jamieson is a lefty who has scored at will throughout his career and even in Senior A ball in the summer the past two seasons. How big is Jamieson? He signed a ten year contract as a rookie. Heck, Greer only signed for three years in comparison.

The Knighthawks may still activate Shawn Williams and Jordan Hall from the PUP list later this week, which will put more strain on the Swarm D. The Swarm will also see former Swarm players Craig Point, who reboudned well in 2010, and Ian Rubel, who is coming back to NLL action after taking the 2010 off to start his police career. Also, Swarm fans may get a chance to watch a legend in Gary Gait, 43, who many consider to be one of the greatest of all time, indoors or outdoors. He retired after the 2005 season, coached the Mammoth to a championship in 2006 but came back in 2009 to play for the Knighthawks. At 42 last year, Gait still scored 16 goals and 16 assists in 11 games.

Just to let you all know. Teams can now dress 20 on game day compared to 18 in the past. With a roster of 23 active players, only 3 will sit. Look for the Swarm to use those two extra spots for transition and defense. The transition should be able to spell the offense on occasion and/or push the ball towards the net quickly.

This home opener is huge as the Sawrm plan to get off to a fast start with three home games in January. They are playing a team with a lot of turnvover, so this is a good time to take advantage. The Knighthawks defense is considered mainly to be slow and old, but expierenced, still an unit that the big 3 should be able to expose. Look for a lot of goals for both teams but the Swarm have more firepower and also should be able to grind the Hawks down with their transition game with Suitor, Giles, Andrew Watt, Ryan Sharp, etc.

The Swarm should start 1-0 and Marty should be able to keep his job for another week. Marty won't be fired if they lose but a home win sure will alleviate any real or imanginary angst for him or maybe just real or probably imaginary angst for me.

Prediction: Minnesota Swarm 15 Rochester Knighthawks 12

Personnel:

Minnesota Swarm

Depth Chart

Goaltenders	Defense (Left)	Defense (Right)	Forwards (Left)	Forwards (Right)

Staff

General Manager	Head Coach	Assistant	Assistant

Rochester Knighthawks

Depth Chart

Staff

Next Games After This Match Up

• Minnesota at Washingotn - Friday, January 14th, 2011 10:00 pm Central
• Rochester vs Toronto - Saturday, January 15th, 2011 6:35 pm Central