Insights from the Swarm Season Ticket Event

December 15, 2014

The Minnesota Swarm held a season ticket event tonight at SkyDeck Lanes at the Mall of America. Here are some insights I gleaned from a very nice reacquaintence with the soon-to-be 2015 NLL Champions Cup Winners, the Minnesota Swarm.

Players and Coaches in Attendance:

• Andrew Suitor
• Callum Crawford
• Corbyn Tao
• Aime Caines

Logan Schuss has not been at camp yet for the Swarm due to work-related issues according to Suitor. It is not yet known if he will be at camp this weekend but the impression I got is that he will be back for the regular season opener on January 3rd. Suitor mentioned that the team chemistry on offense is pretty good right now without Schuss and that he will have to earn his way back into the lineup. Maybe some trust issues to work out early.

Suitor says both of his legs are healthy and playing nearly 50 games this summer helped him a lot with that.

I always get concerned when a player on the team nears 30 years old since the Swarm tend to like their players young which means inexpensive. Crawford says he doesn't want to just win any championship but he does want to win a championship for the Minnesota Swarm. He always thinks I am trying to get him traded and I guess with him being an unrestricted free agent next year I am worried that the Swarm may not try to keep him. Crawford responds with I paraphrase: I don't want to be traded, I don't want to play elsewhere, I want to finish my career with the Swarm and will remain with the Swarm until the team doesn't want him. So if I were to guess, I go 90/10 that Crawford is with the Swarm next year, a very high degree of confidence which is good news for Swarm fans.

Caines said there has been a bit of an adjustment for last year's staff in adding a third assistant, which the team hasn't had since 2007. but that Rory McDade is doing a great job to ease their concerns.

Tao mentioned that he does not know of any players, other than himself as he lives year round, that will live in the Twin Cities during the season. Tao looks a bit leaner than in the past and he mentioned he really has done well working out this offseason. He also is willing to play defense if it means sticking around with the Swarm.

All four think Miles Thompson is the greatest thing since the wheel. Suitor said that the Swarm got the best player in the draft in Thompson.

Tao says the goaltending battle between Zach Higgins and Brodie MacDonald is still far from decided with both doing well. Suitor said the trade to acquire MacDonald and the pick which turned out to be Thompson was huge.

All four like the chemistry in camp so far and say it is much better than last year. All are quite eager to get the season started and Suitor really likes the early home game which has not been the case since 2011.

Suitor said their best game this pre-season was against Calgary and they were off against Colorado but liked how they fought back.

Caines said this weekend is all about getting their systems installed and the special teams set for the opener.

The new Thompson t-shirt is very creative and I have found out that Swarm players actually have to pay for team merchandise.

For each home game, the Swarm will be selling t-shirts related to the theme of the night on gameday.

The Randy Shaver Foundation will not be featured for a game this year and that they are targeting the Wounded Warrior Project.

The Swarm's Matt Ritzer did not know which night the Swarm will wear a third jersey but it will not be Hawaiian night. So no Hawaiian jerseys for the Swarm this season.

The Ho-Chunk Gaming patch will be worn on the upper right shoulder on the front and on the bottom back of this year's jersey.

The 2015 Minnesota Swarm pocket schedule. All the information you could ever want is there. Also, it notes that all home games will re-air on KSTC Channel 45 during select Saturdays:

Season tickets were passed out and they are looking extremely nice. I am looking forward to using every single one of these this season: