Minnesota Swarm (0-0)

vs
Rochester Knighthawks (0-0)

Pre-Season Game
Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 11:00 am CST
Iroquois Lacrosse Arena
Six Nations, Ontario

Closed Door Scrimmage

More Coverage of this game at:

Regular Season History:

Rosters:

Former Knighthawks With The Swarm:

• Duane Jacobs

Former Swarm With The Knighthawks:

• Chris Courtney  

The Minnesota Swarm will finish their second weekend of training camp with their first pre-season action of the year against the Rochester Knighthawks in Six Nations, Ontario this Sunday. Both teams should be nearly up against the forty man training camp roster limit coming into this weekend.

The Swarm will probably have few, if any, players commuting from Minnesota or British Columbia to Six Nations this weekend. The Swarm know what Noah Talbot, Ryan Ward, Sean Pollock and Nick Patterson can do on the floor. This may just be a weekend where only Ontario boys show up. Not sure if any of the eastern based Americans will be on the reservation this weekend.

With Patterson probably not in attendance and last year's backup goaltender Kevin Croswell not yet signed, the Swarm will definitely go with youth and inexperience this weekend in net. That means the Swarm should get long looks in net at Angus Goodleaf and Josh Agar. Goodleaf was drafted by the Swarm in 2007 and spent 2008 on the Swarm's practice squad. He just finished up his Junior A career this past summer in Six Nations. Agar has spent the last four seasons playing Senior B ball in the summer after playing Junior A ball in Orangeville. Agar last tried out with the Chicago Shamrox leading up to the 2007 season but didn't make the final cut. If Croswell is not signed, one of these two may make the 23 man roster. If Swarm General Manager Marty O'Neill has to make that decision, he may want to look to make a trade for a backup to Patterson, probably a player based in Ontario considering that the Swarm still play a healthy dose of Eastern teams.

What are some of the other Swarm players the coaching staff will take a good look at in the scrimmage? One for sure has to be Marc Jackson. Like Goodleaf, Jackson was drafted last year and spent the 2008 season on the practice squad. The Swarm had an abundance of righthanded defensemen last year, that made Jackson the odd man out based on youth and lack of NLL experience. This year, O'Neill hints that Jackson will not be the odd man out and that if he continues to impress the coaches and players like he did in practices last year, he will be a quite a nice addition to the defense. Keeping the defense young and mobile is key for the Swarm and Jackson fits that profile. First round draft pick Andrew Watt will get his first work in game action replacing the Swarm's leading scorer from last year, Andy Secore. How will he work with fellow lefthanders Chad Culp and a slimmer, sleeker and swifter Dean Hill this weekend? Those three could end up regularly playing together, game in and game out. This weekend is key for any other recently signed Ontario based players with no NLL experience like defenseman Liam Neufeld and lefthanded forwards Kyle Goertz and Jason Mainer. A good impression this weekend may get these guys a free ticket to St. Paul for a four night, three day vacation of Minnesota Nice. Of course, it will be their luck that it will probably be colder in St. Paul that weekend than in southern Ontario.

Like the Swarm, Rochester's leading scorer from last year, John Grant, will not play for them this year. Grant, the 2007 NLL MVP, is out for this year due to an infected ACL in his left knee that will require extensive rehabilitation. That's a huge hole to fill and the Knighthawks are going to try to fill it with NLL Hall of Famer Gary Gait, who they lured out of retirement. Gait, the NLL's all-time leading scorer until Buffalo's John Tavares blazed past him recently, has not played since 2005 in Colorado and has not been an active part of the league since he coached Colorado in 2007. The Swarm defense led by two time defending NLL Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Cousins will be the first opponent to get a look at Gait and how he fits into the Knighthawks offense along with Shawn Williams, the Evans' Brothers (Scott and Shawn) and newly acquired Aaron Wilson from Toronto.

Unlike the Swarm, the Knighthawks also have a new general manager and coaching staff. One wonders how well that is working since new Knighthawks General Manager Regy Thorpe just signed himself to play for himself out of semi-retirement this week to bolster their defensive unit that he considers inadequate, even though he is the person charged by the ownership to acquire the talent to staff said unit. It is probably not a good sign if you think, even before any of the three scrimmages the Knighthawks play, that the best option to bolster your defense is to sign yourself, the GM, to a contract. Thorpe has played every year since his debut with the Knighthawks in 1995 and has played at a high caliber but is this really the plan you want to go with in your first year as a GM.

A lot of players on both sides are playing for their jobs this Sunday. It looks like Rochester may have more questions to answer than the Swarm when it comes to their opening day line up. The key to this scrimmage is how Goodleaf and Agar can hold up against the Rochester offense. Neither has NLL experience and it will be an uphill battle. The Swarm maybe lacking righthanded depth this weekend without Ward, Pollock and maybe even Craig Point, who as of today is not signed according to the league. Either Marty may want to get Craig inked for 2009 soon or the league should get around to approving the transaction if it is already done. In a rough outing, I think Rochester will come out on top. Next week, when the Swarm are in town, fans will have a better idea of how this team shapes up when the whole team is together. If anything, it looks like Chris Courtney may get the chance to exact some vengeance against his former Swarm teammates.

Prediction - Rochester 14 Minnesota 13

Next Games After This Match Up

• Minnesota Swarm Training Camp in the Twin Cities - December 5 - 7 at Soccer Blast in Burnsville
  
  • Friday, December 5 - 9:00 am - 11:00 am
  • Friday, December 5 - 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
  • Saturday, December 6 - 6:00 am - 8:00 am
  • Saturday, December 6 - 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
    • Open House at Brunswick Zone XL Lanes in Lakeville
    • Bowl with the Swarm players, coaches, Performance Team, owners and staff
    • RSVP at www.mnswarm.com by Thursday, December 4
  • Sunday, December 7 - 6:00 am - 8:00 am

• Pre-Season: Minnesota vs Buffalo at Six Nations, Ontario - Saturday, December 13
• Regular Season Opener: Minnesota at Portland - Saturday, January 3 at 9:30 pm CST

• Pre-Season: Rochester vs Toronto at Six Nations, Ontario - Sunday, December 7