- 12/30/14 - One-Page Game Program this Weekend's Game
All Swarm fans want an easy to make, hold, take, grab and use game program for this weekend's home opener at Ho-Chunk Nation Field. With the game program I have created, there is no Swarm or Mammoth player that will go unnoticed. Click on the link and print out the one-page program in color or black and white. It looks great in both in my opinion even though I am sure some may have a hankering to disagree.
- 12/30/14 - Preview - Swarm vs. Mammoth
The Minnesota Swarm open up their eleventh season of NLL play this Saturday at Ho-Chunk Nation Field at The Hive in their earliest ever home start against the West Division Colorado Mammoth. It is Yellow Out The Hive Night when all Swarm fans are required to wear yellow even if the team color is GOLD.
Minnesota Swarm
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Colorado Mammoth
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- 12/29/14 - IL Indoor - NLL preview: Minnesota Swarm
- 12/26/14 - In Lacrosse We Trust - One on One With: Zach Higgins
- 12/24/14 - In Lacrosse We Trust - Crawford Blog: Last Week Of Camp
- 12/22/14 - MacIntosh Named Assistant Captain
The Minnesota Swarm announced today that Jordan MacIntosh will wear the "A" on his jersey this year joining captain
Andrew Suitor and fellow assistant Callum Crawford. MacIntosh replaces Jeff Gilbert who signed this offseason as an unrestricted free agent with Toronto. MacIntosh is an excellent choice by the team to fill this leadership role and will do a great job.
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- 12/21/14 - Tao Now on Active Roster & Position Changes
The Minnesota Swarm finally officially announced their 20-Man Roster on Saturday. A change reflected on the release from the NLL transaction page that shows the last Swarm transaction on Thursday, now has Corbyn Tao on the active roster and Joe Haodais Maracle on the practice roster.
Two position changes of note with the Swarm release. First, Kiel Matisz is listed as a defenseman instead of transition. With the emergence of Miles Thompson, it gives the Swarm the opportunity to add some size to the defense while having a scoring threat when needed. Also, Nick Cotter is listed as a transition player now instead of a forward which may be a better fit for him.
- 12/18/14 - Minnesota Swarm 20-Man Roster for 2015
The Minnesota Swarm have not yet announced their 20-man active roster for the upcoming 2015 season but with today's transactions, it should look like this. Nine players are new from the 2014 Swarm active roster at the end of last year. The high turnover kind of crept up on me and then I looked at today's roster and thought, almost half the team didn't play with them last year. It still doesn't beat the twelve new players they had when rosters were named leading up to the 2012 season.
- 12/17/14 - In Lacrosse We Trust - Crawford Blog: Camp Winds Down
- 12/17/14 - Schuss Hold Out Last Whole Season
Big news in Swarmville today as the Swarm announced that Logan Schuss is on the hold out list due to work and the Swarm have no idea when or if he will be available this season.
- 12/16/14 - The Swarm Release Three Including Jones
The Minnesota Swarm released three players today: Dominique Alexander, Eric Guiltinan and one of their 2013 first round draft picks, Scott Jones. Jones is the biggest cut today as he was drafted last year with high hopes to put the ball in the net but it just didn't happen in Minnesota with 6 goals and 15 assists in 16 games last season. Also, appears that Corbyn Tao came into camp and outshone Jones. Alexander spent last year on the practice roster for the Swarm and was active for but did not dress for one game. Guiltinan is the first of this year's draft picks to be released as he was a fourth rounder. That leaves 25 players on the active with five cuts still be made by the afternoon of Thursday, December 18th.
- 12/15/14 - Insights from the Swarm Season Ticket Event
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.
- 12/15/14 - Callum Crawford interviewed by Judd and Zulgad on KSTP 1500
- 12/13/14 - The Swarm Win in an Olde Fashioned Shootout
Kiel Matisz waited until just about the last moment as his goal with 0.4 second left sent the Swarm into an overtime shootout which Minnesota won over the Colorado Mammoth tonight in Oakville, Ontario by a 16-15 score. Overtime just consisted of the three-round shootout with Zach Higgins making an huge save on Adam Jones to keep it tied at 2. Next shooter was this year's Swarm's other first rounder Shane MacDonald, who beat the Mammoth netminder to clinch the win.
The Swarm win their first ever shootout and finish the pre-season undefeated at 3-0. This game should make all Swarm fans crazy in anticipation for the rematch in the regular season opener on January 3rd at Ho-Chunk Nation Field at the Hive. John Grant led the Mammoth with 7 goals. Former Swarm Sean Pollock had 2 in the 4th and former Swarm Alex Turner had an goal. The shootout is only a pre-season experiment and will not be in the regular season.
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Minnesota Swarm
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Colorado Mammoth
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Shootout: Minnesota 3 Colorado 2
- 12/13/14 - In Lacrosse We Trust - Swarm Go For Third Pre Season Win, Face Mammoth
- 12/12/14 - Peterborough Examiner - Gillam to miss NLL season with injury
The Swarm's Josh Gillam is rehabbing his torn ACL with a slight possibility he could be back around playoff time. Realisitically, we won't see him until 2016 but Gillam says he is ahead of schedule and he sure has the determination to come back strong.
- 12/11/14 - Pre-Season Preview - Swarm vs Mammoth - 12/13/14
The Minnesota Swarm will enter the second weekend of training camp with the highlight being their third and final pre-season game against the Colorado Mammoth this Saturday at 5:00 pm central at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, Ontario. This weekend will be the last chance for many players to get a NLL roster spot as the final cut date to 20 man roster is Thursday, December 18th. I prognosticate which players have no worries and who should be worried about what happens this weekend.
- 12/11/14 - Palmer and Casimir Released
The Minnesota Swarm released Andrew Casimir and Zach Palmer yesterday after the first weekend of camp. Both were signed as free agents in the offseason with Palmer spending the 2014 season on the Swarm active roster. Both played in last weekend's pre-season games but it is a numbers game and theirs came up. With the cuts, the Swarm should have 28 players going into week two of training camp in Oakville, Ontario with a game against the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday night. The roster deadline to bring the team down to 20 is on Thursday, December 18th.
- 12/11/14 - In Lacrosse We Trust - Crawford Blog: Swarm Win Two in a Row
- 12/10/14 - Lacrosse Magazine - NLL 2015 Preview: East No. 4 Minnesota
- 12/10/14 - Game Time Change - Swarm at Mammoth, March 15, 2015
The Colorado Mammoth moved both of their Sunday home games up an hour earlier to 7:00 pm central. This will effect the game they host against the Swarm on
Sunday, March 15, 2015
- 12/09/14 - Roster Moves to Inactive List
The Swarm on Monday announced that both Mike Grimes and Pat Laconi were placed on the hold out list due to work conflicts. The timetable for either return is unknown and neither was at camp last weekend. The loss of Grimes really hurts as he was being depended on in bringing a substantial veteran presecnce out the back door. The Swarm were aware of Grimes' need to play in the east this season due to a move of job to Ontario and it seemed they had everything solved when Grimes signed in October. Now it looks like something changed in Grimes' work schedule to change his playing availability. A trade further east down the road may be coming to accomodate Grimes.
The Swarm also placed Paxton Leroux on the draft list due to his playing for the Quad City Mallards of the ECHL. So far this season, Leroux has played 13 games with a very healthy 72 penalty minutes but he is available for the Swarm as he is currently serving a six game suspension due to the following.
- 12/07/14 - Swarm Sweep Last Year's Cup Finalists This Weekend
The Swarm Sweep the Weekend outscoring opposition 33-20!!! Shayne Jackson had 4, Miles Thompson with 3, Jordan MacIntosh and Shane MacDonald with two each and singles by David Earl, Alex Crepinsek, Kiel Matisz, Callum Crawford, Nick Cotter, Ian Crawford and Scott Jones and Haodais Maracle! Both Higgins and B. MacDonald continue to play well in net!
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Calgary Roughnecks
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- 12/06/14 - Thompson Swarms knighthawks with Four Goals in Pre-Season Debut
Miles Thompson with four goals to open pre-season with a win for the Swarm! Matisz with 2 including game-winner! MacIntosh also with 2! Singles by Suitor, Crawford, Jackson, Guiltinan and Tao! Both B. MacDoanld and Higgins great in net as both look like #1's!
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Minnesota Swarm
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Rochester Knighthawks
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- 12/06/14 - In Lacrosse We Trust - Knighthawks Host Swarm At Blue Cross Arena
- 12/06/14 - Pre-Season Preview - Swarm vs Roughnecks - 12/07/14
The Minnesota Swarm are back in action the morning following their pre-season opener, with another pre-season game. This time it will be at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre against the West Division champion Calgary Roughnecks at 11:00 am central.
- 12/06/14 - Pre-Season Preview - Swarm at Knighthawks - 12/06/14
The pre-season opener for both teams occurs tonight at 7:00 pm central at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester in the fourth meeting of their annual Holiday
pre-season game. Rochester has won 2 of 3 games in this series but Scott Jones' goal with a second left won the game for the Swarm last season.
- 12/06/14 - Grimes and Laconi not at camp
The Minnesota Swarm posted their training camp preview yesterday and the news is that Mike Grimes and Pat Laconi are not on the 30-man training camp roster even though both are signed and on the active roster. The more troubling absence is Grimes who was acquired from the Vancouver Stealth to be a key cog in the defense. There was no mention the reasons for the absences or how long they will be out for.
- 12/06/14 - 2014 Minnesota Swarm Training Camp - Roster
Training Camp for the 2015 Minnesota Swarm started last night in Oakville, Ontario. In this story, we have links previewing each position and we also have a camp roster with a depth chart.
- 12/06/14 - 2014 Minnesota Swarm Training Camp - Lefties
The final Swarm training camp preview looks at the team's lefty shooters. Like former Swarm General Manager Marty O'Neill would say and I paraphrase, "finding a good lefty forward is the toughest player to find". O'Neill said it better than I remember it but it sure is true. Looking at the Swarm roster, we know we definitely got one of the best lefties in the NLL. We also got another pretty good player who may still have room to grow. We drafted a couple hopefully will be good lefties. We have one lefty trying to come back from not playing for a year. Another one who wants to do more than collect dust on the
practice squad. We even have a lefty who at one time set the Swarm single-season goal record his first time around with the team.
- 12/05/14 - IL Indoor - NLL Entry Draft profile: Tough tests help mold game, approach for No. 5 pick Shane MacDonald
- 12/04/14 - Alec Schmike Tweets State of the Swarm
Alec Schimke, who is the Minnesota Swarm's Director of Media & Lacrosse Relations tweeted the following tonight:
@paultutka Also for the record, we are the healthiest we've ever been financially & in midst of biggest ad/marketing campaign to date.
If indeed this is true, then it is quite a turnaround from
October 5th, 2013 when ownership was describing quite the opposite outlook. Maybe the Ho-Chunk Nation sponsorship is already reaping benefits. Maybe some new people in the front office are bringing in some new ideas. Or maybe, just maybe, Andy Arlotta is actually getting better at his job. Down the road, we may get a better idea on how this sudden turnaround occured if it has, but I sure hope Alec is right on this quite bold statement of his.
- 12/04/14 - 2014 Minnesota Swarm Training Camp - Righties
The battle for playing time for righthanders on offense for the Minnesota Swarm is tough to judge as camp starts in one day. Lots of young talent that is looking to prove themselves at the NLL level while the team has the ability to bring up a couple players from transition for a change of pace, if the need arises or just because they are darned good. All of this righthanded tomfoolery; however, orbits around a glowing and guiding light called Showtime.
- 12/04/14 - 2014 Minnesota Swarm Training Camp - Transition
The transition corps comes back strong again in 2015. Deep, multi-skilled and multi-talented, this group will be contributing on every spot on the floor.
- 12/03/14 - 2014 Minnesota Swarm Training Camp - Goaltending
The goaltenders that will be showing up for Minnesota Swarm Training Camp on December 5th in Oakville, Ontario will get a lot of work. Considering there are only two as far as we know going to be attendance, lots of work is guaranteed. With only two in camp, it seems a pretty safe bet that both will make the final 20-man roster on December 18th, but one can't say with much certainity who will get the majority of time.
- 12/03/14 - IL Indoor - NLL entry draft profile: No. 3 pick Miles Thompson feels responsibility to further game
- 12/02/14 - In Lacrosse We Trust - Crawford Blog: Tis the Season
