This past weekend, I added one to the list of NLL arenas I have visited, though I have to say that number is still pretty small (Toronto, Hamilton, Buffalo, Rochester, and now Vegas) compared to other people I know. My family and I (and a bunch of friends – 17 total) travelled to Las Vegas last Wednesday night and went to the Rock / Desert Dogs game on Friday. As I’ve mentioned before, my friend Mike is Shawn Williams’ uncle, and so when we found that the Rock were going to Vegas, Mike asked Shawn if he could get tickets for us, which he did. Thanks Shawn!

We also saw a show at Sphere, did a virtual flyover of Iceland, did a hike through the incredible Valley of Fire, and according to my phone, walked about 52 km (32 miles) in three days. But you’re not here to read about my travel adventures, so let’s get to the actual game report.

The game started off kind of chippy, with four penalties in the first quarter, and things looked like they might later escalate, but the game calmed down quite a bit in the second and there were only three penalties the rest of the game. We’ve seen a number of Desert Dogs games where the team’s success hinged on that of Landon Kells; if he had a good game, they had a very good chance of winning but if he struggled, they were done. I guess that’s basically true of any team but it seemed more extreme for the Dogs. Kells being on or off his game seemed to be the difference between the Desert Dogs giving up 8 goals or 17. This game was a bit of both, in that Kells played well but they still managed to give up 16 goals. I thought Kells played great in the first quarter and very well overall in the first half, despite giving up nine goals. He wasn’t bad in the second half either, but at that point the Rock defense was the star of the show, not letting Vegas grab any kind of momentum. The Dogs didn’t score consecutive goals in the second half at all, and it’s obviously hard to catch up and make any kind of comeback attempt if you can’t get that momentum.

Welcome to Michelob Ultra Arena

One thing the Las Vegas defense was really good at was picking off passes. There were quite a few Rock passes that were just grabbed out of the air by a Desert Dogs defender and turned around for a transition chance. The Rock defense was solid as well, with Nick Rose continuing his bid for finally winning that elusive Goaltender of the Year award. Jack Hannah had a great game for the Dogs, scoring six, and Zack Greer and Dylan Watson had strong games as well. For the Rock, Chris Boushy scored seven and added four assists and while Matthews, Small, and Schreiber only scored one goal each, they combined for nineteen assists.

Game on!

One Vegas defender I noticed a lot was Jonathan Gagliardi. He had a strong game and made one amazing play that likely went unnoticed. The Dogs were advancing in transition and the ball carrier crossed centre and then tried to pass it laterally to a teammate. However the pass went back farther than he expected and was about to cross centre again, for a very obvious over-and-back call. Gagliardi was close enough to the ball that he ran forward and then leapt in the air, caught the ball, tossed it forward to a teammate, and then landed. This avoided the over-and-back and the transition chance continued. I don’t remember whether they scored or not, but either way it was a smart play.

Rock Roadies

The Rock Roadies showed up in numbers and all sat in the same section. There were a ton of Rock jerseys all gathered together and, oddly, one Roughnecks jersey. As I said, we got our tickets separately so we were on the other side of the arena. They started “Go Rock Go” chants, cheered loudly for Rock goals (obviously), even did the “You can’t do that” cheer when Las Vegas took a penalty. It’s was funny how the Las Vegas PA guy always tried to start “Let’s Go Dogs” or “deeeee-FENCE” chants just as the “Go Rock Go” chants began.

The Roadies section

We saw a bunch of them in the restaurant where we had dinner before the game, and got a picture taken. They also managed to arrange a picture of all the Rock fans on the floor after the game, and somehow my family ended up right in the middle. The guy lying down in the middle is my son Nick, I’m right behind him, and my wife Gail and son Ryan are on either side of me. The weird lighting makes my hair look quite gray. Yes, it’s the lighting.

Coolest and weirdest moment: One of the Roadies (Shauna) saw our Rock jerseys in the restaurant and came over to say hi. I introduced myself as “Graeme” and tried to join their Facebook group. She said she’d approve the request as soon as she saw it, but we had some connectivity issues so she didn’t see the request right away. We chatted for a bit and then she returned to her table. About ten minutes later, she came by again (with Aaron a.k.a. Meathead, who I’ve met a few times) and said “I didn’t realize you were Graeme Perrow“. My son Nick jokingly responded “THE Graeme Perrow”. That was kinda fun – thanks to Shauna and Meathead for making me feel like a celebrity.

Other game notes

• The arena was smaller than the NLL arenas I’m familiar with – Air Canada Centre, First Ontario Centre in Hamilton, KeyBank Center in Buffalo – and I didn’t see much of it but it’s a pretty nice place. There were about 6,000 people there, a bit less than the average Rock home game, but the fans were quite loud when the Dogs scored.
• When the PA guy wanted to acknowledge someone or something, he told the crowd “put your paws together”. I liked the Dogs reference there. They also had a dog mascot, but it was an actual dog, not a guy in a anthropomorphic dog costume. The dog was announced before the teams were and he ran out onto the floor holding a lacrosse stick, which was cool.
• The Desert Dogs also announced that they had signed a local kid who had just finished a successful run of cancer treatment to a one-day contract, and he was announced and went out on the floor before the players. I believe the team picks a kid and does this for every game, which is awesome.
• The Desert Dogs had a special guest at this game: professional BMX rider Connor Fields. There was a brief announcement at the beginning of the game where he was introduced, and he waved to everyone, then they never mentioned or showed him again. The weird thing is that the NLL has its own Connor Fields, a forward for the Knighthawks, and this Connor Fields is not related to that one.

Not Awesome

Splitting tabs in Vegas

This has absolutely nothing to do with lacrosse but it kinda pissed me off so I need to vent about it. A few times over the trip, many of us (and at least once or twice, all 17 of us) ate together at a restaurant. Some of the time, the restaurants said they were “unable” to split the bill into more than two, so they gave us one bill and we had to exchange cash and do all the work ourselves to handle this. Every time it ended up with one person paying for everyone and then the standard “Our meals came to about $75, but I only have $60 in cash. But Jeff owes me $20 from yesterday, so he’ll give you $15 and then he still owes me $5 but Kim owes Jeff $15 and I owe Kim $30 so maybe we can…” It’s not rocket science for us to do the work, but we shouldn’t have to do it. I know this happened at the Public House in the Luxor, and the Beerhaus outside New York New York.

This is possible everywhere else I’ve been. This is a solved problem. There’s no way in hell that restaurants in this city that sees more tourist money flowing through it than almost any other city in the world doesn’t know that the “technology” to do this is available. I don’t know the reasoning behind refusing to allow this, but it’s certainly not customer-friendly.