This was a really entertaining game. It was close with a few lead changes and only a couple of leads of as much as two until the very end. I was going to list this game under the Awesome section of my weekly report, but it got kind of long so I split it out.

It was a bit odd though – Colorado was on a seven game win streak and was playing really well throughout, looking like one of the best teams in the league. But even though Toronto was either leading the game or only back by a little, I thought there was a lot of sloppy play. The Rock offense sometimes looked disjointed, like they weren’t on the same page and nobody knew where anyone else was going to be. Sometimes you see almost blind passes, where a player passes to where another player should be and lo and behold, that’s where they are. We didn’t see as much of that on Friday – it looked like there were passes to where a player should be but he wasn’t there. And then at other times, the Rock were able to smoothly move the ball all around the Colorado defenders until someone got a good enough look to put it behind Dillon Ward, and we all know how hard both of those things have been this season.

The Mammoth hit Troy Holowchuk square in the chest a number of times, or took desperation shots with a second left on the shot clock, but I credit most of those to the Rock defense limiting their options. Other times Andrew Kew or Dylan McIntosh were able to get open and take a clean shot. There seemed to be a lot of shot clock violations on both sides, and the Rock in particular were pretty slow getting off the bench on transition. I noticed a few times where by the time the fifth offensive player was out on the floor and ready to go, there were only 10–12 seconds left on the shot clock. However I didn’t notice whether that’s because the offensive players were slow getting on the floor or if the defensive players were slow getting off.

Yours truly in the middle, looking up, with my wife beside me, right after Challen Rogers’ third goal.

Troy Holowchuk had a great game. The Mammoth scored nine against him in 30 minutes last week, and this week he played the whole game and held them to only nine total. There were a couple of goals he probably should have stopped but there were many more stops he made that he had no business making. Just like last year, Holowchuk has proven that he can be a full-time NLL starting goalie. I don’t think he’s in the “elite” class like Ward, Dobson, Del Bianco, or (in my opinion) Nick Rose, but most aren’t, and he’s a lot better than “serviceable”. The aforementioned Dillon Ward also had a good game, though maybe not up to the standard he’s set for himself this season.

Other game notes:

• He’s been doing this forever but I noticed it a lot on Friday night. When Challen Rogers is entering the offensive zone with the ball, obviously a defender or two covers him. Rogers never tries to avoid the hits or pass to teammates so the defenders will leave him alone. He just plows through as many of them as he needs to. Sometimes it works and he gets to the net or eventually does pass it, and sometimes it doesn’t work and he gets stripped of the ball, though I think the former happens a lot more than the latter. But his determination and sheer strength are impressive to watch.
• Isiah Moran-Weekes had a great NLL debut. He’s not the biggest guy on the floor (5’9", 165 lbs) but he worked very hard every shift, tried to clear space in the middle of the floor, hustled to and from the bench, and even got his first NLL goal. I’d love to see him get some more playing time in the next few games.
• Nice to see Latrell Harris get his own bobblehead, and he played an excellent game as well.
• My wife and I made the NLL+ broadcast! See the image above. Yes, I need a haircut.