Showing posts with label Paul Rabil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Rabil. Show all posts

Friday, December 10, 2010

Training Camp News

A lot to talk about in the world of lacrosse yesterday. First off, the Washington Stealth signed transition player Paul Rabil to a three year extension. “Paul is truly developing into a fantastic indoor lacrosse player,” said Stealth Head Coach Chris Hall. “He’s an explosive player and virtually impossible to handle one-on-one. He really adds another dimension to our team and in just his third NLL season, he is on the verge of becoming one of the best in the game.”

Meanwhile the Calgary Roughnecks are having their problems. Hours after learning they will not hold training camp due to disciplinary behavior, they announced camp was back on in Calgary. Here is the statement from the Roughnecks: " Yesterday an alleged incident was brought to the attention of the Calgary Roughnecks organization that may have occurred during last weekend’s training camp. The conduct alleged was not of a criminal nature but would have violated team policy and expectations. In order to emphasize to the team that their behavior is expected to represent the Roughnecks properly at all times, management determined that the proportionate response was to cancel training camp this weekend.
Upon further investigation, it was determined that cancellation of camp would be a disproportionate response to the conduct that may have actually occurred. As a result training camp has been reinstated for this weekend.
Upon the conclusion of the continuing investigation, the one player involved will be appropriately disciplined if found to be at fault. The Roughnecks will not tolerate objectionable conduct by players, staff or management."

Meanwhile, top Roughnecks player Curtis Manning will miss the entire 2011 season. The reason behind this is he will be attending a medical school. The Roughnecks will also be without Rob Van Beek, who is pursuing a career as a firefighter.

One final transaction in the NLL world; The Rochester Knighthawks traded Matt Danowski to the Philadelphia Wings for a conditional draft pick. Danowski dressed for just one game with Rochester last season, after playing nine for the Mammoth the year before.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Lax Links- 11/17

Here are your Lax Links for Wednesday afternoon.

Our first glimpse of Grant in a non-Rochester jersey- NLL Insider

Rock confirm free agent and rookie camp players- NLL Insider

US indoor lacrosse announces roster- NLL Insider

Matt Vinc interview- NLL Insider

Mammoth re-sign Gajics- NLL.com

Paul Rabil interview- Inside Lacrosse

Friday, November 12, 2010

Games of the Year #8- Washington vs Edmonton

In what was one of the matchups of the year in the NLL, the Washington Stealth faced off vs the Edmonton Rush in a game to determine the best of the west. Washington was coming off a first round blowout of Minnesota, and Edmonton a win over Calgary. Edmonton and Washington had fought all season for the #1 spot in the west, and while Washington ended up there Edmonton fell to third. But positioning did not matter in this game, as they were two of the best in the NLL, facing off for a berth in the Champions Cup.
Washington started the game off on a high note, with Paul Rabil scoring 3:39 into the game, followed by goals from Jeff Zywicki and two from Luke Wiles. Washington was able to hold a 4-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Cam Sedgewick and Rabil scored quickly into the second quarter, giving them a strong 6-1 advantage over the Rush. But Edmonton would not go away, scoring three unanswered goals in the second to cut the lead for Washington with 1:46 left. Rhys Duch of Washington was able to give the Stealth a bit more breathing room with his late period goal.
The Rush were motivated going into the third, scoring two straight goals to open the new half. But once again the Stealth had an answer, with Zywicki opening up the score to 8-6. Duch scored again seconds later, to make the score 9-6 going into the pivotal fourth quarter.
The Rush had beaten the Stealth twice in their three matchups this season, their two wins one goal wins. The Stealth knew the Rush had the ability to come back late in games. The Rush and Stealth traded goals to start the period, with Luke Wiles scoring his third of the night. Brodie Merrill was able to make the score 11-9 with 3:39 left in the quarter. The Rush pulled their goaltender Matt Disher for the final two minutes, and 55 seconds in Corey Small scored to make the score 11-10. With 20 seconds left Andy Secore tied the score at 11, and the final buzzer sounded with a tie. “I thought we were a little unlucky in the last four minutes,” said Stealth Head Coach Chris Hall. “We talked at halftime about it getting scrappy and intense down the stretch. We managed to stay poised and battle through it.”
Overtime lasted a mere eight seconds, as the Rush watched their hope melt away at the stick of Paul Rabil. Jamison Koesterer won a big faceoff for Washington, which trickled to Rabil who scored past Disher for the Washington win, and a chance to compete in the Champions Cup.

Media
Stealthlax.com
The Lacrosse Blog

Monday, October 11, 2010

Lax Links- 10/11

I have been busy all weekend, but I promise a look at Casey Powell this week.

Kelusky still heartbroken about trade- NLL Insider

Mammoth sign Curtis Palidwor- Mammoth.com

Wings GM Johnny Mouradian loves the acquisition of Paul Dawson- Wingslax.com

A review of the Syracuse Alum game- NLL Insider

USA squeaks by Harvard- Lacrosse Magazine

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

NLL Preview: Washington Stealth

The NLL season is now only a few months away, and it's time to preview them.

The Stealth won their first ever championship last season, defeating the Toronto Rock in the Champions Cup. The Stealth held the best record all season, and when threatened by teams like Edmonton and Calgary, they hung on. The Stealth got clutch production all season long, and look like the favorites again in the west going into 2011.
The Stealth season started with one of their biggest trades in franchise history, trading Colin Doyle to Toronto for Lewis Ratcliff. Ratcliff responded to the move by becoming the second leading scorer in the NLL.
The Stealth had plenty of scorers in the top twenty along with Ratcliff, Rhys Duch, and Jeff Zywicki, who they just traded to Edmonton.
The Stealth played their first season in Washington as an up and coming team. They had made the playoffs the previous year, but were still under .500. The Roughnecks looked like the team to beat in the west. And many people were stunned when the Stealth traded Doyle, the face of the franchise for so long. The Stealth came out of the gate strong, and continued it until the end to win their championship.
The Stealth look a little different this year, trading away Jeff Zywicki and acquiring Jeff Moelski. But the Stealth don't look to let up, as they still have Paul Rabil, Cam Sedgewick, and Brian Carroll. Also in the mix is playoff hero Mike Grimes, a defensman.
The Stealth put a lot on young goaltender Tyler Richards last season, and he delivered. Richards, the Stealth's third round pick in 2007, was spending his third year in the league and was looking to make a big leap. Richards spent time as the Stealth's backup in 2009, playing in ten games with a save percentage of .803%. He was 3-1 that season. The Stealth named him their starting goaltender in 2010, and Richards played in every game. He went 5-4 with a .771%. Though Richards did not rank high in the goaltender rankings, he won the world championship.
The Stealth are one of the favorites again this season, keeping much of their team together.

Friday, August 6, 2010

MLL Team Reviews: Boston Cannons

With the season soon drawing to a close, I'm going to look at every team in the MLL. I will look at the present, past, and future of each team and judge their playoff hopes (If they are in!).
The Cannons go into te playoffs as obvious favorites with Paul Rabil, Kevin Buchanan and Matt Poskay. They face the weaker Bayhawks in the first round who they are expected to beat. The Cannons strentgh is scoring, with last year's MLL MVP Paul Rabil and this year's scoring leader Matt Pokay leading the team.
The Bayhawks were able to stun the Cannons last night in overtime, however, but there is no doubt the Cannons will make adjustments on the streaky Bayhawks offense. The Cannons Kip Turner should be able to keep the Bayhawks from scoring too much, so the Cannons focus will be scoring like they can off Chris Garrity, no easy task.
The Cannons will obviously need their stars in Rabil and Poskay, but may also need younger players like Justin Smith and Max Quinzani to get the job done.
Boston will be without their home-field advantage, in which they went 5-1 at Harvard Stadium. The Cannons also lead the league in goals after the season, with 175. I don't know if Garrity can handle that offense.
The Cannons had a historic season, going into the playoffs as a #1 seed looking to win their first championship. Poskay broke their goal-scoring record, and they hosted the all-star game at Harvard Stadium. The Cannons look to finish their season on a high note; A championship.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Too Bad This Wasn't My 100th Post! USA Wins Gold

Team USA went into the FIL Championships with a lot of holes and a team not many believed in. They had lost two exhibition games, and just barely squeaked by the MLL All-stars.
Meanwhile, Canada was looked at as a power house, and understandably so. I mean, look at that roster!
Don't get me wrong, we all knew it was going to be USA vs Canada. I just assumed Canada would win.
The USA struck first in the first quarter, with a goal by Matt Streibel beat Chris Sanderson at the 14:55 mark. About two minutes later, Paul Rabil the soon-to-be FIL MVP, shot a rocket past Sanderson to give the Americans a multi-goal lead. Rabil scored again at the 3:04 mark, but other than that Chris Sanderson was a shut-down goalie the rest of the period. Canada was able to score twice to make it only a one goal lead going into the second period.
Ryan Powell scored quickly into the quarter to make it 4-2, but John Grant made it a one goal game once again. About three minutes later, Lizards superstar Zack Greer tied it. USA scored the next two goals to make it a multi-goal game once again. It was 8-4 Americans going into the half. Canada came out fighting in the next period, scoring the next four goals to make it 8-8.
The drama was building. All knotted up going into the final period of the FIL tournament. Ryan McClay scored the go-ahead goal for Canada at the 16:53 mark.
It was far from over, though. Brenden Mundorf of the Outlaws knotted it back up for the Americans. Again, Canada would take the lead and the USA would tie it, but Ned Crotty and Max Seibald would score the two last goals to give Team USA the gold.
Paul Rabil won MVP for the FIL, and may be this MLL season's MVP with the now playoff bound Boston Cannons.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A look at the MLL so far:

This MLL season has been an exciting one, with teams such as Boston and Denver proving to be powerhouse teams.
The current standings on this FIL break look like this:

Boston 6-3
Denver 6-3
Chicago 4-5 2 GB
Cheasapeake 4-5 2GB
Long Island 4-5 2 GB
Toronto 3-6 3 GB.

The disappointment of the year is obviously the Toronto Nationals, the world champions of last season. With players like Garret Billings, Dan Dawson, and John Grant Jr, they still have potential to be a force if they squeeze their way into the tight playoff race. After winning three in a row, it looked like the Nationals were alive, but it will be tough to rebound from a tough one goal loss to Denver two weeks ago.

Long Island also has an interesting case. They started the season off poorly as well, but have played decent in the last few weeks, and are now tied with Chicago, who started off the season real well. Led by Matt Danowski and Zack Greer, the Lizards are a team that can make some noise.

The Cannons are having a terrific year pushing for their first ever title, led by not only Paul Rabil but Matt Poskay leading the MLL is scoring. A 34 goal scorer two years ago, Poskay had a disappointing season last year playing only 7 games and scoring 15 goals. If the Cannons want to continue their run, they are going to need Poskay to stay hot as the new all-time Cannons scoring leader.

Later in the week I will look at Denver, Chicago, and Chesapeake.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

FIL Championships

The Iroquois Nationals learned yesterday they will be able to participate in this year's FIL championships. “It’s one thing to lose a world games medal to another team, it’s quite another to lose it to someone wearing a suit" said Delby Powless.
Meanwhile, Canada beat USA, 10-9. Rhys Duch and John Grant jr scored a hat trick a piece for team Canada. Mike Leveille and Drew Westervelt scored two goals each for the United States and Paul Rabil, Kyle Sweeney, Matt Striebel, Matt Zash, Kevin Cassese and Brendan Mundorf got one each.
The Americans led 3-2 after one quarter.
Canada's turning point was in the second quarter when Alex Smith intercepted a pass and scored. Grant scored a beautiful goal and Duch scored to put Canada up at halftime. USA tied it up at 6 to start the fourth, but Canada all but wrapped it up on Garret Billings goal to make it 8-6.
Canada (2-0) plays Australia (1-1) today at 2:30 pm.

Friday, July 9, 2010

MLL All-Star Game Review

Last night Team USA eked by the MLL All-Stars, 13-12, to finish their exhibition play.
The Bud Light MVP Brenden Mundorf scored six goals for USA and scored the game winner. Ryan Powell scored the goal that brought them within one and the game winner. For the MLL All-Stars, they put in a terrific effort, with Anthony Kelly, Kevin LeVeille, and Peet Poillon scoring two goals a piece.
The key to the game was the MLL All-Stars great defense that shut down Paul Rabil. The MLL All-Stars were projected to have great defense, but at times in the first half Team USA looked over matched. They dropped a lot passes and looked very sloppy on offense, and blew some coverages on defense. They ended up with the lead after two though, with a five goal second period.
The Halftime skills contest was spectacular. Paul Rabil defended his title as hardest shot, and tied his record shooting 111. Chicago rookie Ned Crotty won the two point contest, and Kevin Bucanan won the free style, scoring after running up a staircase made of people (including Anthony Kelly) balanced on the crossbar, and scored.
In the second half, the MLL All-Stars made a run and took the lead, 9-6. Matt Danowski scored on a two point shot to tie it and then the All-Stars scored three more goals. But Mundorf took over again and scored two goals before the end of the period to cut the lead to one going into the fourth quarter. Ryan Powell put in the game winner with 1:00 left.

The USA did prevail in the end, but have to make some big time adjustments going into the FIL. Adam Fullerton looked bad in net, and USA had butterfingers in the first half. They have the talent to win, but they need to take improvements out of this.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Nationals best #1 Boston to get back in playoff picture

The Toronto Nationals won their third straight game to better their record this season to 3-5. The Cannons defeat moved their record to 5-3.
The game started very offensive, with Stephen Boyle scoring his first career MLL goal for the Cannons, and them taking a 2-0 lead. But Toronto came right back to take the lead, including a highlight reel goal by John Grant Jr. But MLL leading scorer Matt Poskay evened things up at the end of the quarter, but Mark Steenhuis took the lead for Toronto again.
At the half both teams were tied at 9. But it was an odd second period to get there. Seven seconds in, Geoff Snider won the face off and took it to the other end to score. The teams traded three goals after a rocket by Paul Rabil.
Jordon Burke replace Kip Turner in net for Boston to start the third. Matt Poskay got the Cannons the lead on a man-advantage, but Toronto came back to score back-to-back goals. But Paul Rabil scored from outside the arc to give the Cannons a 13-11 lead going into the last quarter of play.
The Cannons could not score a goal this period, and Toronto tied it almost immediately. Burke kept the Cannons in the game until the backbreaking goal by Jordon Hall that was the game winner.
This is the Cannons and Nationals last game before the all-star game this Thursday at Harvard stadium.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

MLL Announces All-stars

Major League Lacrosse announced their all-star roster for July 8th at Harvard Stadium. They will play team USA.

Attack:
Matt Poskay (Boston)
Kevin Levelle (Chicago)
Danny Glading (Chicago)
Matt Donowski (Long Island)

MidField:

Matt Abbott (Chesapeake)
Stepehen Berger (Long Island)
Dan Hardy (Denver)
Chris Rotelli (Chicago)
Kevin Buchannan (Boston)
Bill McGlone (Chicago)
Peet Poillion (Chesapeake)

Face-off
Chris Eck (Boston)
Anthony Kelly (Chicago)

Defense:
Matt Bocklet (Denver)
Brodie Merrill (Toronto)
Micheal Evans (Chesapeake)
Nicky Polonco (Long Island)
Brian Spallina (Long Island)

Goalies:
Chris Garrity (Chesapeake)
Jesse Schwartzman (Denver)

Team USA (21 current MLL players)

Attack:
Ryan Boyle (Boston)
Mike Levieille (Chicago)
Brenden Mundorf (Denver)
Ryan Powell (No MLL)
Drew Westervelt (Denver)

Midfield
Ned Crotty (Chicago)
Kevin Cassese (Boston)
Kyle Dixon (Chesapeake)
Stephen Peyser (Long Island)
Paul Rabil (Boston)
Chris Schiller (No MLL)
Max Seibald (Denver)
Alex Smith (Chesapeake)
Matt Streibal (Chicago)
Matt Zash (Long Island)

Defense:
Joe Cinosky (Toronto)
DJ Driscol (Chicago)
Eric Martin (Denver)
Ryan McClay (Boston)
Shawn Nadelen (Chesapeake)
Kyle Sweeny (Boston)

Goaltenders:
Brian Doughtery (Long Island)
Ryan Fullerton (Denver)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

NLL News- 5/11

According to NLL Insider, these players have the most 'clutch points' in the playoffs:
You can expect Casey Powell to be #1, though most of those goals came in the game vs Boston, where he was incredibly clutch. Paul Rabil had seven game winning points this regular season (all assists) before his OT game winning goal vs Edmonton on Saturday.

In other news, David Takata of the Washington Stealth was named executive of the year. Shawn Williams of the Knighthawks was named sportsman of the year.
Today the head coach of the year award will be handed out. On Wednesday the Transition player of the year, goaltender of the year, and defensive player of year will be announced. On Thursday MVP, all-rookie team, and rookie of the year will be announced.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

NLL Final Scores

Last night the Toronto Rock beat the Orlando Titans to clinch a trip to the Champions Cup. The Rock went up early, 3-1, before Orlando stormed back to take a 5-3 lead. The Rock swarmed back and scored seven goals in the third quarter alone. The Rock dominated play in the second half and picked up the 15-10 win.
It was a much tighter game in Everett as the Washington Stealth beat the Edmonton Rush 12-11 in overtime, ironically the same score when these two teams met for the last time in the regular season. The Rush scored two goals in the final 56 seconds to tie it and came back from a fourth quarter three goal deficit. The Stealth would lead by five in the second quarter, but the Rush resiliently came back. The Stealth scored eight seconds into the OT, a goal from Paul Rabil to beat Matt Disher.

Next week the Washington Stealth will host the Toronto Rock for the Champions Cup. The game will be Saturday, May 15 at 10:30 pm. You can watch the game on Versus at 2 pm the next day.