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Stealth open '05 season Friday night
By Jeremy Harness January 6, 2005 |
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The San Jose Stealth opens its National Lacrosse League season in Calgary, Alberta, Friday night when they face the defending champion Calgary Roughnecks. The Stealth then travel to back to San Jose to open up the home season in a 7:30 p.m. face off against Calgary at San Jose Arena. The Stealth, in its first season in San Jose, made the post season but got bounced in the first round 15-14 by Calgary, one of the top teams in the Western Division. That overtime loss from last post season doesn't sit well in the stomachs of the Stealth, especially with their coach, Johnny Mouradian, and their players. The Stealth must have better goaltending this year from Rob Blasidell, who is slated as their starter, though he was very inconsistent last season. And San Jose must play better defense and get better goaltending if the Stealth want to improve on last year's record of 11-5. There is going to be an advantage being on the home field on Saturday night at the Arena, especially since the Stealth will have the whole building to themselves short of a hockey agreement -- with no hockey scheduled, they wont have to share the building. Basically until next month, the Stealth will be the only show in San Jose. Right now the goal is to put the best product out on the field in order to please the fans because if you come out flat, a lot of fans may not come back. But while the Stealth will put a lot of points on the board, the problem will be defense. Jim Moss, a defenseman who leads the club, plays a lot bigger than his size. He's a hard hitter and by the way he plays, you get the sense he's a lot bigger than the 6-feet, 170 pounds he's listed at. Moss plays more like a 6'4" guy, so he's one of the best players out there. You got Gary Luzinski, who's definitely going to put points out there and you have a number of other guys on the Stealth who can attack the nets as well. Mike Reagan was the guy who came on late last season and helped them into that playoff drive. Reagan is a guy who who's really streaky. He can usually get five or six goals for you in a game. and probably get three or four for you in a five minute span. He's that streaky. Reagan can go on some explosive outbursts. The Stealth, who made the post season in their first year, is not exactly an expansion team. They just relocated from Rochester, so this is an inherited team that San Jose had their first look at. Like Tennessee when they move from Houston in the NFL, it's the same kind of team and concept for a team moving. It's not made out of rookies and rejects. Its more like an expansion team. Its a good club. As far as this club making the NLL post season this year, the Stealth kept most of their personnel from last season, including their key players, and that gives fans an opportunity to see if the Stealth do as well as last season -- given that they get a better goalie or they make a change. There is a second goalie, Brandon Miller, who replaces Blaisdell. Blaisdell really had a bad game in the first half against Calgary because Calgary is another team that can score in bunches. Blaisdell gave up 11 or 12 goals in the first half and they yanked Blaisdell and put Miller in. Miller kind of turned back the tide a little bit and put the Stealth in a position to win, so Brant Miller is like a ideal goalie. If something goes wrong, you can throw him in there and he doesn't miss a beat I wouldn't be surprised if he took over as starting goalie in mid-season. New-look Stealth to take on nemesis Calgary in season opener What better opponent for the San Jose Stealth to get their old competitive juices going than the Calgary Roughnecks, who happened to have knocked the Stealth out in the first round of the National Lacrosse League playoffs last year? Well, that’s who the Stealth will be playing against this Friday and Saturday, as the NLL season gets underway. The Stealth and Roughnecks will tango in Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome on Friday before going to San Jose in time for Saturday’s matchup at HP Pavilion. “Everybody in your division, you get jacked up,” Stealth coach Johnny Mouradian said. “We’re going to see (Calgary) in the playoffs. They have great goaltending. Curtis Palidor played superb in the (latter) part of the season.” The core of star players - Gary Rosyski, Mike Regan, Jim Moss and Cam Woods - is still intact, but San Jose will hit the field with 14 new players on the roster, most of whom are based on the West Coast. That was not the case with last year’s players; the majority of the players were from the eastern part of North America, as the Stealth originally emigrated from Albany, N.Y. Mouradian said the Stealth has many more U.S.-based players this season (they have seven such players, while they had only one during their seasons in Albany, and that makes a big difference since players work regular jobs during the week and play lacrosse on the weekends. “We’ve been through a number of adjustments on the roster,” Mouradian said. “It was tough (for the guys) to leave their families to come out west.” While the Stealth will be playing for the first time this year, Calgary is coming off a 12-7 loss to the Colorado Mammoth, who the Roughnecks beat in the NLL semi-finals on their way to the league championship last year. “They’re big games for us,” Calgary coach Chris Hall said. “We’ve got to get on track, and we’ve got to get on track quickly. You can’t give up a lot of games early.” Catch Jeromio Harness with his exclusive coverage of exciting San Jose Stealth lacrosse, home and away. Jeremy will be hosting Sportstalk as well on KVVN 1430 San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento. |
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