About last night
Last night’s Mann Cup game was the most intense game I’ve ever seen—way too close for comfort, from a tie of one all at the end of the first, 4-3 for the Bellies after the second, 5 all after the third, 7 all after the first 10-minute overtime, to ending with a contentious goal about three minutes into the sudden-death OT. Talk about stressful!
My daughter’s convinced that Colin Doyle stepped into the crease BEFORE becoming airborne to score the winning goal, and I’m sure a lot of Bellies fans agree with her (can’t comment on the Brampton fans because they’re too few and far between at the Barn). Teddy Jenner of NLL Insider thinks the
goal was clean based on Doyle’s being airborne before crossing the line, but perhaps Jenner didn’t look at Doyle’s pre-airborne stance. In any case, I’d be less bugged by that goal if it hadn’t been Doyle’s. I hate giving that guy another reason to be smug.
And speaking of Doyle, when I watch him play, I’m reminded of a certain local city's girls’ lacrosse team of a few years back. They could change the entire tone of the game by convincing refs that minor, clean hits were somehow worthy of penalty. How’d they do it? By embellishing every little hit, every minor infraction. Colin Doyle, a 30-something-year-old man, uses the tactics of a 12-year-old girl—and is known for it. In fact, even his supporters admit that he embellishes injuries (although they try to avoid the using the word "fake"). To each his own, I suppose, but I certainly wouldn’t want faked injuries and melodrama to be my legacy to a sport that’s known for its speed and roughness.
So, let’s look at the effect of Doyle’s antics on last night’s game. In the second period, Kyle Ross and Bubba Westwood got two minutes each (for elbowing and high sticking, respectively), which they likely wouldn’t have got if Doyle hadn’t exaggerated. The result? Brampton scored twice on the powerplay, tying the game at 3 all. At the bottom of the third, Doyle’s melodrama resulted in a 4-minute checking-from-behind penalty to Rory Smith. Harsh as that one was, the Bellies not only managed to kill the penalty but Cliff Smith was able to score. Still, the game might have ended completely differently had the Bellies been playing with the full complement. Why the refs allow Doyle to get away with his cheap and not-so-subtle antics is beyond me. The fans don’t buy it, though. And frankly, if I wanted to watch grown men writhe in pain over fake injuries, I’d watch soccer.
But like I said, it was a thrilling game, and I get a lot of comfort knowing that the Bellies haven’t played their best game yet. Maybe tonight they can tie the series.
Labels: Colin Doyle, melodrama
The plot thickens
Here's an
interesting piece by Teddy Jenner of NLL Insider.
A few key points regarding the incident that kicked off the Game 1 brawl:
"After the game he [Don Scott] reviewed the game tape and the referees’ game sheet and as a result New Westminster’s Bobby Snider was assessed a three game suspension. Now it has been made known that while both teams and Scott agree that Ian Hawskbee was the actual player who hit Colin Doyle, the game sheet says it was Snider. New West could have appealed the decision but then they would have put Hawksbee on the hot seat and could have lost him for three games."
and more importantly:
"Scott also commented that in his mind, the check on Doyle was a legal shoulder to chest hit and that it was the resulting head on head collision that did the damage."
So a lousy call not only gets the wrong player suspended for three games for what was apparently a clean hit, but it also sets off the largest bench-clearing brawl in recent lacrosse history. Grrr.
On another note, Jenner also reports that Chris Gill will be retiring after the Mann Cup. This makes me sad. C'mon Bellies, win it for Chris!
Labels: Bobby Snider, Brampton Excelsiors, Chris Gill, Colin Doyle, Ian Hawksbee, New Westminster Salmonbellies
I want my money back
Well, it's hard to believe that what we witnessed at Queen's Park Arena tonight was the first game of the WLA finals. Where did the top-rated Bellies go? They were awful tonight. Again, they had no defense, their shooting was off, and they dropped the ball (literally) far too many times. Final score: 15-5 for the Adanacs.
The Bellies had a few--a very few--good plays. Peter Morgan scored a couple of times on powerplays, Iannucci made a beautiful one-handed goal after picking himself off the ground in front of the net, and Shibild made a lot of good saves, particularly in the latter part of the game. Shibild was looking a bit discouraged in the first period, and even made a direct in-front-of-the-net pass to Adanacs' Colin Doyle, who promptly placed the ball in the net.
The Adanacs played a much stronger game, however, and totally dominated all three periods. Their star player tonight was Ray Durante, mind you, a ref who's got a bit of reputation for favouring whoever happens to be playing against New West. I'm not saying that the Adanacs didn't deserve to win. They played hard and they played well--consistently. But Radar was annoying. He failed to call an illegal pick on an Adanacs player, and when a Bellie from the bench pointed it out, he got two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. Radar also missed calling a Bellies' goal in the last couple of minutes of the game (not that it would have changed the outcome). Then, on the buzzer, Iannucci shot straight into the net. An Adanacs player started roughing him, and both benches cleared for a fight. And somehow, after all that, Bellies' Darren McEwan gets a ten-minute abuse of officials gross misconduct. I'm pretty sure a lot of fans wanted to abuse Radar tonight too. As for McEwan, I'm not sure why he was the only one who ended up with a penalty from the brouhaha. In fact, I didn't even find out about the penalty until I got home and compared my notes with
Pointstreak.
Post-game fight
Adanacs' Captain, Bruce Murray, after the fight
Here's to a better game Sunday night in Coquitlam.
Labels: Athan Iannucci, Canadian Lacrosse Association, Colin Doyle, Peter Morgan, Radar, Ray Durante, Ron Shibild, WLA 2007
