Toronto Rock has been hardened by adversity

Published 11:56 pm Friday, May 14, 2010

A five-game losing streak midway through the National Lacrosse League season is what it took for the Toronto Rock to find their identity as a team.

From that skid emerged a squad sporting a productive mix of veteran savvy and rookie talent that has won five of its past six games, including two postseason victories.

The Rock (11-7) play the Washington Stealth (13-5) at 7:30 tonight in the NLL Champion’s Cup game at Comcast Arena.

Rock head coach Troy Cordingley and assistant coach and general manager Terry Sanderson combined to guide the Calgary Roughnecks to the 2009 Champion’s Cup victory, but faced a new challenge when they took over a Rock franchise that was coming off a 6-10 record.

The coaches brought in a veteran leader in Colin Doyle in a blockbuster trade with Washington in December, added veteran defensemen Sandy Chapman and Phil Sanderson, and drafted talented rookie forwards Garrett Billings and Stephan Leblanc.

Toronto got off to a hot start, nearly matching Washington win-for-win on its way to a 6-1 record before the five-game losing streak from Feb. 14 through March 27 forced the team to re-evaluate.

“We probably shouldn’t have been 6-1 … and at the same time I don’t think we should’ve lost all five of those games,” Terry Sanderson said. “In this league, you’re always going to hit a couple rough patches along the way and we certainly did in that five-game losing streak.”

The losing streak was the result a team trying to find itself, Terry Sanderson said. “We changed a lot of guys on this Toronto team this year, you can put that (skid) down to chemistry,” he said.

One thing that halped Toronto turn things around was the rapid development of the two rookie forwards, Billings and Leblanc, both from Langley, B.C.

Leblanc, who this week was named the league’s 2010 Rookie of the Year, scored 82 points (36 goals, 46 assists). Billings added 83 points (33 goals, 50 assists).

“Both those kids have played beyond their years,” Cordingley said. “They’ve grown a lot quicker than we anticipated. It’s like having two more seasoned veterans out there.”

Veteran leadership is something Toronto has been able to rest its lacrosse helmet on this season.

Along with Doyle, a three-time Champion’s Cup Most Valuable Player, forward Blaine Manning and goaltender Bob Watson have been part of multiple championships with the Rock, who have won five NLL titles.

“We’ve got a handful of excellent veterans on our team,” Terry Sanderson said.

That leadership paid off in the East Division semifinals, when the Rock fell into a 6-1 hole in the second quarter against the Buffalo Bandits. Doyle scored three goals and had two assists, and Manning added a goal and three assists in the second half as the Rock rallied to earn a 13-11 win.

A week later, Watson came up with 38 saves and nine Toronto players scored goals as the Rock earned a berth in the Champion’s Cup with a 15-10 victory over Orlando.

“You learn a lot about yourself and about your team when you go through the worst of times,” Doyle said. “We almost went two months without a win and that’s enough to break a lot of teams and I think the character on this team really shone through when we needed it the most.

“We just fought like hell to get that next win and things have gone pretty well since then.”