Stealth’s offense has struggled
Published 12:01 am Saturday, February 5, 2011
The first five games of the season have produced questions in a number of areas for the Washington Stealth, but one unit in particular has lacked the potency that helped carry the team to the National Lacrosse League title last season.
The same offensive unit that led the NLL in goals scored and shooting percentage during its championship run in 2010, has been surprisingly inconsistent in four of the five games.
Sans a 19-goal outburst in a road win against Calgary on Jan. 22, Washington (2-3) is averaging just 10 goals per game. Add in the Calgary win and the Stealth bump up to 11.8 goals per game, still noticeably lower than last year’s 13.2 average.
“Shooting is a tough thing. Sometimes you run into hot goaltenders and other times things just aren’t dropping for you,” Stealth head coach Chris Hall said. “I find it very similar to basketball when a guy has a hot hand and he goes and he can’t miss and then the next night he can’t hit anything.
“Right now we’ve got a collective group of guys that aren’t having hot nights.”
Still, Washington is second in the league with a .184 shooting percentage (behind Minnesota’s league-leading .199 average). The problem is the Stealth haven’t been getting the production at critical times. Forward Rhys Duch scored the game-winning goal in overtime in Week 1 at Colorado, but the Stealth failed to convert late against Calgary in a Week 2 loss, and last week squandered a power-play to start overtime in a loss to Minnesota.
“Obviously we’ve got to focus a little bit more,” Hall said, “When we get a good look, we’ve got to bury the ball and we’ll be addressing that this week in practice.”
Tonight could provide the needed boost as Washington faces a Colorado team with similar offensive issues plus a 10-game home losing streak dating back to April 17, 2009.
The ever-dangerous John Grant Jr. leads Colorado (1-3) with nine goals and 15 assists (24 points), but hasn’t received much in the way of assistance as second-leading scorer Brian Langtry has just six goals and nine assists.
The Mammoth, who have seen all four of their contests decided by one goal, average 9.75 goals per game through four games and will understandably be looking to break that home-losing streak.
“We’re a little disappointed with our record right now, but all the games we’ve been involved in have been one-goal games,” Mammoth head coach Bob Hamley said. “We hope we can change our fortunes as far as those one-goal games.”
