Look ma….it’s a blog! Hey, for a guy with a functioning dial phone and TV with a clunk tuner in his house, this is big news!

Welcome to my brand new blog, which will the home of all things Roughnecks, and come the season, race car stuff (You had to know THAT was coming!) This will be the place for all the news from the Roughnecks and teh NLL, starting with this weekend’s home opener against San Jose.

It’s a new year in more ways than one for this team. Another disappointing end to the season has prompted big changes, starting at the top with new coach Troy Cordingley. Original bench boss Chris Hall didn’t last the year in ‘07….and now Cordingley comes in charged with making the ‘Riggers a championship contender in short order.

A look at the lineup card shows a host of new faces surrounding core players like Tracey Kelusky, Kaleb Toth and Lewis Ratcliff. Doubtless the biggest change is in goal, where Steve Dietrich takes over for a disappointing Andrew Leyshon. ‘Chugger’ coems in as the centrepiece of GM Kurt Silcott’s biggest off season move…a complicated three way deal forced by Taylor Wray’s need to move to Philadelphia. The loss of Wray, Craig Gelsvik (work) and Andy Ogilvie (retired) means a big time makeover on the back end, where vets like Andrew McBride and newbies like Bruce Codd will be charged with running Cordingley’s aggressive defence. McBride also becomes the focal point of the transition game with the retirement of Jesse Phillips.

And the ‘New Look’ won’t stop there this Saturday….the team will be sporting hot pink jerseys to help raise cash and awareness for breast cancer research, with fundraisers set up around the concourse, and said jerseys set to be auctioned off during the game and on the team’s website afterwards. Fans can also donate through ticketmaster when they buy their tickets, and for FAN club members….get the cash to donate by entering the keyword ‘fan’ on the ticketmaster website for a discount.

Catch P-Stine and I live from the Hot Stove Lounge for a special Sportsline Saturday from 4 to 7 as we set up the game and the season…and check back here often for the latest Roughnecks news and views. See you at the Dome.

Later

Dave

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 5:50 am and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.