That pretty much sums it up after an epic 17-9 beatdown at the hands of the Buffalo Bandits last night….a loss that saw the Roughnecks drop to 2-3 on the year, back into the clutches of the muddling middle pack in the West they’d hoped to get some separation from.

Word came down half an hour or so before the game that Steve (Chugger) Dietrich would be unable to go against his old team. Seems what he thought was dehydration making him feel a little woozy after the San Jose win was a concussion, a concussion that didn’t really present itself until the afternoon shootaround. Enter Ryan Avery, coming off a player-of-the-week great show against Portland. Shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wrong.

Avery struggled from the get go, allowing two goals on Buffalo’s first four shots, including a 60-footer from Cory Bomberry that has to be stopped. It was 3-0 after 6 and a half minutes, 4-1 after 15, and the bleeding just wouldn’t stop.

Defensively, the Roughnecks just didn’t seem to want to pressure the ball carrier, particularly when that ball carrier was John Tavares. JT moved the ball, ran down loose balls with impunity, and just generally dominated on offense for a nine point night, including career goal number 600. Ex-Roughneck Kevin Dostie kicked in a hat trick, as did Mark Steenhuis. Steenhuis brought a package of nifty moves the Riggers D had trouble containing all night.

I don’t know how the Bandit’s Pat McCready feels about accepting charity, but he seemed more than willing to accept freebies last night. McCready struck twice of a couple of brutal special teams turnovers, one with the Roughnecks on the power play where he allowed to walk in alone from mid floor on a bad change after a turnover, and one unforgivable play with the Roughnecks shorthanded. With frist time starter Peter McFeteridge in the bin for cross checking to start the 4th, the Riggers were able to generate a turnover, march down the floor to kill some time, and turn the ball back over. At this point all 4 defenders head for the bench, leaving McCready with nothing but green turf between himself and Ryan Avery, who was left to realize once again that one truly is the loneiest number.

The strange thing is, it’s not that the Roughnecks didn’t have their chances. They actually outshot the Bandits 56-50, but too many of those shots were in isolation rather than the result of any sustained pressure, and too often, Buffalo starter Mike Thompson was just too good on the night.

I do have to single out a couple of Roughnecks who bucked the tide and impressed. Curt Malawsky was the leader on offense with a hat trick, and newly acquired defender Chris Seller showed he’ll be a threat to create offense off the transition game.

Maybe the effects of too many early weeks off are showing. Any momentum gathered from two strong wins dries up when you have to wait 13 days before you play again. At least that won’t happen again for a good while. It’s roadies in Rochester and Portland next Saturday and the following Friday before they’re back home for a crucial date against the unbeaten Coldorado Mammoth on Sunday the 24th. A lot of good things need to happen between now and then.

Sitting down, relaxing and doing nothing is not in Tracey Kelusky’s nature. Roughnecks coach Troy Cordingley jokes that he knows it’s game time when he hears the captain talking a mile a minute. But slowing down is exactly what Kelusky needs to do for the time being if he knows what’s good for him, and after a meeting with a specialist this week, he does.

Kelusky’s comeback from a game one concussion has been agonizingly slow, due in part, he admits, to trying to push things a week after the initial ding when he wasn’t sure he was really hurt. Now, it’s time to kick back, relax, and let time take care of things.

Kelusky has been trying to do what he can to work through the injury, but earlier this week he told me that even demonstrating basic skills and drills at his day job teaching lacrosse at NSD has been triggering symptoms like headaches and dizziness.

Concussions suck. You’ll go a day or two feeling like a million bucks, try to do something physical to test where you’re at, and wind up setting yourself back.

After a chat with the doc, Kelusky says he’s accepted the fact that, however hard it is to do, doing nothing is best course of action. Slowing down at work and letting the players run through drills, and in general just taking life easy until he’s over this thing is the way to go.

Tracey was upbeat when I talked to him. The doctor is confident that he’ll be back at some point this season, although when that will be is anyone’s guess. His teammates, his employers, and the Roughnecks have all been very supportive, because needless to say, this is a guy everyone wants back in the lneup. This is a guy who needs and deserves the support and understanding of the team as he deals with the first significant injury of his NLL career. Take a look at Kelusky’s stats, and you’ll see he’s never missed more than three games in a season.

Look after that melon, Trace, you want it to be healthy when the upcoming addition to the Kelusky family wants to drop Tonka trucks on it in a few years!

Two disturbing items from Wednesday’s pre-game news conference

1-Tracey Kelusky is still listed as doubtful with a concussion.
2-Apparently, the Roughnecks as a team are closet ‘American Gladiator’ fans.

The news on Kelusky, while tough to hear, is not entirely unexpected. As anyone who’s had to deal with one knows, a concussion can be the furthest thing from your mind until you try to exert yourself, then it becomes the main thing your mind is trying to deal with. According to GM Kurt Silcott, Kelusky was set to check in with the specialist Wednesday, and while he’s not 100% out, confidence is not high in his ability to go Friday against Buffalo. As Kaleb Toth told me, while the team would be happy to have the captain on the floor, pushing it before he’s well and truly healed could be a ticket to a season on the sidelines.

Item 2 is just plain creepy. Ryan Avery let slip that the team is hooked on the resurrected 80’s trashsports extravaganza. Apparently Andrew McBride thinks he’s gladiator ‘Wolf’. Google it and put the picture next to McBride’s mug shot and you’ll see it’s not that big a stretch. Somehow this disturbs me. What’s next guys? Is Ryan ‘Corporal Punishment’ McNish secretly ‘Militia’? Who’s ‘Tor’? Who’s ‘Titan’? I don’t know. I don’t want to know.

On a brighter note, the team is asking fans to ‘Black out the ‘Dome’ on Friday night. In a repeat of the successful Champion’s Cup night against the Bandits, the Riggers are pulling out the black jerseys and asking fans to wear black in a show of intimidation noir. C’mon, it’ll look cool!

Updating an item I posted a couple of weeks ago, charges of assault laid against Toronto Rock head coach Glenn Clark have been dropped. The charges were laid after an under-the-stands dustup involving a Minnesota Swarm player early in the season. Clark remains under indefinite suspension by the league, but hopefully with lesson learned and proper humble expressions of remorse, this will clear the way for his reinstatement.

If you can’t make the game but want to catch it wherever you are (with high speed internet of course!) I’ll be calling the B2 networks webcast of the game starting at 7:30 local. Just link to the game through the NLL website, at the low low price of just 7 bucks. Pity I can’t be in two places at once, because this means I’ll miss the Joe Sports memorial gala at Flames Central. Hey Colin, just because I’m not there in person doesn’t mean I’m not thinking good thoughts. We miss you.

Doubtless it’ll feel like old home week for the Calgary Roughnecks and Buffalo Bandits this Friday, given the number of current ‘Necks who used to call upstate New York home.

With last week’s addition of veteran D-man Chris Seller via trade from the Edmonton Rush, Calgary now boasts 5 roster players, a coach and a GM with Buffalo ties.

The obvious reason for that is the presence of Kurt Silcott, who joined the team from Buffalo in 2005, making goaltender Ryan Avery his first notable ex-Bandit addition. Since then, Jeff Shattler, Kyle Couling, Steve Dietrich, Seller and head coach Troy Cordingley have joined the wagon train west.

Hey, it’s not like Calgary’s not used to GM’s who tend to deal with the devil they know. And given the success the Bandits have enjoyed through the years, it’s not a bad pipeline to exploit.

Looking the other way, Roughneck fans will remember Kevin Dostie from his tour of duty here.

Lots more to follow this week, notably an update on the condition of captain Tracey Kelusky, out since week one with a concussion but hoping to return against Buffalo.

By the way, belated blog congratulations to Ryan Avery, absolutely brilliant in last week’s win over Portland, good enough to earn NLL defensive player of the week honours.

Twice during Saturday’s 13-6 beatdown of the Portland LumberJax by the Roughnecks, a cartoon of a swimming blue whale flashed across the power ring at the Saddledome. Providing you’re over 18, read on for an explanation of this exclusively lacrosse insult.

Kiddies and overly sensitive souls out? Alright, then let’s begin. If you’re getting slapped around BAD during a lacrosse game, you blow big blue whale dick. Adult and mature? Maybe not. An apt description of what we saw Saturday? Yup.

The thing is, it didn’t have to be that way. For 3/4ths of the first half, the winless Jax hung in with a Roughnecks teams who’s season hung in the balance. 2-1 after the first quarter? What is this, Minnesota Wild hockey? 3-3 with the opposition on the powerplay? Start writing the woulda-coulda-shoulda story.

Ah, but wait, someone forgot to tell Kaleb Toth. With the Jax having converted on the top end of a 5 on 3 powerplay to tie the score, Jax goalie Matt King inexplicably decides to go walkabout in his own end, charging up the floor with the ball, only to run smack dab into his old buddy and ex-teammate Toth, who crushes the goalie with a hard but clean shot right in the ‘off’ switch, (Later, Toth would say he let up with a chance to put King into a coma. He did) knocking the ball loose, knocking the goalie out, and sending a loose ball skipping to an opportunistic Scott Ranger, who was only too happy to bag the empty-netter and start a world-class clubbing.

At this point, two questions go begging:

A: What the hell was King thinking about?
B: Why did no one from the Jax attempt to beat Toth to death with their bare hands after he took out their goalie?

The best answers I could come up with:

A: Toth tells me that’s the way King plays the game. He’s aggressive and saw a chance to move the ball.
B: Portland didn’t renew its subscription to ‘The Code’ magazine.

Afterwards, Kaleb told me a couple of Portland players gave him shots across the wrists, accompanied by the requisite ‘That’s Bulls**t!’ complaints, yet neither was willing to do anything about it when he asked them if there was any interest in following up. Cue the Big Blue Whale.

Ranger’s shorthanded marker sparked another 4 unanswered for the Riggers, including a tasty behind the net highlight-reeler from Lewis Ratcliff that may or may not have been a crease violation, but there’s no replay in the NLL so there you go.

Come the second half Portland didn’t bring much else to the table. The best moment had to be Scott Ranger creating a turnover behind the Portland net early in the 4th quarter leading to Lewis Ratcliff’s third of the night and an 11-4 lead. Not a crucial goal, but a key indicator of the attacking mindset of a team that needed to establish just that.

Talk about turning your season around in 27 hours. In the course of a little over a day, the Roughnecks have gone fron winless to .500, getting a little separation from anyone in the West not named the Coldorado Mammoth. (4-0 after an easy Saturday win over San Jose) Next up, a home date with NLL all-time leading scorer John Tavares and the Buffalo Bandits on the 8th.

Random thoughts:

-Deep conversation between this reporter and concussed Roughnecks captain Tracey Kelusky in the pressbox:
Me: So how is it watching a game frm up here?
TK: Miserable.

A better conversation with the captain centred on the Riggers’ new aggressive defense, which didn’t look quite so aggressive Saturday. Kelusky pointed out that the defender assigned to the ball carrier was still attacking, but the off-ball defenders were more aware of their responsiblities to cut down passing lanes, hence spending less time running around. Coach Troy Cordingley echoed that point after the game, feeling like his system was finally getting executed the way it needs to be.

-He doesn’t have any big numbers as yet, but keep your eye on Kelly Hall. This guy was a presence, much to the delight of coach Cordingley who challenged Hall very publicly about his work habits in training camp. Hall could have sulked and walked away, but chose to make the coach eat his words instead. The coach couldn’t be happier.

-Give this round of the battle of the Malawsky boys to the Roughnecks’ Curt. Portland’s Derek had 2 goals and 2 assists to Curt’s 1 and 2, but dude, the Big Blue Whale.

-How the hell can a game where the shots on goal are 45-44 Calgary be so one-sided? Answer: Ryan Avery. Best game ever. Period. Ian Busby, drop and give me 20. You know why.

For the first time this year the Roughnecks passed on the opportunity to turn a first half romp into a second half disaster, taking a 16-13 win out of San Jose Friday night

After falling behind early, the Riggers went on a 7-1 tear in the second quarter to lead 11-7 at the half. Up until now, that’s been a cue for a parade to penalty box and the subsequent defensive collapse that had the Roughnecks at 0-2 heading in. This time, the defense kept it smart taking only 4 minors in the second half and allowing only one powerplay goal. Even so, things got a little more interesting than they had to be late in the 4th, thanks to two late markers for San Jose with the net empty making the score 15-13 with 24 seconds to go. Ryan McNish played comeback killer with an empty netter to put it away.

The team will spend the night in San Jose, getting an early wake up for a flight that’ll get them back to Calgary just after noon, followed by a quick snooze and a trip to the ‘Dome to face Portland Saurday night at 7:30, and a chance to even their record at 2-2.

A few quick notes:

-Great two man kill by the Roughnecks midway through the second quarter. Not only did 3 hold off 5 for more than a minute, Bruce Codd scored just as the second penalty expired to make it 9-7…re-establishing a little momentum after the Stealth had scored just before the first penalty to pull within 1.

-Stealth coach Walt Christianson had a Captain Hook act blow up in is face. Anthony Cosmo got the yank after Andrew McBride scored 35 seconds after Codd. Enter Aaron Bold to shake it up, Scott Ranger scores on the first and only shot Bold faces. Re-enter Mr. Cosmo.

-Tough night for Nolan Heavenor. Not only did he take two minors of his own, he also sat two bench minors for illegal substitution.

-Leading scorer for the Roughnecks was Jeff Shattler with 4 goals and 4 assists. Scott Ranger was 2 and 5 for 7, Kaleb Toth and Lewis Ratcliff each had 5 point nights with 3 and 2 goals respectively.

-Colin Doyle, Jeff Zywicki and Gary Rosyski each had hat tricks for the Stealth.

-Gotta love watching those internet broadcasts of the other team’s jumbotron feed so you can keep track of everyone’s lame in-house promotions. Kurt Silcott, if you ever consider Mascot lacrosse at halftime…I will personally dangle you over the pressbox catwalk by your heels until you promise never to do it again.

Well…more of a brain bruise actually. Bad news out of today’s pre-game news conference at Spolumbo’s. Captain Tracey Kelusky’s sidelined indefinitely with a concussion dating back to game one against Coldorado, but not really diagnosed until after the home opener against San Jose.

Apparently Kelusky took a rap in the noggin in that first game, didn’t really think anything of it, took a second bop on the melon during a subsequent practice, started to feel a little off, tried to go in the warmup for San Jose and felt awful. At the time the team thought it was a bad stomach flu, but after he was checked out, it turned out to be a concussion. Kelusky will rest at home while the rest of the team heads out to San Jose tonight for tomorrow’s game, which will be followed by a Saturday morning flight home that should get in around noon, followed with a 7:30 date at the Dome with Portland. Ah, the glamorous life of the pro lacrosse player.

That gem courtesy of Roughnecks assistant coach Terry Sanderson from today’s NLL coach’s call.

To help carpet-bomb the media in advance of each weekend, the NLL makes team coaches available to us a day or two before the weekend’s action begins. This time, it was Sanderson speaking for the team and pinch hitting for head coach Troy Cordingley.

The ‘brain cramp’ line was part of his rather amusing response to my question about what happened to the Riggers on defense between the first and second half of the home opener against San Jose.

As mentioned in previous posts, the game was a tale of two entirely different halves, Calgary dominating the first 30…the next 29 belonging to the Stealth before the home side stormed back late to force a brief and ill-fated overtime.

Sanderson says that while they enjoy playing the new system, there’s still something of a learning curve. Combine that with a steady parade to the penalty box, some subtle adjustments from Stealth coach Walt Christianson, a brain cramp or two, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Still, despite fact the team has started at 0-2…a record that could be exactly the opposite without the aforementioned second half collapses, Sanderson remains confident better times are ahead.

“Both games could have gone either way,” he says. “It’ll come sooner or later. We’re not going to change many things.”

“There’s a period of adjustment. We felt we could have won either one.”

The Roughnecks and the Stealth finish up the home-and-home at the HP Pavillion Friday. Saturday, the boys are back at the ‘Dome to face the Portland Lumberjax.

Further to my last post….On Thursday afternoon the NLL announced an indefinite suspension for Rock coach Glenn Clark.

The second year coach got into a dustup with Sean Pollock from Minnesota outside the dressing rooms at the ACC after the two teams met on the 11th. Pollock had been kicked out of the game earlier and was in his civvies at the time.

Good work in a timely fashion by Jim Jennings and his crew.

As in money for breast cancer research, that is.

The in game silent and post game live auctions of the Riggers’ special pink jerseys raised a big chunk of the 40 grand the opening night fundraiser put into cancer research coffers, here’s some of the bigger numbers:

Kaleb Toth-$6.000.00
Tracey Kelusky-$4,700.00
Lewis Ratcliff-$4,000.00
Steve Dietrich-$4,000.00
Andrew McBride-$3,600.00
Ryan McNish (Special game-fought in edition!) $3,250.00
Scott Ranger-$2,500.00

Well done….well done…If you missed out, you haven’t missed out as ten game-weight (as opposed to worn) jerseys are up for bid on the team webside with the auction running until noon Monday the 21st. Go to calgaryroughnecks.com and click ‘auctions’.

Congratulations to Tracey Kelusky and his way-too-cute-for-an-ugly-guy wife Emily, who are expecting a little one next summer. Here’s hoping for Tracey’s athletic end of the gene pool, and Em’s side for everything else! Seriously, great news Trace!

You have a hate it when a guy who fattens his stats on you gets player of the week honours…I give you Jeff Zywicki of San Jose, NLL overall and offensive player of the week after he laid down 5 goals, 4 assists and 14 loose balls at the Dome Saturday. You’re welcome, Jeff.

Waiting to see what the league does with Toronto Rock Head Coach Glenn Clark. Clark’s facing an assualt charge after he and the Swarm’s Sean Pollock got into it outside the dressing rooms at the ACC Friday. Clark sat out the rematch in Minny the next night. The NLL suggested it would dead with the issue Wednesday afternoon, which it is as I write this. Wonder if he’ll want a piece of McNish when the Rock are here April 19th.