January 5, 2010
Blazers are back for more in 2010
by Justin A. Rice/
The Boston Blazers might not be favorites to win the National Lacrosse League championship, but their players collected enough hardware in 2009 to ensure they’ll be taken seriously by any opponent.
Ten Blazers played in or won championships away from NLL play.
“Once you get that winning taste in your mouth it’s like a drug,” said Dan Dawson, the 2009 NLL MVP who went on to help the Brampton Excelsiors win Canada’s Mann Cup last summer. “But you have to learn how to win, especially at the pro level. Last year we had a great season and then playoffs came and our youth and inexperience showed. We’re a year older and a lot of guys are going to draw from those championship games in the offseason and summer and it’s going to translate into making a serious run for the NLL championship.”
Other Blazers who helped Brampton win its second straight Mann Cup were Dawson’s brother Paul, goalie Anthony Cosmo, and Mike Kirk, who was acquired in the offseason for Jason Bloom. In the Mann Cup finals, Brampton beat the New Westminster Salmonbellies, a team that featured Blazers Kyle Ross and Nick Cotter.
Brett Queener played goalie for the last two Major League Lacrosse champions, and Jon Harnett and Nick Rose won back-to-back Canadian junior championships with the Orangeville Northmen.
“It is rare to have that many guys playing at such a high level, in such important games,” Dawson said. “So it might lead to success for the Blazers.”
But that’s not the end of it. The Blazers’ top three draft picks in 2009 — Max Seibald (Cornell), Matt Abbott (Syracuse) and Scott Kahoe (Syracuse) — played in the 2009 NCAA Division 1 championship game at Gillette Stadium. Kahoe was cut in December, however, and at press time, Seibald was holding out.
Coach Tom Ryan believes his players’ success away from NLL will pay off this winter for the Blazers.
“It’s definitely good to have winners, people who know what it takes to win and expect to win,” Ryan said.
Even those who didn’t win in 2009 expect success this year. Mitch Belisle, who led the team with 104 loose balls and earned a first spot on the NLL All-Star team, is looking forward to rubbing shoulders with his victorious teammates.
“Hopefully for the guys that won, it gave them a taste of what it’s like, and for the guys like myself who didn’t win, we can get a taste in our mouth of what it could be like,” said Belisle, who lost in the semifinals of the Major League Lacrosse playoffs this summer as a member of the Boston Cannons. “It should be good motivation.”
Another advantage for the Blazers is that they have a year of NLL experience. They ended their inaugural season 10-6 and in a three-way tie for first place in the East Division, before losing in the first round of the playoffs to Buffalo.
“They had a remarkable run for guys who never played together and I think coming back this year will make them stronger,” NLL commissioner George Daniel said.
Ryan said last year’s team was built with an eye toward 2010 and beyond.
“The success we had last year was a bit of a bonus,” he said. “That being said, it puts us in a good position this year having the majority of our guys back from last year. Instead of being one year older in a bad way we’re one year older in a good way.”
Last year the Blazers let up only one more goal than league-champion Calgary allowed.
“We really did well,” Ryan said. “Obviously going into the playoff game a lack of experience hurt us. So this year we hope one more year of experience shows.”
The Blazers retained about 80 percent of their roster but let go three key role players (Jay Thorimbert, Carter Livingston and Bloom). Bloom, an assistant captain who moved to Seattle the last week of last season, was traded to the Washington Stealth for Kirk. In August, the Blazers traded Thorimbert, a forward and formidable faceoff man, to the Minnesota Swarm in exchange for a second-round draft pick in 2011.
“I’d say [faceoff man is] the No. 1 spot we have to fill right now,” said Ryan, who might rely on John Ortolani of Billerica, Mass.
In the team’s first weekend of full-squad training, Mike Stone of Wellesley, Mass., struggled at first but scored five goals in a Saturday scrimmage. A sixth-round draft pick this season, Stone was a three-time All-America midfielder at Middlebury.
The biggest plus going into Year 2 is that the team is assembled, players know their roles, and the Blazers began training camp with a system and strategy in place.
“That was one thing we prided ourselves on last year, not really having a superstar,” Dawson said. “We had a different guy step up every night. In the offseason we didn’t make too many changes. Guys won championships with different teams and now they can mentor and bring that experience to guys not involved.
“It’s going to snowball around our dressing room. The experiences we had are going to carry over to the Blazers’ dressing room.”
