June 15, 2010
Taking a look at the Blazers' 2010 season
by Chuck Jaffe/
Jamie Rooney and the Blazers saw their 2010 season come to an end with a playoff loss at Orlando. (photo: Boston Blazers)
It’s hard to suggest that 30 minutes of play make the entire difference in whether a season is a success or failure, but the last half of the Boston Blazers playoff game against the Orlando Titans certainly ensured that 2010 left a bad taste in fans’ mouths.
The Blazers reached the playoffs for the second straight year, but with fewer wins and more disappointments, and then saw a 7-4 halftime lead turn into a 12-11 season-ending loss to the Titans on May 1. A playoff win would have offered some redemption for a season of “could have beens;” instead, a regular-season win over the Washington Stealth – the league’s eventual champion – is a footnote to a season that had the potential for a title, but that ended by squeaking into the playoffs.
After the team’s inaugural season in 2009, the Blazers mostly stood pat, making just a few minor moves. With a high draft pick (second overall) and the team changed as the result of mid-season moves, fans can expect more moves this offseason.
Here’s a look back on the best and worst of 2010, with a few ideas for 2011:
Worst stat line: Daryl Veltman’s shooting percentage. Veltman took 52 more shots in 2010 than during his stellar rookie campaign; he scored 11 fewer goals. While most players would kill for Veltman’s 23 goals, 42 assists, 65 points, that’s just not good enough for the team’s No. 2 scoring option. Too many of Veltman’s shots were easy five-hole saves this year, and gone was the high bounce shot that he used so successfully as a rookie. Veltman’s loose-ball numbers were also off dramatically in 2010; he needs to shrug off the sophomore slump to again be an elite producer in the league.
Biggest disappointment (individual): Matt Lyons was a surprise star in 2009, amassing 52 points and showing a wicked outside shot to keep teams honest against Dan Dawson and Brendan Thenhaus on the right-hand side of the offense. But after canning roughly 20 percent of his shots in 2009, Lyons was wild this year, netting under 6 percent of his efforts, finishing with just four goals and seven assists in seven games. His lack of production – which ultimately led the team to trade for right-handed help in the form of Jamie Rooney and Mat Giles – contributed to the team’s slow start.
Biggest disappointment (team): Conditioning and effort. Coach Tom Ryan started the season by saying that too many guys lost the hunger they had when first fighting for their jobs in ’09, and that they came in out of condition. Then, as he juggled the lineup virtually every game, he said he hoped to find the right mix. Sadly, few Blazers players forced themselves into the lineup and stuck there.
Best surprise: Ryan Hotaling was a revelation, not only taking draws – something he hadn’t even done in college prior to the start of the ’10 indoor season – but in the transition game. That’s key for the Blazers, who want their face-off man to do more than just slug it out on the draw. That said, after a season in which he won 162-of-302 at the dot, think about just how good Hotaling can be if he actually starts practicing and learning face-offs.
Worst surprise: Dumb penalties. Tom Ryan is known for being a heady, smart coach, and for preaching calm and discipline. Yet in 2010, the Blazers were in the box way too much; far too often, it was not a penalty taken in desperation to stop a scoring chance, but rather a cheap shot, a retaliatory shove or a boneheaded timing mistake in getting guys on or off the bench. With five of eight regular-season losses by three goals or less, there’s no doubt that the team watched too many games slip away with a guy in the box.
Best game: The two-overtime marathon in Orlando on Feb. 20 was one for the ages. After Jamie Rooney completed a Blazers comeback by tying the score with a nanosecond left in regulation, the Blazers had to overcome the emotion of having an apparent overtime winner overturned. They did, cashing in early in the second OT to capture a win in the longest game in league history.
Worst game: This was a tie, accounting for both of the team’s losses in Philadelphia. It’s not just that the Wings had the worst record in the East, it’s that if the Blazers had won those games, the Wings would have finished the season with the worst record in the entire league. That would have given the Blazers the top pick in the draft – they got Philly’s pick in exchange for Max Seibald, who refused to sign with Boston after the ’09 draft – which would have been a huge help for 2011.
Best move (on the field): Call this one a tie, with two separate deals landing Jamie Rooney and Mat Giles.
Together, they opened up the Blazers offense; moreover, Dan Dawson’s production went up when they arrived, and since the team goes as Dawson goes, this was a huge boost. Expect the Blazers offensive output to be way up if these guys get a whole season together in 2011.
Best move (off the field): Paul Dawson’s haircut for Locks for Love. The big defenseman is one of the league’s toughest guys on the floor and one of its nicest guys off the field, and he had the most publicized haircut in Boston in decades. What was great, however, was how his teammates and the coaching staff got involved.
The Blazers said that if enough money was raised for charity, everyone would get their haircut. That meant that a lot of guys were changing their look – and not necessarily for the better – and yet they all took that step willingly. And when the coaches got in the act, you had an event that insiders say made the team a better, more cohesive group down the stretch. Nice.
Biggest personnel move for 2011: Forget the draft and trades; the Blazers have the rights to Kevin Leveille, a former UMass star and member of the U.S. World team, who has played just part of one season in the NLL. In that year, Leveille scored 14 points in six games.
Leveille wants to play in the league again, but a move and professional obligations kept him away in 2010. If the Blazers can get him in the fold, Leveille’s potential is as big or bigger than most first-round draft picks. A former Boston Cannon, Leveille said in January he would love to find a way to give the NLL and the Blazers a real shot. The Blazers at least need to get the man into camp.
Trend for next year: The cowbell. The best arenas in the league have their own personality and their own sounds. This year, the Blazers gave out cowbells for their March 13 game with Buffalo, and the arena was crazy loud and the sound was distinctive. With the Blazers new season-ticket plan – which cuts prices lower to the field – already ensuring that the stands will be packed down near the floor in 2011, the Blazers need to find their sound. Rochester has horns, Buffalo has its chants, and Boston needs to give up those lame, ineffective thunder sticks; the cowbell would be a ringing success, and the extra noise might help the team get the true home-field edge it missed in 2010.
