PLAYOFF MISS ‘DISAPPOINTING TO SAY THE LEAST’
Roughnecks out for first time since inaugural 2002 season
A blip in the team’s recent history ... that’s how Calgary Roughnecks’ general manager Mike Board chooses to view the 2017 season.
“As a group, we’re formulating our plan on how we’re going to make this team better on the floor next year,” said Board. “Correct our little error of not making the playoffs. As an organization, the goal is to win championships and you can’t win championships if you’re not in the playoffs. We have to get there.”
The Roughnecks, with an 8-10 record, were not able to get there this season for the first time since their inaugural 2002 National Lacrosse League campaign. To miss out after such a long time is indeed a huge source of frustration for everyone involved.
“I’d say galling is a good word,” said Board. "It’s disappointing, to say the least. Sports is a business where you’re in it to win it. As much as we scrapped and battled back, it wasn’t good enough. I think we learned a lot of things along the way. We were a game below .500. Eight wins isn’t good enough in the league any more. There’s much more parity.
“We’ll approach it differently moving forward. Being a .500 team isn’t going to get you there. We have to set that bar a little bit higher. If I look at our team and the acquisitions we made, I think we’re better than what we showed.”
Breaking it down into thirds, the ‘Necks were 3-3, 1-5 and 4-2. It’s the middle bracket that they could never recover from. Different elements contributed, from poor starts to the absence of some key individuals due to injury.
“I think it is a factor,” Board admitted. “Missing Kellen LeClair, Karsen Leung (both for the entire year) and Greg Harnett for a third of the season because of suspensions and injuries. When you’re playing depth guys large minutes, sometimes it doesn’t work. That’s why we acquired Creighton Reid and Mitch Wilde. We knew we wouldn’t get those guys back, we had to make some moves and I think those moves helped. If all these guys are back next year, we’re that much better.
“We had a pretty tough schedule, too. We played 17 games in 15 weeks, did a lot of travel and that wears on the guys.”
Though he largely likes the team he has, Board isn’t loath to making some changes in the off-season.
“It’s going to be depend on a lot of things,” he said. “As long as we make the team better, it could be small moves or big moves. We’re not going to shut the door on any talks because we need to look down the road and for the present to be better.
“I’m happy with a lot of things. Wes Berg got better this year, Riley Loewen was a nice addition, Curtis Dickson is Curtis Dickson, Tyson Bell continued to improve, Chad Cummings, a rookie, was very good. So there’s a lot of good signs there. It’s not like we need to blow it up, so to speak. We need to score more on transition and that puts a lot of pressure on your offence.”
The Riggers will also get a top pick in the 2017 NLL draft and it’s a year akin to the last several, with a handful of talented prospects for the taking.
The performance of everyone in the organization, from Board to the coaching staff to the players, is being reviewed and it isn’t expected that there will be changes at the top end. The coaches — Curt Malawsky, Bob McMahon and Rob Williams — are under contract for another year and Board’s is up in June, though there’s no reason to think he won’t be back.