Coaches expect close battle for NLL title

Rush, Swarm have met only twice since moving to new cities prior to 2016 season

Ed Comeau and Derek Keenan played together, coached together, got fired together.

They’ve spent a lot of time on opposing teams, too — but their next clash might be the most memorable of all, given that both men are trying to win a National Lacrosse League title at the expense of the other.

Comeau coaches the Georgia Swarm, and Keenan the Saskatchewan Rush. They’ve already chatted this week as their teams prepare for the best-of-three NLL final, which begins June 4 south of the border, in Duluth, Ga.

“We joked about it after the first game of the season down in Georgia, when we played Saskatchewan,” Comeau recalled Tuesday. (Keenan) said ‘We’ll see you in the finals!’ and we kind of joked about it. We’ve talked about it throughout the year, and as the season went on, I thought there was a pretty good chance of that happening. But as with any sport, you’ve got to play the games. There’s so much parity in our league; we knew it would take big efforts by both clubs to get ourselves here. And until Saturday night, when the Rush/Mammoth game was over, we still weren’t sure.”

Georgia, which notched the league’s best regular-season record at 13-5, are making their first-ever trip to the NLL final. The Rush, who finished 12-6, have won two straight championships, with a three-peat possible.

Keenan and Comeau were Toronto Rock assistants when they won the 1999 NLL title. They remained there — winning three more championships together — until their firings in 2004, when Comeau was working as the team’s interim coach and Keenan as the interim general manager.

Comeau coached the Rochester Knighthawks to an NLL title in 2007, and he and Keenan have since worked together with the national-team program.

“We talked earlier in the week, congratulated each other, got some logistical things set up with them coming into Georgia,” Comeau said.

“We want to make sure we take care of them, and when we come into Saskatoon, they’ve got things lined up for us. And I’m sure we’ll talk a couple more times. But it comes down to what happens on the floor. It has little to do with us standing behind the bench. It’s about the players, and them performing.”

The teams have met twice since relocating to their current cities prior to the 2016 season — Saskatchewan from Edmonton, and Georgia from Minnesota. The Rush won 14-8 last season in Saskatoon, and the host Swarm won 18-10 in the 2017 debut for both squads.

Georgia is noted for its offensive prowess; they scored a league-best 266 goals this season, 35 more than runner-up Saskatchewan. Lyle Thompson, whose brother Jeremy plays for the Rush, topped the league with 116 points on 45 goals and 71 assists.

“On paper, if you look at it, you’d think, ‘Geez; this could be a big, high-scoring shootout,’ ” Comeau says. “But when you look at Saskatchewan’s defence, it’s been the top defence in the league the last three or four years, with solid goaltending, and our defence has been playing a lot better of late, with solid goaltending. It’s a close battle. I don’t think either team has any edges on other side of the ball.”

Saskatchewan will host Game 2 on June 10 at SaskTel Centre. Game 3, if necessary, goes June 18 in Georgia.