Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Rush roster set as season nears

Young players expected to take on greater roles

- KEVIN MITCHELL kemitchell@postmedia.com twitter.com/kmitchsp

With their roster set, and their schedule firm, there’s nothing left for the Saskatchew­an Rush to do but play lacrosse.

The National Lacrosse League team formalized its roster Thursday, one day ahead of the league deadline. They have two more training camp weekends left — next weekend in Toronto and Dec. 8-9 in Saskatoon — before kickstarti­ng their regular schedule Dec. 16 with a road game against the Toronto Rock.

“Now we’re going to have our whole group,” Rush head coach and general manager Derek Keenan said Thursday while looking ahead to the next two training camp get-togethers.

“Guys are going to get more reps. We’ll start getting more specialize­d — we’ve done very little power-play work, very little special teams work. We’ll start doing more of that.”

The Rush set their roster Thursday by releasing four players, including Warman’s Anthony Hallborg, a sixth-round draft pick who was attempting to become the team’s first homegrown Saskatchew­an player. Also let go were forward Chris Boushy, a third-round pick, along with goaltender­s Peter Dubenski and Zak Boychuk.

Rush backup goalie Tyler Carlson retained his spot, though Keenan said it was a tough decision. In the end, the fact that Carlson came to camp 20 pounds lighter, and continues to be an important presence in the locker-room, put him over the top.

Goalie Adam Shute, a former Rush draft pick who played briefly with the Georgia Swarm last season, landed a spot on the practice roster. Also on that practice roster are the two second-round picks from this year’s draft, transition Nick Finlay and forward Johnny Pearson, along with defender Tor Reinholdt, who played sparingly with Saskatchew­an last season.

The Rush — who played two preseason games, losing the first 13-11 to Toronto and winning the second 24-9 over Georgia this past Saturday — made a few big moves this off-season. They replaced starting goaltender Aaron Bold with Evan Kirk, and added free agent Jeff Shattler, a forward/transition who was the NLL MVP in 2011.

“I think we’re better (than last year at this time),” Keenan said. “Our younger guys have a year of experience behind them — (Matt) Hossack, (Mike) Messenger, Ryan Keenan. We saw this past weekend (against Georgia), the difference that will make. All three of them were really good.

“And I really like what Jeff Shattler brings — a real smart player, responsibl­e in his transition to defence, and very good at loose ball recoveries in the offensive zone. He’s a good player and fits in really well with our offensive group.”

Saskatchew­an’s season opener is set for Dec. 16 in Toronto, and their home opener goes Dec. 23 against Bold and the New England Black Wolves.

Saskatchew­an comes off a 2016 season that saw them reach the NLL final before losing in two straight games to Georgia. That loss snapped a string of two consecutiv­e Rush championsh­ips.

“There’s been very little talk about it, actually (during training camp),” Keenan said. ” We’ve moved way on. Georgia was the best team last year. It was close, but they beat us and we needed to make some moves that would take us back to the top. Hopefully we’ve done that.”

 ??  ?? Jeremy Thompson of the Rush corrals a loose ball during Saturday night’s 24-9 pre-season win over Georgia at the SaskTel Centre. KAYLE NEIS
Jeremy Thompson of the Rush corrals a loose ball during Saturday night’s 24-9 pre-season win over Georgia at the SaskTel Centre. KAYLE NEIS

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