Matthews doesn’t let bad week hold him back
Eventful week culminates with a slew of points and a missing car
Boy, Mark Matthews had an adventurous week.
On March 19, he collected two goals and eight assists for the National Lacrosse League’s Saskatchewan Rush despite fighting pneumonia. On Wednesday morning, while visiting Saskatoon for a few days, he stepped outside to discover the car he’d been using was gone. Stolen, as it turns out. “It was a pretty half-decent car, but somebody obviously really liked it,” Matthews said. “I’ve never even known somebody who had their car stolen before, so this was kind of a new thing for me.”
The Rush had procured the limegreen car for Rush defender Nik Bilic, who is the only team member actually living in Saskatoon full time. Teammates like Matthews can use it while visiting the city. But not anymore. “Green hornet is gone. What a morning,” Matthews tweeted Wednesday.
To which Bilic replied, “I’m gone for 3 days and you get my car stolen. Good work man.”
Matthews, who leads the Rush in scoring with 66 points through 11 games after Friday’s 11-9 win over Toronto, is philosophical about that unfortunate Saskatoon moment.
“Everybody’s dying laughing about it,” Matthews, who hails from Oshawa, Ont., says of the reaction from Rush teammates. “There’s nothing else we can do. It’s over with now; it’s in somebody else’s hands.”
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound Matthews was making hospital visits and conducting kids’ clinics during his Saskatoon stopover, but has now turned his attention from stolen vehicles to the team’s two-game weekend set with the Toronto Rock.
Saskatchewan (8-3) beat the Rock 11-9 Friday in Toronto with a return date Saturday in Saskatoon at 7:30 p.m. Curtis Knight scored the go-ahead goal with 26 seconds left in the game, dropping the Rock to 3-8.
Matthews impressed head coach Derek Keenan with his performance March 19 during a 24-16 road win over the Vancouver Stealth; his fight with pneumonia would have justified a scratch from the lineup, but he played and racked up 10 points.
“I’m still not fully 100 per cent,” Matthews says. “But I had some cold medicine and some antibiotics ( before the Vancouver game), so it was a little better than the days prior; I’d say 60 per cent. The infection in my lungs was not feeling great coughing-wise and I was breathing hard, so I just tried to keep it as slow as I could, but still do it at a pretty decent pace.”
Last season, Matthews led the Rush with 53 goals and 62 assists for 115 points through 18 games. He was also named MVP of the league’s championship series, which saw the Rush — then based out of Edmonton — win the title over the Rock.
Matthews’ goal scoring is down in 2016 — he has 23 markers through 11 contests — but his 43 assists are 13 more than team runner-up Robert Church.
“That’s what he’s like,” says Keenan, who first coached Matthews in the junior ranks. “He’s about the end result; he’s not about how he’s done or how many goals he scores or how many the other guy scores. He’s an unselfish player.”
While pleased with the Rush win on March 19, Keenan was unhappy with the team’s defensive breakdown that led to 16 goals. It was, as sometimes happens in the NLL, a good-news, bad-news game.
“Yeah, it bothers me a lot,” Keenan said of the goals-against total. “It’s not characteristic of our team. Our defence is a lot better than it played and our goaltending is a lot better than it was. Sometimes those games happen in this league, but they don’t typically happen to my team. That kind of concerns me. We’ve had too many of those this year, where we’ve had too many mental lapses on the defensive side. We’re looking for a complete effort this weekend.”
The Rush follow this weekend’s home-and-home set with a SaskTel Centre game April 2 against Calgary.
I’ve never even known somebody who had their car stolen before, so this was kind of a new thing for me.
MARK MATTHEWS