Keenan’s record will have to wait
Derek Keenan says he’s been “a little grumpy” this week, bothered by a loss he figures should have been a win.
“That’s the problem with this league,” the Saskatchewan Rush head coach said Tuesday. “You sort of mourn for a week after you lose a game, rather than getting right back at it.”
It was a galling loss, as losses go. The visiting New England Black Wolves scored three times in the final minute and a half of regulation to send the game to overtime, then potted the game-winning marker in a 13-12 victory.
The Rush have a week to chew on the setback before hosting the Toronto Rock Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
“The coaching staff in New England, they’re friends of mine,” Keenan said.
“They beat us last year in New England, and they earned it. But the other night, we handed it to them, and they knew it, too.
“Those ones are tough to swallow. Those are the ones you lose sleep over. But you learn from it, you move on, and away we go for this weekend.”
The loss slowed Keenan’s personal assault on the National Lacrosse League’s record book: He’s tied with Darris Kilgour as the winningest coach in NLL history. Both men have 121 career wins. Keenan’s first crack at 122 fell short, but he’ll have a second shot at it on Saturday.
“It’s a nice milestone, but I’m a lot more concerned about getting the win and wrapping up first place in the west,” Keenan said of the upcoming clash with Toronto.
The Rush, currently 10-5, lead second-place Colorado by 1.5 games in the NLL’s West Division standings. They need one win, or a Colorado loss, to clinch first place and an opening-round bye.
Keenan has been playing those kinds of mathematical games since he took his first NLL head coaching job with the Anaheim Storm prior to the 2005 season. He later coached in Portland, before taking the Rush job in 2012 when the franchise was still in Edmonton.
“You have to evolve as a coach, and one of my things is that I’ve always tried to keep an open mind,” said Keenan, whose lifetime record is 121-95.
“You continue to learn more about the game.
“The league’s different now. Back then, there were more teams, and the quality of play wasn’t as high as it is now. Now, with nine teams and 180 jobs, you have the best players in the world. The quality of play is much better. Every team has highend players now, offensively and defensively, and that wasn’t necessarily the case back in 2005.”
How long he extends his NLL coaching career remains up in the air. Keenan signed a four-year extension with the two-time defending champion Rush earlier this season, and anything can happen from there.
“(In 2005) I looked at it as something I’d like to do for a long time,” he said. “Now, I’m getting to the stage where I just signed a new deal, and after that, I could very well move on to other things in life. But you never know. I love it, and I certainly love where I am.”