Late-arrival Richards goes from sidelines to standout
If you go off Tyler Richards’ play with the Vancouver Stealth this season, absence — as well as growing the heart fonder — may also make the reflexes sharper and the angle play more astute.
Richards has been one of the bright spots in Vancouver’s 4-11 National Lacrosse League campaign so far and he hadn’t planned on playing a stitch initially. The 29-year-old netminder from Coquitlam retired from boxla last May, citing worries about concussion issues, but got the itch to play again when this season started and ended up rejoining the Stealth five games into their schedule after being cleared by doctors.
Richards was critical April 16, stoning Calgary Roughnecks Wesley Berg and Tyler Digby in the waning seconds with Vancouver trying to kill off a Cliff Smith major penalty in what wound up as a 13-12 Stealth victory at Langley Events Centre.
The victory kept Vancouver’s slim playoff hopes alive. They need to run the table in their remaining three games, starting with Saturday’s visit from the Saskatchewan Rush (12-4) to the LEC (7 p.m., TSN 1410), and they also need the Roughnecks (7-10) to fall at home to the Toronto Rock (5-11) April 30 in their final regular season game.
If both the Stealth and Roughnecks finish at 7-11, Vancouver nabs the third and final playoff spot out of the West based on a better divisional record.
Richards, it would seem, is going to be crucial to any such run at that.
“He’s really good at coming across (the crease) to make saves,” said Vancouver forward Joel McCready. “He’s really athletic.
“He’s taken time to work on his game even more this year and you tell how badly he wants it. He’s hungry.”
Richards has a 12.76 goals-against average and .764 save percentage in 10 appearances for the Stealth this season. His career numbers through 110 regular-season games are a 12.15 GAA and .771 save percentage; his GAA and save percentage last year were 14.57 and .739 in 14 contests.
When Richards came back to the Stealth in February, he contended that he was a changed person, that he felt he had been “pretty selfish” in his previous seven seasons with the club and “sometimes you need to step away to see things clearly.”
Stealth captain Curtis Hodgson, a longtime Stealth defender who also suited up in the summers with Richards on the Western Lacrosse Association’s New Westminster Salmonbellies, says that Richards “is in the best mindset I’ve ever seen him in.”
“You’re seeing that in his play,” said Hodgson.
The Rush moved from Edmonton to Saskatoon in the off-season after capturing the league championship. They present a greater challenge than the obvious one on Saturday. They own Vancouver’s firstround pick in the 2016 NLL entry draft thanks to a January 2015 trade that sent left-hander Corey Small to Vancouver, so they have added incentive in seeing the Stealth stay where they are in the standings. Vancouver is currently last in the nine-team loop.
Vancouver beat Saskatchewan 13-11 on Jan. 15 in their home opener in Saskatoon and the Rush thrashed the Stealth 24-16 at the LEC on March 19. That’s the most goals a team has scored in a single game this season.
Making the playoffs remains a lofty goal for the Stealth. McCready maintains that to have a chance at it they can’t get caught up in the big picture.
“We can’t look too far ahead. We need to be focused for the first quarter against the Rush and then take it five minutes at a time from there,” he said.
NOTES: The Stealth announced Tuesday that owner Denise Watkins along with Saskatchewan Rush owner Bruce Urban will donate $5,000 each to the Lacrosse on the Move Fund if the Stealth’s game with the Rush on Saturday at the Langley Events Centre sells out.
Lacrosse on the Move is a partnership between the Stealth and the B.C. Lacrosse Association to raise money for grants for teams travelling to provincials and provincial athletes taking part in national events.
“We are very grateful for Bruce Urban’s donation on behalf of the Rush franchise and I hope we both have to write a cheque come Saturday night,” Watkins said in a release.
Saturday is Vancouver’s final regular season home game. They’re last in the nine-team NLL in attendance, averaging crowds of 3,677 so far this season at the LEC, which lists capacity at 5,276.
“He’s (Tyler Richards) taken time to work on his game even more this year and you tell how badly he wants it. He’s hungry.”
— Stealth teammate Joel McCready