McBride gives Warrior scoring punch
‘He’s a good Western Canadian kid with his head screwed on right,’ says GM Richardson
Jordan McBride has a chance to be the National Lacrosse League’s comeback player of the year if there are enough people still involved who remember when he started in the first place.
McBride has been one of the bright spots in the early going for the Vancouver Warriors (1-4). The 32-year-old right-hander heads into a Saturday visit from the expansion San Diego Seals (2-2) to Rogers Arena (7 p.m., Bleacher Report Live) with eight goals in the past three games, including back-to-back hattricks.
The tallies, plus four assists, are the first NLL points for McBride since Jan. 10, 2014, when he had a goal and an assist for the Colorado Mammoth in a 13-11 loss on the road against the Calgary Roughnecks. He was released by the Mammoth the following week, after the team got off to a 1-3 start and was looking to change things up.
Despite having had 24-goal season with Colorado in 2013 and despite putting up numbers for years in the summers with the Western Lacrosse Association’s New Westminster Salmonbellies, he was never able to land another roster spot in the winter league until now. It even took him some time here, considering he was a healthy scratch in Vancouver’s first two games of the season.
“Did I wonder if it would ever happen for me again? Yeah, I did. And if it wasn’t for the people who are here, I don’t know if I would have gotten this chance,” McBride said of the Warriors lacrosse operations staff, which is led by longtime Salmonbellies general manager Dan Richardson and has a strong New Westminster flavour throughout. “But it is proof that there are guys out there who deserve a shot.
“I wanted to take this one lastchancetomakeit.Itold my wife that if I didn’t, I’d probably regret it.”
The Warriors coach is Chris Gill, who was a Salmonbellies player when McBride was a rookie with New Westminster in 2008. The offensive coordinator is Rory McBride, who is the current Salmonbellies bench boss as well.
In 10 seasons with New Westminster, McBride amassed 222 goals and 517 points in 156 regular season matchups. That includes 34 goals and 86 points in 18 regular season games this past summer, which was the third best total on the team. Left-handers Logan Schuss, with 106 points, and Mitch Jones, with 90 points, finished ahead of him.
They are both firmly entrenched NLLers with Vancouver.
The 6-foot, 210-pound McBride had some looks in the league after parting ways with Colorado. Vancouver, when they played under the old Stealth banner and out of the Langley Events Centre, had him on their practice roster. He had a tryout with the Calgary Roughnecks.
The people in charge of teams in the league, if you ask around, worried about whether McBride was quick enough and athletic enough for the speedier NLL game. The WLA is considered more physical, more clutch and grab.
McBride, albeit in a small sample wise, hasn’t seemed to have any trouble with the pace in the NLL so far. He’s getting his shots away. He’s getting to the net, working the pick-and-roll game with Keegan Bal, a former member of the Salmonbellies with the Warriors.
McBride, a Burnaby firefighter and father of two, does credit the extra time he’s spent this winter working out under the guidance trainer Jeff Cathrea, the former SFU field lacrosse coach who’s now at Burnaby-based Forge Integrated Health. Cathrea works with various lacrosse players, including McBride’s Salmonbellies/Warriors teammates Brandon Goodwin and Anthony Malcom and Saskatchewan Rush stars Ben McIntosh and Robert Church.
“I usually don’t keep my fitness going so much after the (Salmonbellies) season. I usually go to dad life,” explained McBride. “But Rory (McBride) and Dan (Richardson) had been talking to me and I knew if I put in the little bit extra, it would help.”
Vancouver is very much a work in progress. They finished 2-16 a year ago before the Vancouver Canucks purchased the team this summer and brought in Richardson, who went about remaking the roster. They haven’t put together a complete game yet this season. It will be interesting what it takes to do that, and just where McBride fits in.
Right now, he’s certainly an easy guy to cheer for.
“He’s a good Western Canadian kid with his head screwed on right,” said Richardson. “He loves playing lacrosse and I love the fact that we’re finally giving him a chance to play the game at the NLL level.
“He has an outside game and he has an inside game and I’ve got the feeling that people are noticing just how good he really is.”
Vancouver Warriors general manager Dan Richardson promises the team will “continue tweaking” its in-game presentation, but says there is nothing with that related to the incident that occurred last week during a Georgia Swarm game against the Philadelphia Wings at the Wells Fargo Center last weekend.
The Wings have fired in-game announcer Shawny Hill for telling the fans “let’s snip the ponytail,” in regards to Georgia forward Lyle Thompson. Thompson, who is from the Onondaga Reservation in central New York, stated on his Twitter feed that two fans behind the Swarm bench followed that with “scalping,” references.
Hill has apologized on his Twitter feed.
As for the Warriors, Richardson stated: “We’re working on things. We’re hoping by Game 3 or 4 at home we really have it dialed in.”