Below are some of the smaller items which made news in the National Lacrosse League between December 2000 and February 2001, including trades, rumors, odd facts and injury updates.

23 February 2001:
• The Columbus Landsharks held split-squad practices this week, with half the team in Columbus and the other half in Lewiston, NY. The Landsharks worked on tightening their transition game and maintaining their intensity throughout the game, two things that the first-year has struggled with and which will kill them if not improved upon in time for this week's game at Rochester.
• Ask Mike Gongas about his team's itinerary this weekend, and the New York Saints owner will call it a "scheduling nightmare." After playing the Albany Attack at home Saturday night, the Saints will catch a flight early the next morning in order to play in Toronto that afternoon. Gongas calls the Sunday matinee against the Rock a "David vs. Goliath" matchup, and concedes that his team has been preparing solely for the Attack. The seventeen-man active roster for the Rock game will not be selected until after the Attack game, further complicating preparations to face the two-time league champions.
• The Philadelphia Wings will be missing their most controversial starter for Saturday's rematch with Buffalo. Peter Jacobs, who invokes the wrath of as many Wings fans as he does love and admiration from others, will sit the game out with a pulled hamstring, suffered in practice this week. Next week's open date will allow Jacobs sufficient time to heal for the Wings' largest remaining defensive matchup, a home game against Toronto on 10 March.
• Can't a Player-of-the-Week goaltender get a little respect around here? Despite putting on a fantastic show against Toronto last week, stopping fifty-two of fifty-nine shots, Rochester Knighthawks goaltender Pat O'Toole returns to the bench this week in favor of Steve Dietrich. Coach Paul Day is still alternating starting assignments, a preseason decision which was intended to exploit the dramatic differences in style between the two goals. Why Day insists on the platoon system is unclear, since O'Toole has proven himself the better goaltender this season.

 

15 February 2001:
• Dallas Squire has been placed on the restricted list by the Albany Attack. No explanation was given.
• Now that a 3-0 start has deteriorated into a 4-2 record and fourth-place in the league, Buffalo Bandits coach Ted Sawicki is getting a bit irritated with some of his players. "The bench isn't clicking," Sawicki said. "On offense, the guys are not coming off. They are playing selfish, like they can do it themselves."
• Jason Henhawk returns to the Columbus Landsharks, after a brief trip to injured reserve.
• The New York Saints have been busy shuffling their reserve lists. David Kotowski was transferred today from injured reserve to the practice squad, while Mike Battista and Sean Steinwald were added to the holdout list.
• The Washington Power has released forward Brian Zeller.

 

31 January 2001:
• Instead of heading to Buffalo on Saturday in order to scout the Ottawa Rebel, his team's next opponent, Albany Attack coach Terry Sanderson will be running a scrimmage practice. After winning its first two games, the Attack is now 2-3 and suffering from a slumping offense, and this week's open date in the schedule allows Sanderson an excellent chance to have his team work on its offense. "I never take any Mark Vitarelli teams for granted," said Sanderson, referring to the Rebel coach.
• Paul Day's goaltending rotation continues this week, and it's Steve Dietrich's turn to start in net for the Rochester Knighthawks. Although this does not necessarily spell doom for the Knighthawks, it should be noted that Dietrich is 0-2 with a 17.62 goals-against average this season (while Pat O'Toole is 3-0, with six fewer goals allowed per sixty minutes). Additionally, Dietrich was the goaltender of record in Rochester's opening game, a home loss to the Philadelphia. As the fates would have it, Philadelphia also happens to be the opponent this week.
• Glenn Clark has likely been lost for the season, reports Toronto Rock coach Les Bartley. Clark damaged ligaments in his ankle during Friday's 16-13 loss to Washington... Bartley refuses to jump on the blame-the-refs bandwagon that is writing off the loss to Washington as officiating incompetance. In the weekly coaches' conference call, the coach emphasized that while he disagreed with some of the calls Friday night, his team needed to stop worrying about the officiating.

 

25 January 2001:
• In an article appearing in today's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, NLL commissioner Jim Jennings laid a new city onto the teeming pile of expansion possibilities -- Hartford -- and reiterated that a West Coast division is quite possible. "Whether or not we get a West Coast division, that remains to be seen," Jennings said. "It's tough to do a West Coast division moderately. Putting one or two teams there is probably a difficult process due to our scheduling. In order to put in a West Coast division, we need to have at least four teams out there." Why the westward push? Television. When/if Chicago and Los Angeles are added, "we're able to show the television networks that we are truly in these major markets. That's the only way we're going to develop television revenue."
• ArenaMedia has reached a deal with the NLL to provide live netcasts of about a dozen games this season (and netcasting guru Saul Davidson won't rule out more). All remaining Albany Attack and New York Saints home games, as well as selected Philadelphia Wings games, will be streamed. Next up on the list: Albany at Philadelphia, this Saturday at 8:00 PM. For more information, visit ArenaMedia Live or the NLL Lacrosse Network home page.
• Dean Cecconi is scheduled for season-ending knee surgery tomorrow. As reported in this column a week ago, Cecconi suffered a torn ACL earlier this season. In other Columbus Landshark malady news, Tracey Kelusky is expected to be at full strength for this week's game againts Ottawa, after staggering through the Washington game with the flu.
• Last week's 26-18 loss at Buffalo has many of the Philadelphia Wings fuming. "I can't help but look up at that scoreboard and see that number and know that we could have done better defensively," said captain Dave Stilley. "Buffalo came in playing their best and we came in with less than that." Par for his role with the team, Tom Phair was a little more blunt with his outlook to this weekend's tilt with Albany. "I guarantee a win on Saturday," said Phair. "There's gonna be some hitting. I hate games like that. You won't ever see [a loss like Buffalo] again."
• Pat O'Toole will be protecting the home goal Saturday night when the Rochester Knighthawks host New York. However, it's simply because it's his turn in the rotation -- the fact that O'Toole held Albany scoreless for over thirty minutes after relieving Steve Dietrich seems to be just an extra benefit, as does O'Toole's overtime victory against the Saints two weeks ago.

 

18 January 2001:
• The Albany Attack are about to bulk up their media presence. The Attack has reached an agreement with Time Warner Cable to have last week's game against Toronto replayed in the Capital region on Thursday night, at 7:30 PM. Negotiations are under way for an additional game to be televised later this season. Another area where negotiations are ongoing is with netcasts. After ArenaMedia's successful netcast of the Saints/Attack game earlier this season, Saul Davidson's streaming audio operation has gotten the go-ahead to cover the balance of the home schedule, and coverage of selected road games is in the works.
• Dean Cecconi's knee injury has turned out to be a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Cecconi will miss the rest of the Columbus Landsharks' season.
• Mark Vitarelli is no longer guaranteeing that his winless Ottawa Rebel club will beat New York at Corel Centre on Friday. Vitarelli made the guarantee Tuesday on a radio program. "I didn't think before I spoke... as a coach, I can't guarantee very much," he said yesterday. "All I can guarantee is we'll come to the table and play well."
• Travis Kilgour has a new home -- Washington Power general manager Steve Govett said Thursday night that he has signed the free-agent ex-Bandit. Kilgour had asked for and had been give his release by Buffalo earlier this month when he felt that he was getting insufficient playing time. In Washington, he will be playing for his brother Darris Kilgour, the first-year coach of the Power... Not only did Brian Reese get ejected for his brawl with Ottawa's Pat Collins, but now it appears that the Power will be without his services for a while. He broke his jaw in the fight, and will be out until late February. You say you missed the fisticuffs? AllLacrosseAmerica has the footage, and it's a dandy.
 

13 January 2001:
• The murder case of former MILL and NLL player Jason Luke was remanded again Friday, this time for at least a month. Luke is facing trial in Kitchener, Ontario for the stabbing death of his father, Robert Lewis, on 23 November. Due to a publication ban imposed by the court, no reason was given for the delay. Luke played for the Buffalo Bandits, from 1996 to 1998, before a knee injury ended his career.
 

10 January 2001:
• Ted Sawicki, coach of the Buffalo Bandits, calls this week's release of seven-year veteran Travis Kilgour a mutual decision. "I kind of made a promise to Travis because he was so dedicated to the Bandits for a number of years," he said. "From a business point of view you want to hold him back and try to get something for him because he might help another team. But in the same sense, he's been very dedicated to Bandits for a number of years and I felt I was holding him back and I feel some loyalty to him. We made a timeline that after Game 2 we'd make a decision and we just felt it was best to let him go and maybe he can play somewhere else."
• Columbus Landsharks head coach Marty Cooper was "embarrassed" by his team's play in a 23-10 loss at Buffalo last weekend, describing the Landsharks' even-strength offense as "pathetic." Cooper wants his squad to cut down on penalties, to avoid falling into shorthanded situations. However, the performance of netminders Pat Campbell and Curtis Palidwor isn't among Cooper's gripes. "I wasn't terribly disappointed with goaltending," he said. "I don't point a big finger at our goaltenders so far." Of course, Campbell and Palidwor can't possibly be the problem when the team pulls its goaltender every time it has the ball, as Columbus tried (unsuccessfully, at the cost of three empty-net goals) against the Bandits.
• The suspensions keep piling up on Long Island, where it appears that the New York Saints will be without the services this weekend of starting goaltender Gord Nash. Nash was ejected late in the fourth quarter of last Friday's game at Albany, for unsportsmanlike conduct. With backup Clayton Bergie not in the building, due to an auto accident earlier that day, the Saints were forced to turn to third-stringer George Breres for the final two minutes of regulation and all of overtime. Online reports stating that Bergie will be in goal for the Saints this weekend suggest that Nash has become the fourth Saint to be suspended this season, joining coach Sal LoCascio and players Mike Battista and Ben Prepchuk... Regardless of who protects the home goal this week, a large crowd will be there to cheer him on. The Saints report that they have sold more tickets for Friday's game against Rochester than for any game in team history.
• Don't expect to see Ross Cowie suit up for the Ottawa Rebel any time soon. Rebel head coach Mark Vitarelli reports that Cowie suffered internal bleeding from the major head injury he suffered after falling off a ladder on New Year's Day, and is having extreme difficulty sleeping. "This is a major injury that is not going to go away in the next 3-4 months," Vitarelli said... Despite losing the best-performing of the team's goalies this season, Vitarelli says that his main concern is improving the Rebel's flailing offense, which has scored only twenty-one goals in three games. Travis Kilgour would seem a good fit for the Rebel, which urgently needs a left-handed shot and more players with NLL experience. However, Vitarelli would prefer a solution from within, and has promoted Jamie Williams and Jake Lawson from the practice squad and signed Doug Hill. Hill was released by Philadelphia during the preseason.
 

9 January 2001:
• The Buffalo Bandits have released seven-year veteran Travis Kilgour, at his own request. "Travis felt he wasn't getting the playing time here and wanted to explore other options," Bandits general manager Kurt Silcott said. "We felt with his long tenure with the Bandits we would honor his wishes and release him." In 51 career games, Kilgour has tallied 55 goals and 60 assists... The Bandits today unveiled their redesigned web site, at http://www.bandits.com/. The current edition, featuring arguably the best design in the league, is a vast improvement over the Bandits' previous web site, including detailed player profiles, up-to-date statistics, and an online version of the team media guide.
• D.J. Seer, a rookie member of the Ottawa Rebel, has been placed on injured reserve, effective yesterday. Seer is scoreless this season in two games for the Rebel.
 

4 January 2001:
• The NLL has handed down five one-game suspensions as a result of Saturday's brawl during the New York Saints / Columbus Landsharks game. Saints coach Sal LoCascio tops the list, for sending players on the New York bench out to fight. Saint players Mike Battista and Ben Prepchuk, as well as Landsharks Rory Graham and Mark Goers, were also suspended.
 

3 January 2001:
• Disaster befell the Ottawa Rebel once again on Monday, when goaltender Ross Cowie was found unconscious in his driveway after falling from a ladder at his mother's house, in Peterborough, Ontario. A CAT scan revealed internal bleeding and what Rebel coach Mark Vitarelli described as a major head injury. Vitarelli expects that Cowie will be out "a little while," and will be replaced on the active roster by Mike Thompson. This is the club's second off-field injury of the young season -- last week, Pat Collins was injured in an automobile accident and did not play in Friday's loss at Albany.
• After a very short outing against Philadelphia on Saturday, Pat O'Toole will remain the starting goaltender for the Rochester Knighthawks when they travel to Washington this Sunday. O'Toole allowed four goals on just five shots before being replaced by Steve Dietrich. Rochester coach Paul Day believes that his team's defense was the true problem in the 17-16 loss, not the goaltending. "I think off-side help, the guys that aren't playing against the ball, that was the biggest problem we had," Day said. "The guys on the far side really had their heads turned. Especially with Marechek and Bergey we have pretty much the same thing coming this weekend with the Gaits, we have to be prepared to help out on the off side and we did a poor job of that."
• Washington Power general manager Steve Govett was displeased that his club could not hold off a Buffalo comeback Saturday. "Unfortunately we didn't show a lot of heart or intensity in getting back into it and bearing down and not going under," he said after the 20-19 loss. No word on how Govett felt after the Power fought off their sluggishness to rally for a stunning 13-12 defeat of Toronto the next day... Govett also said in the league's weekly conference call that if the Power had only one home game this weekend instead of two, it would've drawn five or six thousand fans -- an unlikely scenario, considering that the two games together couldn't reach five thousand.
• On the injury front, Toronto's Terry Bullen is expected to return to action Friday night against Ottawa. Bullen cut his thumb during the preseason and missed the Rock's first two games. Meanwhile, it appears that the knee injury which kept John Rosa out of Albany's season opener last weekend has healed, and that Rosa will be in uniform for Friday's home game with New York.

 

1 January 2001:
• Columbus Landsharks "firsts" from Saturday night's 17-12 loss at home against New York: First goal, Mike Benedict (time not available, 1st quarter); First assist, Bruce Codd (goal by Tracey Kelusky, time not available, 1st quarter); First hat trick, Tracey Kelusky (third goal at 14:06, 2nd quarter; finished with four goals); First penalty, Kyle Arbuckle (interference, 1:16, 1st quarter).
 

29 December 2000:
• John Grant, Jr., last season's Rookie of the Year and a First Team All-Pro, resigned with the Rochester Knighthawks yesterday, inking a one-year deal. Grant led the Knighthawks in goals, assists, and points in his freshman season.
 

28 December 2000:
• Pat Collins, of the Ottawa Rebel, was among four men injured in a hit-and-run accident Tuesday in Centretown, Ontario. The Jeep which Collins and three others were in was broadsided by a pickup truck with a snowplow. Collins was knocked unconscious for a time but otherwise was not seriously injured. The hit-and-run driver was pursued by witnesses and ultimately fled on foot after abandoning his truck.
• Continuing a tradition of selecting top defensemen rather than offensive stars to the position of captain, the Philadelphia Wings today bestowed the honor on fourth-year pro Dave Stilley. Jake Bergey and Tom Marechek will serve as assistant captains for the fifteenth season of Wings Lacrosse.
• Rochester Knighthawks coach Paul Day invoked comparisons to Wade Phillips, the Buffalo Bills (NFL) coach with a reputation for switching quarterbacks on a whim, when he announced Wednesday that he will alternate starting duties between goaltenders Pat O'Toole and Steve Dietrich, rather than name one as the full-time starter and the other as the backup. ""From game to game teams won't know who's going to play net and what style they have to get ready for," said Day.
• The Washington Power has signed Joe Hiltz after a brief holdout. Also, the team has released Scott Joyner and demoted Chris Zeller to the practice squad.
 

26 December 2000:
• The Ottawa Rebel will be shorthanded when they visit Albany on Friday night. Paul Talmo is out with a broken thumb, and will miss the home opener against Toronto on 5 January, as well. Also, forwards John and Ed Fay will be attending a wedding in Hawaii and are not available for this weekend's game. The Rebel now have only three runners -- Del Halladay, Craig Stevenson, and Bruce Alexander -- making the trip to Albany with NLL experience other than last week's 17-7 drubbing at Toronto.
 

23 December 2000:
• The Albany Attack have traded Ian Rubel to the Columbus Landsharks for a conditional pick in the September 2001 draft. Columbus will surrender either a third-round pick, if Rubel plays in at least three games this year, or a fourth-round pick, if he plays in two or fewer games.
 

22 December 2000:
• Ottawa Rebel "firsts" from last night's 17-7 loss at Toronto: First goal, Del Halladay (4:05, 1st quarter); First shorthanded goal, Paul Talmo (12:44, 1st quarter); First shot on goal, Halladay (1:40 of 1st quarter); First penalty, Bruce Alexander (high-sticking, 5:01, 1st quarter); First faceoff, Talmo (against Steve Toll).
 

21 December 2000:
• The Rochester Knighthawks will introduce a new mascot at their 27 January home game against New York. The mascot will be a cross between a knight and a hawk, with a Name-The-Mascot contest to name it.