Saturday, May 14, 2005

Rock are Champions

It wasn't pretty, but the Rock are NLL Champions once again. The first half of the game was back and forth, with no team having more than a two-goal lead, and the lead changed hands several times. The Rock went on a four-goal run to lead 10-6 at the half. Arizona, as expected, did not give up, and clawed their way back to 12-11 before the Rock went on a 5 goal run to put the game away. Colin Doyle was named game MVP with 5 goals and 3 assists. I can't really argue with those numbers, though I think Bob Watson played an awesome game in goal, and made lots of amazing stops. I would have given Whipper the MVP award, but as I said, Doyle was also deserving.

As recently as last year, I was not Colin Doyle's biggest fan. He's great offensively, and always works hard, but was a bit of a hot-dogger, and tended to embellish hits a little too often. This year, though, he's really impressed me. Maybe he's not getting pounded near the net as much, because the defenders also need to worry about Josh Sanderson now, so he doesn't get as pissed off as he used to. Anyway, as I said he's a hard worker, and he's not selfish - the team means everything to him. He says that all the time in interviews, and you can really tell that he means it by his play on the floor. AND he stands completely still during the national anthem, and actually sings along, which impressed the hell out of me the first time I saw it.

Anyway, nice job boys! Five championships in seven years is damned impressive. This one was for Les.

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