Rush and Stealth look up in standings

What a difference one season makes.

While the Rush and Washington Stealth renew acquaintances this weekend in National Lacrosse League action, both clubs find themselves far south of their expected positions in the standings.

Edmonton (0-5) and Washington (3-3) meet up in a pivotal home-and-away series Friday evening at 7 p.m. at Rexall Place in Edmonton and the return match goes Saturday night in Everett, Wash.

It's been a rough and unexpected start this year for the two clubs that met in the West final last campaign and this weekend's series marks the first time these clubs meet each other since Washington defeated the Rush 12-11 in an overtime jaw-dropper in.

To say the two clubs have yet to meet expectations this year is an understatement. Last year at this point, the Stealth were undefeated at 6-0 and tops in the league, while the Rush enjoyed their best-ever season start with a 3-2 mark.

This year, both clubs are scrapping to stay in the hunt.

So, what's happened?

Washington, the defending Champion's Cup winners, started slowly this season with a 1-2 mark, yet the squad has won two of the last three games for an even 3-and-3 record into this weekend, while Edmonton has yet to nail down a victory in 2011 after boasting a team-best 10-6 mark last year.

Washington seems to be finding its mark and coming out of the dreaded championship hangover that's affected the club.

"I certainly hope so," said Chris Hall, head coach of the Stealth. "As anybody knows it's a very fine line in this league between victory and defeat and a couple of little things like that plus, maybe a bit of a hangover from the championship year and the it doesn't take much to get you on the wrong side of the score.

"It's a bit inevitable at times you're going to get that and that you sort of try to ride where you were the year before, but it doesn't take long to figure out that there's no freebies around here and you have to grind it out every night. So I think that's long in the past now and we've come to the realization how much effort is needed to get a win here."

"They're still, in my mind, the best team in our division and they had a bit of a shaky start. But, a little bit of a hangover maybe, but, they're a very dangerous team on offense and solid defensively and great goaltending,' said Rush general manager and head coach Derek Keenan. "They are a very, very good team and I think actually to be honest, every team in our league is good. There aren't any easy games, so this is just another big weekend for us."

Edmonton, selected as a Champion's Cup candidate in a pre-season poll by NLL Insiders, now finds the uphill battle of scratching back after an 0-5 start.

"I'd be lying if I said 'I wasn't shocked'," said Teddy Jenner, an NLL analyst and former Rush player. "It blows my mind that the team that was one goal away from being in the NLL finals last year and somehow started this year 0-5."

Lack of offensive punch, inconsistent play in the back end and failing to close out games has been issues for the Rush in 2011, however, the club now looks to correct these difficulties in order to climb back up the standings.

"It's a very thin line in this league between winning and losing," said Keenan. "And, we've lost a couple of one-goal games and those are the games we won a lot of last year and we won overtime games, so you have to win those types of games.

"Try to focus here on the fact that we're in a situation where we have to treat every week like a playoff game from here forward," added the Rush bench boss. "So we need to have that urgency that we played with down in Calgary and we have a lot of home games down the stretch, so, 0-5 is not good, but you don't hide from it. You don't run from it. You've got to face it head on and learn from it and get better and move forward. We're stick in the thick of it here, so we've got to be positive about it."

With the parity in the league - just check the standings to see how congested it is - and every game is almost a toss up to who the victor will be.

"I think teams are starting to realize that every game is a playoff game in this league," said Jenner, a lacrosse insider at ILIndoor.com. "Especially when the season is only 16 games long.

"The biggest thing for the Rush is not to panic. Things are going to happen and things will fall into place. You're going to have Gavin Prout, Ryan Ward and Corey Small and Dean Hill and Kedoh Hill and now Scott Evans scoring. These guys are going to get the ball into the net. That's going to happen.

"The Rush will have to make sure they put it together - offense, defense and goaltending all into one sixty-minute package, though."

Keenan and his troops are counting on the club to right the ship starting this weekend with a game plan that's worked well before on the carpet.

"We've ran the floor extremely well with a lot of opportunities to score in transition and the ball hasn't gone into the net for us and the odds are that we're going to start executing those," he said.

"(We) Especially we need to get off to a good start Friday night. Start from there and move on."

"One win and they're right back into the playoff picture with Colorado," said Jenner, who played for the Rush through the 2006 and 2007 seasons. "I wouldn't put too much doubt that Edmonton will turn it around. I think they have the capabilities and I know Keenan and his staff will have his boys ready for the Stealth this weekend."

Game time is 7 p.m. Friday at Rexall Place and set for 8:30 p.m. MT Saturday from Everett.

By Bruce Rakoczy