Photo Credit: Vancouver Warriors Twitter
The Vancouver Warriors opened their season with a 10–7 loss to the Colorado Mammoth at Rogers Arena on Saturday. Christian Del Bianco had a solid outing for the Warriors, stopping 36 shots on the night. It was Del Bianco’s first regular-season loss as a Warrior since being acquired at the trade deadline last March. The Warriors’ biggest bright spot was their power play, going 4-for-8 on the night. However, the Warriors struggled to generate offense at even strength. Vancouver had the sixth-fewest goals last season and added more offensive firepower in the offseason, signing Jesse King and Curtis Dickson, who both eclipsed the 100-point mark last season with the Calgary Roughnecks.
Head coach and general manager Curt Malawsky previously said that the offense was going to be the last thing to click, but Dickson, who had two goals and one assist in his Warriors debut, said postgame that he didn’t want to blame a chemistry issue for the Warriors’ lack of offense against the Mammoth.
“ We had four weeks of camp to build up that chemistry… we don’t want to make up any excuses and say it’s a chemistry issue, we’ve all been playing lacrosse for a long time and its something we got to figure out pretty quick.”
Even though the Warriors’ power play was a bright spot, it could have been even better had they not taken themselves off the power play by taking a penalty. This killed a ton of momentum for Vancouver, especially since their power play was so hot.
Malawsky always preaches about getting to the middle of the floor on offense. He touched on why Colorado made it difficult for his offense to create high-end scoring chances. “ I think they packed ( their defense in tight) and I think (Dillon) Ward played really well. We hesitated a few times because they were in lanes and the lanes don’t get more open with Colorado. They get more in the lanes and there wasn’t much there.”
“ We moved the ball, we wanted to play a little faster but their (defense) jammed inside… but we have to find ways to get the ball moving. (We) have to open up an inside game by establishing an outside game.” added Malawsky.
Dickson echoed his coach’s comments, noting that Colorado’s defensive structure forced Vancouver into lower-quality looks, but he also stressed the need to generate more attempts, as the Warriors finished with only 44 shots.
“ They’re really good positionally, they pack it in and make it hard for you to get inside. I think we tried to get a little bit too cute sometimes and get the perfect shot. We just got to trust our shots and we got to get upwards of 50,60 shots in a game especially to be able to score 10 goals plus.”
Keegan Bal, who led the Warriors in scoring last season, also led them Saturday night, racking up seven points (one goal, six assists). Jesse King also added a goal and three helpers; he also led the team with nine shots on goal in his first game with his new squad.
There is a lot of season left, and expectations are high for this Warriors team. Vancouver has a bye next week and will take on the Las Vegas Desert Dogs on December 13th at Rogers Arena.
