Fire-breathing dragons aside, the Burnaby Lakers won’t be calling on a Game Of Thrones-style start to the Western Lacrosse Association’s 2019 regular season on Friday.
Yes, they’ll embrace all the fanfare they can, and are setting sights high with the focus on returning to the playoffs. But they’ll pass on any similarities to the disappointing reviews to the popular HBO series’ final sign-off.
But you’ll have to check in Saturday, 7 p.m. when Burnaby takes on the Coquitlam Adanacs at the Poirier Sports Centre, to see if there is more fire than smoke to those hopes.
This year’s Lakers have a lot of the familiar names in all the right places – even in uniform weeks earlier than a year ago – with an eye of erasing the taste of last year’s disappointing 6-11-1, which parked them on the sidelines for the post-season.
“Our first goal is to make the playoffs, then go from there. We have to focus on that goal first, just to make the playoffs. Our team has to gel, we have to work as a team and that’s what we’re working on now,” remarked Lakers general manager Kevin Hill.
The likes of Robert Church, Eli McLaughlin, Dane Stevens and Eric Penney form a pretty strong nucleus of veterans who will look to set a tone early. Both Church and McLaughlin are possibles for the first weekend of the season, after the early playoff demise of their National Lacrosse League teams.
The squad has also picked up some names who bring various levels of experience to the swamp.
The biggest addition is former Adanac and Victoria forward Daryl Veltman, a 33-year-old veteran who hoisted a Mann Cup in 2015 with the Shamrocks. The one-time NLL all-star spent the past few seasons in Ontario during the summer but joins the Lakers expecting to help get them back into the playoff picture, Hill said.
“That should help bring more veteran leadership to our club. Daryl was fortunate to win a Mann Cup with Victoria in 2015, and that will bring some valuable experience to our club. He’s a quality lefty and that’s going to help us out,” said the GM.
Burnaby also inked Prairie products Lazlo Henning and Zack Gould, who work opposite sides of the boards but are expected to bolster the club’s offence. Former junior scoring star Sam Clare has joined up, looking to fill a defensive role.
Also returning to the fold after missing much of last season are Peter McFetridge and Matt McGrotty.
And while Burnaby won’t have their first pick in this past spring’s junior draft, Ryland Rees, in the lineup for a few weeks, there is no doubt the squad will benefit from the two-way player’s presence when he does make his debut.
“We’re expecting Ryland back for the (June 7) home opener, but we won’t see him until the first week of June,” said Hill. “He has convocation down in Stony Brook as he graduates this year, so he’ll be attending convocation. Once he’s done that he’s going to come up and play for us. He’s a fantastic D-transition guy and we’re excited to get him in our lineup.”
Rees was recently named America East’s Defensive Player of the Year, as well as a first team conference all-star, after leading his team in ground balls and created turnovers.
OK, now for the bad news.
The Lakers have lost the services of some key players, mostly at transition and defence. Gone are the likes of Brine Rice, who returned to Ontario, veteran Shaun Dhaliwal, and Burnaby native Nik Bilic, who played just six games with the club last year.
“I highly doubt that Nik will be in our lineup this season,” said Hill.
The team also saw both A.J. Kluck and Adam Perroni leave for greener pastures.
But Hill and head coach Pete Tellis will be using those holes as a chance to introduce more youth into the lineup.
“That’s why we’ve put a lot of good young players around him. We have a bunch of veterans coming back, like Matt (McGrotty) and Peter (McFetridge), they’re coming back. We have a bunch of our second-year players who’ll be in there. It’s not that everything is going to fall on (Rees') shoulders.”
The netminding duties have strength in numbers with Penney and Zak Boychuk joined by 2019 draft pick Eric Kratz.While three's a crowd usually when it comes to the crease, Hill -- a former backstop -- envisions this three-man job as a workable situation.
“It should work out fine. The personalities of our goalies is all pretty laid back, they are all fairly mellow and get along well. Zak’s a great team guy and he wants to take on a mentor role with Kratz and help him out anyway he can.”
Just two years removed from winning the franchise’s first regular season league title, the Lakers are hoping that push turns into shove come playoff time. But first things first – the start of the season offers a golden opportunity to turn the page, Hill said.
“(A Mann Cup) is everybody’s goal, but first we have to get to the playoffs first. Then you’ve got a chance at the cup,” he said.
Burnaby kicks off the season Saturday in Coquitlam, then heads to Langley on May 29.
