There will be a banner for hanging, but the focus this year will be on another banner for the taking.
The Burnaby Lakers begin 2018 as defending Western Lacrosse Association regular season champions – a first for the organization since moving from Richmond in 1990 – but won’t be hanging their hats on that accomplishment for too long.
As head coach Peter Tellis sees it, lessons of last year will be helpful, but the spotlight is on the here and now, and what can be in the near future.
“Not getting to the second round was obviously disappointing,” said Tellis, who took over the head coaching duties late in the season. “There are a lot of veterans on the team, especially last year, who were pushing hard, and to fall a little short was disappointing. … Coming forward this year, as much as you look back, we are definitely looking forward.
“We are looking to get better every day, whenever we are on the floor, and that will continue to be our focus.”
The events of 2017 provided plenty of grist for the mill, but Burnaby was a sleeper team at the start that opened many eyes along the way. When team governor Ed Safarik relieved coach and general manager Jim Milligan of his duties with three games remaining, the cards could have fallen in many directions. Tellis, however, did a good job of keeping the players on task to lock up the franchise’s first-ever league crown.
Although a stinging seven-game loss to Victoria in the opening round put a damper on the season, the overall picture was hopeful.
Now, the aim is to take that next step in a league where the top four teams were separated by four points.
“Long term goal is obviously the Mann Cup, but we’re breaking down the season into parts. That’s our primary focus, one step at a time. … Trying to get that monkey off our backs and get past the first round.” said Lakers general manager Kevin Hill. “No one’s spot in the playoffs is secured at all.”
With fourth-place New West emerging as playoff champions, before falling to Peterborough in six games in the Mann Cup, the unpredictable nature of the WLA isn’t lost on Lakers management.
The club has done its best to secure as many returning veterans as possible, led by the league’s 2017 Most Outstanding Player Robert Church and Most Outstanding Goaltender Eric Penney.
The pair led a balanced crew where defence and offence were part of an all-hands-on-deck approach, and one that will be applied again this season, said Hill.
“I don’t want this team to rely on just one person; it’s going to be a group effort. Everybody is going to contribute and what my goal is is to not have any passengers. Everybody is going to have a role and that’s what needs to be done for us to be successful,” noted Hill.
Also among the veteran core who bring leadership and skills are Shaun Dhaliwal, Scott Jones and Eli McLaughlin up front, and defenders Matt McGrotty and Peter McFetridge.
The offence took a few significant hits in the off season when a trio of goal-per-game talents pulled up stakes.
Burnaby lost young snipers Josh Byrne and Cam Milligan – both choosing to stay back east to play in the pro outdoor lacrosse league – while veteran Jason Jones was dealt earlier this week to New Westminster. In their stead, a list of notables are vying for important roles with the club.
Four newcomers are expected to amp it up on the defensive side, bolstering what was a strength last year. Burnaby signed Ontario products Keegan Letourneau and Adam Perroni and Albertan A.J. Kuck, while Nick Jensen joins the team as part of the return in the Jones trade. Letourneau and Kuck were teammates in 2015 on the Six Nations’ Minto Cup win. Both Letourneau and Perroni have National Lacrosse League experience, with Vancouver and Rochester, respectively.
“All three are huge additions to our lineup, and we hope to be defensively strong. Adding three great players like that was really key, especially with not many draft picks,” said Tellis.
Jensen, the ’Bellies’ first pick – in the third round – in the 2018 Junior Draft, played last year with the B.C. champion Coquitlam junior Adanacs, after launching his junior career in Burnaby.
Burnaby didn’t possess a bounty of picks in last February’s draft due to trades, and were without a selection until the fifth round. But the club did snag a trio of talents in Tommy Robertson, Brine Rice and Alex Bodin, who are expected to provide depth and possibly more this season.
The team has even inked veteran NLL and WLA forward Athan Iannucci, who sat out 2017, to provide some depth on the right side.
A lot will hinge upon defence and goaltending, with the likes of Justin Salt, Matt McGrotty and Peter McFetridge giving Penney and Boychuk the means in which to make the big stops.
“In order to win a championship, it’s done from the net out,” said Hill, who, like Tellis, is in his first full year on the job. “I feel we have the best goalie combo, and once we have everybody back in the lineup, I believe we’ll have the best defensive unit in the league as well. If we can keep teams down to seven goals a game, I think our offence can do the job of scoring more than seven.”
The club, which opens the season Wednesday in Langley and heads to Victoria on Friday, will patch holes and provide opportunities in the next few weeks until all the NLL players – where Church and McGrotty’s Saskatchewan Rush face Perroni’s Rochester in the best-of-three final – return home.
It means writing the lineups in pencil for the time being. But Tellis said, once the games begin, he envisions a team ramping up to repeat the successes and more of last year.
“We are there to compete every night and get better every day. Our goal is to finish in the top-four in the league and once we’re in the playoffs we get ready for the next part.”
The Lakers’ first home game is Friday, June 1, when they host the Coquitlam Adanacs.
