There’s no better reminder that last year’s in the past than a virtual slap in the face.
The Burnaby Lakers took one on Wednesday, kicking off the Western Lacrosse Association 2018 season with a 12-7 loss to the Langley Thunder at the Langley Events Centre.
While the score looks respectable on the surface, the first half of the game was an eye-opener for the revamped Lakers lineup – which was missing seven regulars due to early season commitments.
Burnaby opened the scoring but witnessed Langley respond with seven straight, including a shorthanded tally from Preston Lupul midway through the second period.
At that point, the visitors appeared to respond, led by rookie Brine Rice, and pushed back to out-score Langley 6-5 the rest of the way.
“There was a point in the second that things kind of turned around a little bit and we started inching our way back into the game,” remarked Lakers coach Peter Tellis. “After that I thought the game was even in a way. There was definitely a little rust in some of the guys who came out, but it took us a little bit to finally realize we were here to play a lacrosse game.”
The club’s passers began to click, and while they found little daylight early against the Thunder’s Brodie MacDonald, they stepped up the offensive pressure over the final 30 minutes.
“Our defence played fantastic the last half of the game. The offence has to sharpen up, we can’t go through the game turning the ball over that many times. We can’t go through games shooting the ball over the net and the ball going the other way,” said the coach.
Burnaby would count the game’s final three goals, with Rice wrapping it up with his second of the night on a nifty rush from the right side to beat MacDonald on the far side.
The Thunder took advantage of some special team opportunities, with 2018 Junior Draft’s No. 1 overall Connor Robinson burying a pair. Ottawa native J.P. Kealey netted a hat trick for Langley, while Tyler Pace chipped in a pair.
For Burnaby, Shaun Dhaliwal, Scott Jones and Dane Stevens also scored, while Zak Boychuk made 36 saves.
Rice, a late-round draft pick who played with the New West junior squad the past two seasons after transferring in from Quebec, proved to be an asset with the ball in his hand and generated a number of good scoring chances.
“I told Brine before the game that these guys don’t know who he is but by the end of the game they will. He got two tonight and there’s more to come.”
Coming off their first-ever WLA regular season title, expectations are firmly on returning to the playoffs and taking it as far as possible. Without the likes of 2017 MVP Robert Church, all-star Justin Salt and defender Matt Beers, the lineup featured a handful of fresh faces, including recently acquired Nick Jensen.
Tellis said while the returning players will be a big boost, in the end the play needs to be better at both ends.
“I asked the team if they won the game or did we lose the game. The guys said we lost the game,” he said.
“From recognizing that we can grow from that, and I think that’s a big part. The most thing is we’re going to get a bit better every time we come out. We’ll keep building off that and keep positive and develop this.”
Burnaby headed to Victoria to play in the provincial capital’s season opener, against a team that bounced them in a seven-game semifinal.
There will be no problem being motivated for that one.
“It’s great playing in Victoria, and I love hearing that crowd sound,” said Tellis. “We’ll stay overnight and that will do a lot of good. We have a lot of new faces in that dressing room, so having a lot of fun together and having a beer together will do wonders.
“We’re missing guys, like every team, so we used some call ups and pieced together a lineup (on Wednesday). Every team is in a similar situation. Regardless, if we had all our players we still have to play better and clean up our game. We just have to continue to get better each time we get together.”
The Lakers’ first home date is June 1 against Coquitlam.
