The Colorado Mammoth will not be using a rearview mirror as it starts its drive toward the National Lacrosse League championship, beginning with Saturday’s season opener against Rochester at 7 p.m. at the Pepsi Center.
The strategy espoused by coach Gary Gait is to forget about the NLL championship the team won in May.
“We’ve put winning the championship in the past,” Gait said. “We’re here to prove to everybody how good we are this year and how well we can play this year. So we’re entirely focused on moving forward, rather than looking at the past.”
Gait, a Hall of Fame player entering his second season as coach, decided on this approach May 14, the day after the Mammoth upset the Bandits 16-9 for the NLL title.
“For me, that’s the way it’s always been,” Gait said. “The day after we won the championship, it was part of history for me. I’d already moved on, preparing for the next season and doing other things. The real joy, I think, comes in the process. The result is great, but once it happens, it’s over.”
With 17 returning players on the 23-man roster, Colorado is largely intact, minus three key players: forwards Dan Stroup and Chris Gill and all-star transition player Jay Jalbert.
Power-play producers Stroup and Gill were lost to Edmonton in the expansion draft, which added the New York Titans and Chicago Shamrox to a now 13-team league.
Jalbert was cleared by doctors, but is not comfortable playing because of post-concussion syndrome. He is on the holdout list.
Mike Law, a Regis Jesuit High and University of Denver alum who played sparingly last season, is expected to take Stroup’s place on the power play with right-handed shots from the crease.
“We feel pretty comfortable with Mike Law stepping in,” Gait said. “He was with us all last season. We didn’t get to play him much because we did have good chemistry and good players there, but we knew he was the next guy to step in if we were to lose a guy.”
Left-handers are more difficult to replace and a trio of them is vying for Gill’s spot: first-round draft pick Gary Bining, second-round selection Jamie Shewchuk and Jordan Cornfield, who signed last week after being cut by Edmonton.
Replacing Jalbert, a two-way player who scored 48 points last season, is also a work in progress.
“We’re still working on it; I don’t think you ever really replace a guy like that,” Gait said. “I think we’ll expand Josh Sims’ role and let him play a little more offense. I think he’s a very talented young player.”
Sims, a 28-year-old Princeton graduate, has increased his conditioning level in anticipation of longer stints on the floor.
“We’re going to miss Jay in the lineup,” Sims said. “It puts maybe a little bit higher expectations on me. I’m looking forward to it.”
Rookie free agents Nenad Gajic and Jason Bloom are contending for transition roles. Gajic, a 2004 fourth-round draft pick of San Jose, became a free agent after sitting out the past two seasons playing college ice hockey.
“I think there’s a learning curve there, but part way through the season – or hopefully before that – they’ll be up to speed and be a real threat on the offensive end,” Gait said.
Another speedy transition player, Nick Carlson, is recovering from offseason microfracture knee surgery.
“He’s worked extremely hard in rehabilitation, and we’re real happy with his progress,” general manager Steve Govett said.
Veteran defenseman Rich Catton is coming off sports hernia surgery.
