Thunderbirds’ Offence Growing Confidence
Feb 8, 2022
February 8, 2022 - Ty Merrow
Losing exposes flaws in a team and how they played. For the Thunderbirds, their loss on Jan. 29 to the Albany FireWolves shone a light on those problem areas that were covered up by their first three wins.
“Each team has to find their identity and what works for them as a unit,” head coach Mike Accursi said, “and I think that loss really put a spotlight on some of the things that we really needed to improve on. Maybe we thought we were better than we were. I think the effort was a lot better this week. You put those two things together, where you’re fine tuning what your identity is and correcting some of the wrongs we made in the past – we’re still a work-in-progress.”
The fine tuning saw arguably the most complete game of the season from the Thunderbirds so far. The 13-10 win against the Riptide was bookended by four-goal quarters, goalie Warren Hill continued his strong play in net; the defence in front of him helped prevent Jeff Teat, Larson Sundown, and Jake Fox from scoring; and there was an even mix of scoring 5-on-5 and in transition.
But two areas are arguably the biggest indicators from that game of the Thunderbirds correcting their issues exposed in Albany: the left-handed forwards having a strong game and the team’s success on the power play.
It’s been no secret that the main left-handed forwards were not producing early on for the Thunderbirds. Team captain Cody Jamieson missed the first two games, and Eric Fannell, Kyle Jackson, and Stephan Leblanc had only a goal between them during that span. Leblanc had a six-point game when Jamieson returned to the lineup, but the righties were still shouldering the load in that game.
Then the FireWolves game happened. Jackson was a healthy scratch, and the remaining trio recorded a goal and four points on 20 shots.
The slow start for the four lefties seemed to be the result of trying to form new chemistry, especially with all the time off due to COVID and Jamieson being out early due to injury. Even when he came back, the heart and soul of the Thunderbirds noted how he was still trying to find his spot within the team.
“It’s different than any team I’ve ever been on,” Jamieson said. “Obviously, every year it changes, and you get some new personnel, so just trying to find my role and fit in, and you gain that confidence back. As a goal scorer, you kind of lose it for a little bit, you got to keep doing what you’ve always done and plugging away.”
Plugging away last Friday meant breaking open the scoring for the Thunderbirds with a power play goal from the captain. All four lefties had solid games, each recording multiple points. Their six goals on Friday came on 38 shots, 29 of which were on goal. That comes out to a 15.8 S% and 76.3 SOG% for the quartet – through the first four games, they had a collective 6.7 S% and 73.3 SOG%.
“You need balanced scoring,” Accursi said. “If you’re getting all of your stuff from one side, defenses will start to tilt to one side, and then pressure gets put on them to continue to produce, which they have been for us. To get that balanced scoring is an important part of our success moving forward. I’m glad those guys are starting to feel their touch and starting to get back to having some confidence, and hopefully that continues moving forward.”
One other area that will hopefully continue to improve moving forward is the Thunderbirds’ power play. Prior to Friday night, they had three goals on 17 chances throughout the season, a success rate of 17.8%. It was the lowest in the NLL by a significant margin; the current league average is 42.7%.
Jamieson getting the scoring started with the team’s first of three power play goals – the other two scored by Jackson and Leblanc – hints at the lefties gelling and their shots starting to fall. After finishing the game 60% on the power play, the Thunderbirds’ season numbers jumped up to 27.3%.
“If anything, it validates what we knew we had, validates what we have going on,” Jamieson said about the team’s offensive success. “Self-doubt is a crazy thing. Even within the team, it was no secret before that the righties were carrying the load and the lefties were kind of snake-bitten, so it kind of puts things into perspective that yes, on any given night, it can be anybody and not just the right side that carries the load. The lefties are more than capable of contributing.”
Accursi and Jamieson used the word “confidence” often in their respective interviews for this story. The Thunderbirds – lefty, righty, offence, defence – are at their best when they’re playing the style of lacrosse they’re most comfortable with. The more they work together, develop that chemistry on and off the floor, the better they play and get shots to fall.