CALGARY, AB — The Calgary Roughnecks offence hasn’t found the success they would have hoped for this season.
And the defence wants to help out their counterparts.
“We need to be able to support our offence,” Mike Carnegie said. “The offence’s job is to try to score goals and generate production, but we need to help them and we haven’t done that to the best of our abilities.”
“Myself, Curtis Manning, Bobby Snider, Karsen Leung, I don’t think any of us have goals yet. That’s not what you want.”
The offence hasn’t been able to hit the 10-goal mark this season, and the defence understands that they have the ability to help.
“The formula for success in the NLL is that your offence gets you 10 and your defence gets you 2 or 3,” Mike Carnegie explained. “That gets you 13 and you hope your goalie holds you to under 10. That’s where we need to get better.”
Help is coming for Calgary.
Veteran transition player Peter McFetridge is scheduled to come off the IR this week, and will be a welcome sight (and pair of legs) who can add some speed and offence from the back end.
“Getting Peter back will help,” Scott Carnegie said. “He’s been on the IR and he’s due to come back, so that’s an improvement.”
The offence still needs to produce, but the transition game still needs to be present. If both get going, they could light the lamp quite a few times on Saturday.
FORMER TEAM
For Roughneck Tyler Digby, he will get his first real shot at the Vancouver Stealth, his former team.
Digby did get a chance to take on his former team in the pre-season, when Calgary hosted the Stealth at the Rough House for the Holiday Showcase. In that contest, the big man from Coquitlam, BC, scored five goals to lead the Roughnecks to a 13-12 victory.
He will be excited to get another shot at his former team.
“He’ll be fired up to face his old team, for sure,” Scott Carnegie said. “Digby has been one of our most consistent offensive guys, he’s been playing great. We just need to get everyone playing good together. That’s going to be key.”
So far in 2016, Digby has four goals and three assists in three games.
With six of those points coming in the last two games, he is starting to find his groove and should enjoy facing a Stealth defence that has allowed 14 goals per game so far this season.
LEADERSHIP
While it was not surprising to most that Carnegie was named the captain of the Roughnecks, it was a bit surprising that the team named four assistants.
Greg Harnett, Dan MacRae, Leung, and Dane Dobbie joined Carnegie as assistants in a large leadership group.
Through three games, the captain has been very happy with his leadership group and has some high praise for two he sees as possible future captains.
Firstly, he mentions the underrated yet extremely talented Dan MacRae as a leader on and off the floor for the Riggers.
“I think Dan MacRae has scored some pretty big goals for us,” acknowledged Carnegie. “It was a natural fit for Dan to come in as an assistant captain. I think his play speaks for it self. Leading us back there very well, especially on that left side.”
Excited about the future for this young Roughneck, Carnegie likes what he sees from alternate Leung.
“I think Karsen Leung is just waiting to break out,” exclaimed Carnegie. “I’m excited to see him in a leadership role. He’s a super intelligent guy. I think last year you saw shades of what could be with him, so I’m just waiting for that guy to have a phenomenal year. He’s a young gun leader for the Roughnecks organization.”
