By: Riley Pollock – 12.03.25
It’s getting down to crunch time for the Roughnecks.
The Riggers sit 7-6 and in sixth in the standings with five games remaining entering Week 16.
Captain Jesse King is happy with how his group has performed this season despite letting some games get away.
“I feel like when we’ve put together 60 full minutes we’re pretty hard to beat,” he explained. “When our effort level is where we really want it to be – not just for the start of the games or the start of the second half, but really consistent throughout the entire game – it makes things a lot easier for us.
“With (Nick Rose) back there now it instills a lot of confidence in those defensive guys and they feel like they are able to give up the shots that we want.
“We went into Buffalo and played a really good team and played really well. It was a tight game in the second half, we were down to start the game but we’re really resilient and we’ve shown that throughout the season.
“When our offence is moving the ball and sharing the ball we’re really hard to beat and when we limit our mistakes in the middle of the floor, the transition of the ball from defence to offence, I think that’s one place we’ve really struggled this year, that’s where we get a lot more possessions.”
With Roughnecks management making some significant moves to shore up the backend over the past few weeks, King says he knows there is a trust in the group on the floor from the coaches and management to make a push.
“I don’t think Josh (Sanderson) lacks any confidence in us,” said King. “We were able to acquire a young defensive guy that is a big body who I think will be excited to come play for a team that is trying to be a contender this year. Again, it instills confidence in our guys when we’ve got a couple guys that are spilling out confidence for how they play defensively and it gives Rose confidence for the guys in front of him that are playing with an edge and grit and a cohesiveness so that he sees the shots that he wants.”
King is on pace for yet another high in points after setting career marks in each of his last two seasons. He says despite some games where he didn’t think he was at his best he did the little things to make sure he was still being helpful to the team.
“I had games in Rochester and Colorado where I was being pretty hard on myself because I didn’t think that I was playing very well or maybe letting the game come to me well enough,” King explained. “If I’m not getting as many touches or the shots that I’m taking aren’t going in I’m trying to do other things right. Whether it be getting through the middle of the floor, opening up other guys, setting hard picks, picking up some grimy loose balls, I think those are things that are also really important and things that are overlooked for a lot of guys in this league that do that really well.
“We have guys on the floor where anyone on the team can go off for a handful of goals any night. It would be neat to see what would happen if all seven of us had a successful day because you’d see something like Vegas where we put up 21.”
With Buffalo coming into Calgary for the second half of a home-and-home on Saturday (TICKETS), King knows they are going to be hungry for revenge and his guys will need to be prepared if they want to beat the two-time defending champs for a second game in a row.
“I just think we need to have a clear mind,” he said. “I don’t think that anyone on our team has the type of ego that they think we were able to go in there and beat them so we should be able to do it at home. Considering our home record is pretty bad this year to be honest which isn’t really like us. We need to make sure we are prepared, doing the right thing during the week and checking on film.
“I know we got (Brayden) Laity at the deadline but Buffalo did some things to bolster their lineup so it’s a situation where we need to feed off of our crowd and play with some intensity and put on a good show for all the fans that we are expecting out for a great St. Patrick’s Day.
“I don’t know what our record is on St. Patrick’s Day but as far as I know it’s pretty good.”
