CALGARY — A ten-year veteran of the NLL, Scott Carnegie has become a steady force on the back-end for the Calgary Roughnecks.
The younger of the Carnegie brothers (older brother Mike Carnegie is the Roughnecks captain), Scott is coming off a career year in 2016 that saw him produce eight points (1g, 7a), scoop 87 loose balls, and force 22 turnovers.
We spoke with Carnegie about the Star Wars movies, his physical play this season, and more.
On if he’d seen Rogue One in theatres:
“I saw the Force Awakens, but I have not seen the most recent movie. I’m more of a wait until the DVD comes out kind of guy.
“I’ve seen all of the older ones, though.”
On forcing nine turnovers through three games:
“I think when something like that happens, it’s a five man effort for sure. You can put it on the rest of the guys. On-ball pressure can help you create that turnover and give you time to get in the lane or assist in the turnover. It’s definitely a team and a unit thing.”
On which NLL forward is the most difficult to guard:
“Honestly the hardest guy to cover in the NLL — and you can ask any defender — it’s Curtis Dickson. In practice, he’s almost uncoverable. You can’t check him. You have to double team him.
“On another team, other than Dickson, probably Callum Crawford. We’ll see him on Saturday and he’s certainly a tough one-on-one check, probably one of the hardest in the league. There’s some other guys: Rhys Duch and Mark Matthews for sure, Zack Greer, even. We’ll also see him on Saturday night. There’s a lot of special talent. It’s a team effort guarding those types of players.”
On whether the Colorado Mammoth are the Roughnecks biggest rival:
“I don’t know. I think right now our biggest rival is Saskatchewan because of all the battles we’ve had with them and the Battle of Alberta. But all the Western teams, it’s all tough competition and it’s always a battle. We see those guys three or four teams each every year, so there’s a lot of time and games to build up a rivalry during the season.”
On whether a long night-shift as a firefighter is tougher than a long NLL road-trip:
“Some of the road trips are definitely tough. Last weekend even, it felt like we were in Denver for a week. I was up at 3am, made it to the airport for a 6am flight, we were there all day and then we had practice. I would say some of the travel is harder. I enjoy getting up in the middle of the night to fight a fire. That’s the fun part of my job, doing stuff like that and helping people out. When I have to get up early and sit on a plane in an uncomfortable seat, it’s not as enjoyable. I would have to say the travel.”
On his most memorable goal:
“I think, probably the one I remember the most, well there’s two; I would say the first was in Madison Square Gardens. That was pretty special. I think I only scored two goals that season and one happened to be there. We won the championship that year, it was a pretty special season. Getting to play there and be in that city and pretend we were big time athletes at MSG was certainly something special. Later that same year, here at home, I scored against Colorado in a playoff game. My first playoff goal is something I’ll always remember.
On his first ever goal:
“I don’t remember it at all. I think my first goal was in San Jose, maybe?”
