YORKTON - The Saskatchewan Rush are having the kind of season that has a lot of heads shaking and questions being asked as they sit fifth in the National Lacrosse League’s West Division with only two wins in eight games.
If the playoffs were to start tomorrow the Rush would be golfing, not playing, which is an unexpected position for a franchise that was in the NLL Championship final every season from 2015 to 2018, winning in 2016 and 2018.
Wrapped up in the middle of the somewhat dismal season is a landmark goal for team leader Mark Matthews.
Matthews potted a pair of goals Feb. 20 in Colorado, the first being his 300th career goal.
Asked what the goal meant, Matthews said he hadn’t even been aware he achieved the milestone.
“Shatts (Jeff Shattler) said something about it after the game actually,” he said.
So, unless someone with the team was keeping track, the milestone ball just stayed in-game, a game which the Rush lost 12-10.
And, to be fair there are a lot of goals scored in box lacrosse. Ten players have 400-plus with John Tavarres leading the way with 815.
So are personal achievements unimportant to Matthews?
That seems the case.
“Unless it’s like 1000 points -- I’ll care about that one,” he told Yorkton This Week. For the record he has 797 regular season points.
Matthews did add he recalls his first goal, a powerplay marker in Edmonton.
“I might have had a hat trick in that one (game) too,” he said, adding getting his first early in the game was a great feeling.
Matthews was picked first overall by the Rush in the 2012 NLL draft and was named rookie of the year in 2013.
The 300th goal might have been of greater significance too, if the team were not struggling to find wins.
“It was pretty well the last thing on my mind,” he said, adding the priority “is to get this thing turned around.”
If the Rush are to make a second half of the season rally, Matthews will be a big part of it, as the team offence flows through him as a perennial assist leader. He holds the league record for most assists in a year – 84 -- which he did in 2018 while being named the league’s Most Valuable Player.
In spite of the loss in Colorado, Matthews said he does feel the offence was closer to a serious breakout.
“I thought we played a lot better offensively,” he said, pointing to the Rush firing 60 shots at Mammoth netminder Dillon Ward. “. . . Ward made some wonderful saves in the game.”
Add in a couple of posts and the Rush were close to getting the goals to win.
Not rolling up goals is something Matthews admitted he’s not used too, and he’s feeling the pressure and frustration. He had to look back to his first years in Edmonton to find a Rush team that was scoring at a good clip “and I don’t think we were nearly as good as we are now.
“It’s the most frustrated I’ve been in my career.”
So why the goal drought?
Well, there are new pieces on the offensive side of the ball, veterans like Dan Lintner and Josh Currier. They are players with pedigree but Matthews noted the Rush have a system developed and refined over five or six seasons and it’s taking time – more than might have been anticipated to fit in.
“We were so lucky to play five or six guys together for five, or six years. We knew were everybody was going to be at any given time,” said Matthews.
The new guys “have never played that system before,” he added stating this version of the Rush offence has to find its “own identity.”
To find that identity the Rush they may just have to relax more. Matthews said as losses mount it might be a case of trying to do too much, but the 60 shots in Colorado was a good step.
The Rush host the same Mammoth team in Saskatoon Saturday, Feb. 28. Matthews said they’ll be looking for a win “to kind of right the ship.” With a win he said there is a sense the team “could go on a bit of a run and get back into a playoff position.”
