The Calgary Roughnecks (1-3) will look to get their offense and their record back on track when they welcome the Georgia Swarm (1-3) to the Scotiabank Saddledome Saturday night.
Other than their lone win, the Roughnecks have scored a combined 21 goals in their three losses, and currently rank last in the NLL in goals-for.
“The biggest thing is we have to be better collectively as an offense,” said Roughnecks head coach Curt Malawsky. “Each guy is trying to be better individually, and we’re attacking the net more on an individual basis where one out of five we’re having success with a goal. But that’s not the way we’re going to be successful as a team.”
The Roughnecks leading scorer is the usual suspect in Curtis Dickson, but he’s far behind his typical pace with only 13 points (seven goals, six assists).
Malawsky said if the team can start looking to score goals by working together rather than trying to do it all by themselves, the individuals results and rewards will follow.
“The big thing for us is to focus on the collective group. If we play our collective, systematic offense, the rewards will be felt individually throughout the whole team, and we’ll be successful,” said Malawsky.
“We need to be better collectively, and make each other better. That’ll be the big message this weekend.”
Another major concern for Malawsky and the Roughnecks is the injury bug refuses to go away. Malawsky said there’s potential for them to have as many as seven players on IR come game time Saturday, which he said would be the highest he’s ever seen through four games.
Kellen Leclair, Mike Carnegie, Greg Harnett, and Bob Snider will all remain on IR like last week, but there’s potential for three other players to hit IR too, if things don’t go the right way. Malawsky wouldn’t reveal who those three players may be.
“It just makes things tougher. It’s not an excuse; we’re going to battle through it and we’re going to keep pushing forward,” said Malawsky. “We’re not here feeling sorry for ourselves. We just have to find a way.”
All four of the Roughnecks confirmed injuries are on the defensive side of field, and forward Dane Dobbie said the guys filling in for the injured players haven’t been the problem.
“I think we’re built on our depth, and the guys coming in haven’t cost us at all. They’re playing great lacrosse,” said Dobbie. “It really come down to playing better offensively.”
Being one of the primary offensive producers in years past, Dobbie said he needs to get back to doing the “little things” better.
Dobbie said he, along with the entire offense, needs to stop looking at the overall picture and just focus on sticking to the process, and the results will come.
“Personally, I’m a little snake-bitten right now,” said Dobbie. “I’m just going to go out there and worry about the little things of the game that I can control, and hopefully the outcome takes care of itself.”
Much like the Roughnecks, the Swarm are off to a disappointing start to their title-defense season, but Dobbie said they’re a well-rounded lacrosse team from top to bottom, with a fast defense and solid goaltending.
Game-time is set for 7 p.m. MST on Saturday.
“They’re the defending champs for a reason,” said Dobbie.
“They’re coming into our barn and hopefully we can take care of business. We have to put our work boots on and have our best game of the year so far.”
