2008 Toronto Rock season

2008 Toronto Rock
2008 Toronto Rock
League	NLL
Division	6th East
2008 record	7–9
Home record	4–5
Road record	3–4
Goals for	172
Goals against	174
General Manager	Mike Kloepfer
Coach	Glenn Clark
Captain	Jim Veltman
Alternate captains	Blaine Manning; Chris Driscoll
Arena	Air Canada Centre
Average attendance	14,572
Team leaders
Goals	Lewis Ratcliff (42)
Assists	Lewis Ratcliff (50)
Points	Lewis Ratcliff (92)
Penalties in minutes	Cam Woods (78)
Loose Balls	Jim Veltman (122)
Wins	Bob Watson (7)
Goals against average	Bob Watson (10.34)
	← 2007 season 2009 season →

The Toronto Rock are a lacrosse team based in Toronto playing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The 2008 season was the 12th in franchise history, and 11th as the Rock.

The 2008 season almost never happened. On October 16, 2007 the league released a statement officially cancelling the season, after no agreement could be reached on a new collective bargaining agreement.^[2] However, negotiations continued, and on October 25, the league announced that a new CBA has been agreed on, and that the season would proceed.^[3] The new revised schedule was released on November 2, 2007, but only included 12 of the expected 14 teams were included. The expansion Boston Blazers and 2007 Western division champion Arizona Sting had decided for "a number of business reasons"^[4] to opt out of the 2008 season and return in 2009. Due to the short time frame between the agreement on a new CBA and the start of the season, the New York Titans were unable to secure 8 home dates for the revised schedule, and thus both the Toronto Rock and Buffalo Bandits hosted a Titans home game in their own arena.

The Rock had their second consecutive sub-.500 season, finishing 7–9, and out of the playoffs for the first time since they were the Ontario Raiders in 1998. Despite the losing season, veteran Bob Watson was named NLL Goaltender of the Year.

This was captain Jim Veltman's final season as a player; he retired after 16 seasons and joined the Rock coaching staff in 2009.

Regular season

Conference standings

Reference: ^[5]

East Division
P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP

1	Buffalo Bandits – xyz	16	10	6	.625	0.0	7–2	3–4	203	174	+29	12.69	10.88
2	Minnesota Swarm – x	16	10	6	.625	0.0	6–2	4–4	199	196	+3	12.44	12.25
3	New York Titans – x	16	10	6	.625	0.0	5–1	5–5	197	186	+11	12.31	11.62
4	Philadelphia Wings – x	16	10	6	.625	0.0	7–1	3–5	225	220	+5	14.06	13.75
5	Rochester Knighthawks	16	8	8	.500	2.0	4–4	4–4	197	171	+26	12.31	10.69
6	Toronto Rock	16	7	9	.438	3.0	4–5	3–4	172	174	−2	10.75	10.88
7	Chicago Shamrox	16	6	10	.375	4.0	3–5	3–5	176	212	−36	11.00	13.25

West Division
P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP

1	San Jose Stealth – xy	16	9	7	.562	0.0	4–4	5–3	185	172	+13	11.56	10.75
2	Colorado Mammoth – x	16	9	7	.562	0.0	6–2	3–5	184	167	+17	11.50	10.44
3	Calgary Roughnecks – x	16	7	9	.438	2.0	5–3	2–6	183	178	+5	11.44	11.12
4	Portland LumberJax – x	16	6	10	.375	3.0	3–5	3–5	179	194	−15	11.19	12.12
5	Edmonton Rush	16	4	12	.250	5.0	3–5	1–7	141	197	−56	8.81	12.31

x: Clinched playoff berth; c: Clinched playoff berth by crossing over to another division; y: Clinched division; z: Clinched best regular season record; GP: Games Played
W: Wins; L: Losses; GB: Games back; PCT: Win percentage; Home: Record at Home; Road: Record on the Road; GF: Goals scored; GA: Goals allowed
Differential: Difference between goals scored and allowed; GF/GP: Average number of goals scored per game; GA/GP: Average number of goals allowed per game

Game log

Reference:^[6]

Game	Date	Opponent	Location	Score	OT	Attendance	Record
1	January 5, 2008	@ Chicago Shamrox	Sears Centre	W 11–9		6,116	1–0
2	January 11, 2008	Minnesota Swarm	Air Canada Centre	L 16–17	OT	13,317	1–1
3	January 12, 2008	@ Minnesota Swarm	Xcel Energy Center	L 4–11		10,104	1–2
4	January 19, 2008	@ Edmonton Rush	Rexall Place	W 14–9		12,107	2–2
5	January 26, 2008	New York Titans	Air Canada Centre	W 14–10		14,142	3–2
6	February 9, 2008	@ Rochester Knighthawks	Blue Cross Arena	L 4–11		9,925	3–3
7	February 15, 2008	Buffalo Bandits	Air Canada Centre	W 11–8		14,611	4–3
8	March 1, 2008	Calgary Roughnecks	Air Canada Centre	W 9–7		14,542	5–3
9	March 14, 2008	New York Titans	Air Canada Centre	L 10–14		14,233	5–4
10	March 21, 2008	Edmonton Rush	Air Canada Centre	W 14–9		14,312	6–4
11	March 22, 2008	@ Buffalo Bandits	HSBC Arena	W 13–9		15,230	7–4
12	April 5, 2008	Rochester Knighthawks	Air Canada Centre	L 6–9		15,422	7–5
13	April 6, 2008	@ Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	Wachovia Center	L 9–11		10,244	7–6
14	April 12, 2008	Chicago Shamrox	Air Canada Centre	L 12–13	OT	15,238	7–7
15	April 19, 2008	@ Calgary Roughnecks	Pengrowth Saddledome	L 11–12	OT	1,808	7–8
16	April 27, 2008	Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014)	Air Canada Centre	L 14–15		15,332	7–9

Player stats

Reference:^[7]

Runners (Top 10)

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; LB = Loose balls; PIM = Penalty minutes

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	LB	PIM
Lewis Ratcliff	17	42	50	92	91	10
Blaine Manning	16	30	44	74	90	4
Aaron Wilson	16	28	22	50	90	4
Josh Sanderson	11	23	27	50	61	6
Ryan Benesch	14	19	31	50	71	38
Kasey Beirnes	16	15	14	29	57	8
Rob Marshall	16	7	17	24	109	8
Jim Veltman	14	6	17	23	122	8
Cam Woods	14	6	12	18	81	78
Totals		257	429	349	1114	36

Goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; MIN = Minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; GA = Goals against; Sv% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Player	GP	MIN	W	L	GA	Sv%	GAA
Bob Watson	15	812:38	7	6	140	.786	10.34
Mike Poulin	16	153:04	0	3	32	.740	12.54
Mike Attwood	1	0:00	0	0	0	.000	.00
Totals			7	9	174	.776	10.88

Awards

Player	Award
Bob Watson^[8]	NLL Goaltender of the Year
Bob Watson	First Team All-Pro
Jim Veltman	All-Stars
Peter Lough
Bob Watson

Transactions

Trades

March 25, 2008^[9]	To Toronto Rock Lewis Ratcliff conditional first or second round pick, 2009 entry draft	To Calgary Roughnecks Josh Sanderson first round pick, 2008 entry draft
March 11, 2008^[10]	To Toronto Rock second round pick, 2009 entry draft	To Minnesota Swarm Ian Rubel

Roster