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Player Spotlight highlights the finer details and elements while supplying insight to the fans on what a player's thought process may be pertaining to a certain play, game or situation. It brings the intensity, passion, and inner most thoughts of the individual player that otherwise may not be felt or heard. |
03/24/02 The Toronto Rock's Colin Doyle had a few words with PLPA Correspondent David W. Unkle following a 12-11 overtime road loss to the Philadelphia Wings at the back-end of a home and home series. The win left Philadelphia with an 8-8 record and a strong chance to grab the sixth and final seed in the National Lacrosse League playoffs. Toronto finished the season with an 11-5 record while clinching a first round bye. | |
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How important was the 17-9 win last night against Philadelphia at the Air Canada Centre? The last time you played Philadelphia (in Toronto), you lost the championship? |
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Every game is important…we thought we could come in here and steal two points…it was nice to get that win (Friday's 17-9 win over the Wings) out of the way with a little less pressure coming into tonight.
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Philadelphia played a much more physical game tonight; did you expect them to come out with such reckless abandon? |
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It's funny how they grow a spine in Philadelphia; it's the dead truth. They're soft in Toronto and they come out and play tough in Philly. It's the way it's been for a long time and the reason they were successful against us last year in Toronto was because they played tough. We expected it and we knew they were going to come at us with everything they had…we don't mind it. |
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There is a lot of bad blood between these two teams? |
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There is a lot of bad blood. They took away what was ours for two years and we thought should still be ours. If that's not enough to get the boys motivated, it's the fact that we have great games here year in and year out. There's obviously a level of respect between the two teams. They have some fantastic players and I'm sure that they would say the same about some of our players. But when it comes down to the floor, respect goes out the window.
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With Paul Gait retiring at the end of the season, who do you see emerging as the premiere player in the league? |
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(Rochester Knight-hawks) John Grant, Jr.…no questions asked. He, in my opinion, is the best player in the league and he has so much God-given talent. He has spectacular size, speed…he's got it all. To do what he does against our defense night in and night out is quite amazing to watch. That's definitely my pick and I imagine there are a few people that would say the same thing.
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How is this Toronto team different from the team that went to the finals? |
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Well it's a different bunch of guys. I don't think we have the depth in scoring up front that we had the luxury of last year. But we've got a lot more grit and we seem to play as a five man unit (on both ends) better. We lost Bullen (defenseman Terry Bullen) and that takes away our big defensive guru so the boys at both ends of the floor are learning to play together with one another a lot better than we've ever done before. What we lost in single talent, we gained in team unity…it's really starting to come together for all of us.
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Tell us about your season; are you satisfied with your performance and what changes have you made from last year to this year? |
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I think I've put a little bit more pressure on myself to step up and be a go-to guy in the game and I think I've gotten a bit bigger and a bit stronger so that I can play with a lot of the big boys…really, it comes down to confidence. Confidence is a valuable thing in lacrosse as it is in every other sport. When you're playing with confidence, you take some shots that you maybe wouldn't have when you weren't (confident). The guys around me give me the ball because I think they believe in me and they give me some good looks.
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Getting back to tonight's game, did the Wings take you out of your game? |
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Not really…we didn't get into a run-and-gun game. We got into a real physical game which plays fine in to us…the guys we put out the front door are tough; the guys we put out the backdoor are tough. So I don't think they took us out of any style that we didn't want to play…we had are chances to finish them late and we didn't do it and that's part of the game.
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Two shorthanded goals in the fourth quarter really hurt this team. |
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Those are tough to swallow. We'd like to use fatigue as the factor but they're tired too. They made some things happen when they had their backs were up against the wall...they played like a team that was desperate and kudos to them for doing that...but we came back and we had that power-play with a minute to go and we didn't execute on that and that could have been the difference. We had our chance…they buried their chance and we didn't.
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You have a first round bye; how do you like this team's (Toronto's) chances going in to the NLL playoffs? |
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Well, I like our odds…we get the bye and that first game at home and as everybody knows we're a better team at home. We've got a lot of banged up bodies in there that need the week off and it gives us an extra week to prepare for whoever we're playing. We're a confident bunch going into the playoffs, no doubt about that.
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| PLPA Correspondent David W. Unkle is the host of The Topcat & Taggart Sports Show aired on WNJC 1360-AM...Philadelphia's Renaissance Radio Station every Sunday from 4:30-5:30 PM (Eastern Time). The Topcat & Taggart Sports Show brings local and national sports figures of yesterday and today to the airwaves highlighting both the professional and personal dimensions. David also is a Staff Writer for South Jersey Sports On-Line (www.SJSports.com) covering the Philadelphia Wings. A former semi-professional football player and ice-hockey enthusiast, David covers the Philadelphia Eagles (NFL), Philadelphia Phantoms (AHL), Trenton Titans (ECHL) and Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies (ECHL). You can write to David at: dunkle@sjsports.com |
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