Player Spotlight

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.



01/18/04

Jim Veltman - Toronto Rock

It was a deeply emotional night for the Toronto Rock. They raised their fourth championship banner, and outgunned the resurgent Calgary Roughnecks 18-12 in their 2004 home opener. Jim Veltman had a great game for Toronto, but the truly memorable moment came in the pre-game ceremony, when Veltman brought out Rock coach Les Bartley, who is fighting a spreading cancer, and will miss the entire season as he battles to get better. 16,124 fans roared their appreciation. Veltman was still feeling it after the game, when he talked it out with PLPA correspondent Ben Knight.


Question Seven championship rings now! You're running out of fingers to put these things on!
Answer You never forget. You remember the moments, the buildings they were in and the players you played with. They're all special. This one is just as special as all the rest.


Question So tell me about that moment at mid-floor at the start of the game. You did a pretty good job of holding that together, I thought.
Answer I didn't think I would. A lot of emotions started going through me, and I was thinking always about how much Les means to everybody. He's an extraordinary individual, and everybody's pulling for him. I really hope he comes through, and he looks like he's ready to fight this thing. We all wish him the best.


Question Have you seen him much while this has been going on?
Answer Yeah, I saw him a few times in the hospital. He looks better tonight! Just to see him moving around and not in a hospital bed or a recliner, that's great to see. He looks like he's got come colour in his face. He's a healthy guy to begin with, so I'm sure that's going to help a lot.


Question There was a moment that gave me pause. He was saying he was going to hang around tonight, and I asked him if he was going to spend some time with his troops. He said "No, I'm not going in the dressing room. It's not my place." That was an incredible thing to hear. I think I understand what he was saying, but what does that sound like to you?
Answer That sounds like a guy who is focussing on recovering. He has to work just as hard as we do at coming back. And that's what we all want. We want him to come back, and I'm sure he does too. He knows he has to pace himself, and I'm sure he expended a lot of energy tonight.


Question Taking a look at the game tonight, it doesn't really show up in the final score, but Calgary put together a pretty good offensive effort. They've got a front line there - Kelusky, Toth and Dowling, what's that like to play against?
Answer It's like playing against an all-star team every time down the floor. But I think our defence is like an all-star team, so we match up really well against just about everybody. I'm sure those guys are feeling it tonight, because we punished them as much as we can, and we wore them down. You could see in the fourth quarter they just didn't have the same step they had in the first. That's what our defence is all about.


Question Heck of a lot of offence from you guys tonight. You got a couple of really nice goals and a bunch of assists yourself.
Answer Sometimes I feel younger than I really am. The ball comes out of my stick a little quicker than I expect. You've got to be lucky to be good and good to be lucky, I guess.


Question A lot of new faces in this dressing room. It's strange to see Kevin Finneran sitting over there and not in uniform. You guys got pushed around a little bit in that opening loss in Rochester, but tonight looked like what you guys are about. Did it look that way to you?
Answer Yeah. It looks like some of the new guys ( Ryan Painter and Matt Shearer) are starting to find where they fit in on this team. We're definitely a team of different roles, and everybody's got to play theirs. It was good to see that they just fit in, and contributed where they could. And then you just let guys like Blaine Manning and Colin Doyle and our defence and goaltending take over from there.


Question If this should turn out to be championship number eight when it's all over, how's this one going to compare?
Answer Yeah. I don't know. Pretty special. It would be right up there with the best of them. We don't want to play just for Les. That's not what it's all about. But, jeez, it sure is hard not to when you see a guy like him out there like he was tonight.


Question It's just I see you guys play so emotionally, and there's so much more emotion tonight. How much more emotion can you guys handle?
Answer I don't know. We seem to handle it quite well. We talk about it practice. We need to minimize the distractions and make sure that we still are focused, because Calgary is a very good team. I was really impressed with the way our guys composed themselves. We looked a lot more focused, and we should have been.


Question Thanks a lot, Jim. Good luck.


PLPA Correspondent

Ben Knight is lacrosse columnist for Sportsnet.ca, and a regular contributor to the Outsider's Guide to the NLL. He lives in Toronto, and is a passionate Six Nations Arrows fan.



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