Ratcliff raring to pair with Powless
Veteran sharpshooter aiming to revive Vancouver Stealth’s fortunes this NLL season
Will an evolution play a role in a Lewis Ratcliff revolution?
The Vancouver Stealth moved home base to the Langley Events Centre from Everett prior to the National Lacrosse League campaign last winter, and were dreary in their debut there, finishing 4-14.
Ratcliff, a veteran sharpshooter, took heat from various directions on the way to scoring 23 goals, the lowest total of his 12-year National Lacrosse League career.
Looking to rejuvenate both the offence and a fan base that dwindled as the season played out, Stealth general manager Doug Locker made one of the biggest trades in the league in the past decade this off-season, bringing in 21-year-old phenom Johnny Powless from the three-time reigning champion Rochester Knighthawks.
Powless, like 33-year-old Ratcliff, is a left-hander.
Locker didn’t mortgage the franchise’s future, sending three first-round draft picks to Rochester as part of the deal, to have Powless focus on setting picks and snapping up loose balls.
Plays will be drawn up for Powless. He’ll get his shots. Right-hander Rhys Duch, he of 36 goals last season, will be a go-to guy as well. That means that Ratcliff, who averaged 11 shots per game last season and 14 the campaign before, is going to have to find a fit farther down the scoring depth chart.
As far as storylines with the year-two Stealth go, Ratcliff as more of a complementary player is particularly compelling. “You look at the teams that are winning and they have five great guys,” said Ratcliff, a Victoria product who last season became just the ninth player in NLL history to hit the 900 career points plateau.
“If you are not willing to play with a guy like Johnny, you don’t deserve to be in the league anymore. He’s a great player, he’s an unselfish player, he does everything really well.
“I’m more than happy to take them (shots) when I get them. I want to take good shots instead of trying to force shots just to stay active.
“I’m not going to make excuses. I need to come out and play again. Last year wasn’t the real me. I wasn’t enjoying myself. I wasn’t having fun. It became a job for the first time in a long time.”
With longtime Stealth head coach Chris Hall retiring at the end of the last season due to health concerns and assistant Dan Perreault promoted to bench boss, the job of running the Stealth offence has fallen to newcomer Kaleb Toth, and he knows Ratcliff well.
They played together with the Calgary Roughnecks. Toth coaches Ratcliff’s brother Cayle during the summers with the Nanaimo Timbermen of the Western Lacrosse Association.
Toth, 37, is a guy himself who went from being a main option with both the Roughnecks and Toronto Rock to becoming secondary scoring.
Toth says that it’s not always an easy evolution, but believes, “it’s either change and play or stay the same and don’t play.”
He contends that Ratcliff and Powless have the makings to mesh, considering Ratcliff’s shooting ability and Powless wanting to become an all-everything offensive quarterback like Colin Doyle has been with Toronto.
“Lewis has been a phenomenal player in this league,” said Toth, whose team continues training on weekends, leading up to their season opener Jan. 3 in Calgary. “Hopefully, he has a few more years left in him.”