Jeff Moleski and the Washington Stealth find themselves in an unfamiliar place -- at the bottom of the National Lacrosse League's Western Division standings.
In the 2011 NLL campaign, the Everett-based Stealth rallied from an 8-8 regular-season and rolled all the way to the playoff championship game. But, so far this year, they haven't been able to recapture their 2011 playoff magic, which saw them conjure up wins against the Minnesota Swarm and Calgary Roughnecks before they lost an 8-7 heartbreaker to the Toronto Rock in the title game.
This year, Moleski and his teammates have staggered to a 0-3 record. In those games, the Stealth have scored a league-low 24 goals.
"We're having trouble finding the back of the net," said Moleski, a Prince George minor lacrosse product in his eighth NLL season and second with the Stealth. "Our guys that normally put the ball in the net all the time, they're maybe gripping their sticks a bit too tight so hopefully this weekend we can head into Buffalo and get a breakout game.
"Last game (a 16-5 loss to the Edmonton Rush) our defence was bad too. It was an all-around bad effort so we've got to come in and play a little smarter."
The Stealth will try for their first win of the season on Saturday night when they battle the Buffalo Bandits.
To date, Rhys Duch is the points leader for the Stealth. In the three losses -- including a 13-10 setback to the Roughnecks and a 10-9 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Wings -- he has five goals and 12 points. But, four of his goals came in the season-opener against the Roughnecks. Lewis Ratcliff, another guy the Stealth rely upon for offensive spark, has just three goals and nine points thus far. A third big gun for the Stealth, Jeff Zywicki, played the first two games of the schedule on a bad ankle and sat out the last one. Moleski said Zywicki could need a few more weeks of healing time.
Moleski, one of the top defenders in the league, expects the Bandits to give his Stealth a tough game on Saturday.
"They're good too," said Moleski, who turns 30 on Friday. "They've lost their last couple -- they're 2-2 now -- so they'll be hungry. And that's a really tough arena to play in. It's where the [NHL's Buffalo] Sabres play and they sell that place out. It's a pretty hostile environment, which is fun to play in but it's a tough place to play. We'll see how it goes."
Moleski, a distribution mechanic for Fortis BC, lives in Prince George and travels on weekends for games. His expenses are covered by the Stealth but all the time he spends in airports and on planes can wear him completely out.
"The Philadelphia one, the second game of the season, that was a brutal trip -- it was awful," Moleski said. "I had to take the early flight to Vancouver so my day started at 5:30. Then the flight from Vancouver to Chicago, there was no point in flying to Chicago because the flight from Chicago to Philly was canceled. So then I had to wait in Vancouver for eight hours, fly to LA, which didn't make sense, but that was my only option. I waited there for four hours and then flew 5 1/2 hours to Philly. I didn't get into my hotel until 7 [the next] morning.
"I slept until we had to play," Moleski added with a laugh. "My legs were pretty tired the first half."
