Jeff Moleski had serious thoughts about making this his last season as a professional lacrosse player.
Heading into training camp with the Washington Stealth to begin his 10th season in the National Lacrosse League, the wear and tear of playing one of the roughest sports in the world and constant travel - leaving his Prince George home every weekend - had Moleski contemplating retirement.
Four months later, with Everett currently locked in a three-way battle for first place in the NLL West, Moleski has had a change of heart. At 31, he's having a blast staking out his turf as one of the league's top defencemen and has no plans to file for his players' pension anytime soon.
"This year I'm actually having a lot of fun and I'm thinking about playing another year," said Moleski. "I've got a good roommate [Curtis Hodgson] and he's an older guy too and we're on the same page, just having a really good time. Things are always fun when you're winning.
"I got myself in pretty good shape this year and I feel I'm on top of my game. We have a legitimate chance of winning it this year."
Moleski is known for his defensive handiwork and his shutdown ability shadowing the league's most prolific snipers, but lately he's been using his stick to fill opposition nets with goals in his last four games, including a four-point effort March 9 in Philadelphia.
The Stealth moved back into a first-place tie for last weekend in Calgary with a 12-11 win over Moleski's former team. Playing in front of 10,008 spectators, Moleski scored two goals, including a shorthanded marker that caught Calgary napping in the first quarter.
"The league implemented a new rule to speed up play where the opposing team can't hang onto the ball during a stoppage of play, so if we pick up the ball the ref has to blow it in, and we picked it up in their end and they only had one guy back and Mike Grimes passed it back to me for a one-timer," said Moleski.
"It was really nice to beat those guys, it always means more to me. That was a big win, it was playoff game really, pretty high intensity, and now we have the tiebreaker on Calgary. We've played them three times [and won twice] and every game was down to the wire."
The win clinched a playoff spot for the Stealth, tied with Calgary and the Edmonton Rush with 8-6 records. Washington will close out the season with home games this Saturday night against the Buffalo Bandits and the following week against the Philadelphia Wings. Both will be webcast live on YouTube.
The NLL has shrunk from 13 teams in 2007 to a nine-team league the past three seasons, resulting in a noticeable increase in the talent pool.
"There are lot of good lacrosse players who don't have jobs," said Moleski, who works full-time in Prince George as a gas distribution mechanic for FortisBC. "The quality of lacrosse is the best it's ever been, by far. The league is so tight."
In nine games so far Moleski has five goals and six assists for 11 points and 53 loose ball pickups. A knee injury sidelined him for four games and he missed another due to a suspension for getting involved in a second fight during the same stoppage of play in Philadelphia.
Moleski started out with the Calgary Roughnecks as a third-round pick in the 2003 draft. After a year on the practice roster he played six full seasons with the Riggers, helping Calgary win the 2009 Champions Cup while earning accolades that year as an NLL all-star.
Traded to Washington in August 2010 for a first-round draft pick, he helped the Stealth to the league final in 2011, which ended in a one-goal loss to the Toronto Rock. The 2012 season was one to forget. The Stealth went 4-12 and missed the playoffs, the first non-playoff year of Moleski's NLL career.
"That was the worst year I've ever had, I think that was why I was considering retiring," Moleski said.
Moleski was member of Team Canada in a gold-medal win at the 2011 world indoor lacrosse championship in Prague, Czech Republic. He also played two seasons in the WLA with the New Westminster Salmonbellies.
