Dec. 21, 2007

The 2008 National Lacrosse League season begins Dec. 29 as the Colorado Mammoth host the Calgary Roughnecks at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Before then, LMO will be releasing team-by-team previews by resident Hall of Fame writer Tom Borrelli, excerpted from the January issue of Lacrosse magazine.

For more this NLL season, check back to LMO for Borrelli's weekly column and become a member of US Lacrosse to begin your monthly subscription to LM.

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Colorado Mammoth
Division: West
Web site: coloradomammoth.com
Last Year: 12-4, first place. Lost in West Division semifinal.
Head Coach: Bob McMahon (22-10 career, first year with Mammoth)

When lacrosse legend Gary Gait, who coached the Mammoth to the 2006 Champion's Cup, left to take over the Syracuse University women's lacrosse program, Colorado came away with a pretty solid replacement in Bob McMahon, a long-time assistant who was head coach of the Albany Attack in 2002-03. He led the Attack to a 14-2 season and a spot in the championship game in '02, but was not retained when the team left for San Jose in 2004. The squad he'll have to work with is much younger than the championship team of '06, but very talented. Dan Carey has 49 goals and 138 points in his first two seasons and forwards Jamie Shewchuk and Nenad Gajic both made the All-Rookie team last year. Josh Sims is one of the league's most feared transition players, Jamie Hanford is an ace in the faceoff dot (winning 275 of 416), and Gavin Prout has 505 points in just 95 career games, ranking him fifth all-time with 5.32 points per game. Gee Nash, who was unbeaten for more than a year in a period spanning the 2006 and '07 seasons, remains rock solid in goal.

Schedule
Dec 29 vs. Calgary
Jan 12 vs. Edmonton
Jan 24 at Portland
Jan 26 vs. San Jose
Feb 7 vs. Portland
Feb 15 vs. Philadelphia
Feb 24 at Calgary
Mar 8 vs. San Jose
Mar 14 at Calgary
Mar 20 at Portland
Apr 3 vs. Rochester
Apr 5 at Buffalo
Apr 12 at New York
Apr 18 vs. Edmonton
Apr 19 at Edmonton
Apr 25 at San Jose

Projected Starting Lineup
F Gavin Prout (30g, 59a, 89pts, 85 LBs)
F Dan Carey (32g, 44a, 76pts, 75 LBs)
F Josh Sims (19g, 20a, 39pts, 136 LBs)
D John Gallant (1g, 8a, 9pts, 79 LBs)
D Jamie Hanford (2g, 4a, 6pts, 72 LBs)
G Gee Nash (9-0, 11.27 GAA, 77.9 SV%)