Saskatchewan Rush

The Saskatchewan Rush are a professional box lacrosse team based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Formerly the Edmonton Rush, they are members of the Western Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and play their home games at Co-op Field at SaskTel Centre. The Rush have won the Champion's Cup twice since their move to Saskatchewan: their first season in 2016, and again in 2018.

Saskatchewan Rush

Sport	Lacrosse
Founded	2015
League	National Lacrosse League
Division	West
Based in	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Arena	SaskTel Centre
Colours	Green, black, white
Head coach	Derek Keenan
General manager	Derek Keenan
Championships	(2) 2016, 2018
Division titles	(3) 2016, 2017, 2018
Local media	CKBL-FM, B/R Live
Formerly	Edmonton Rush 2005-2015
Website	www.saskrush.com
Current season

History

The Edmonton Rush made their debut as an expansion team in the 2006 NLL season and twice reached the NLL final. After losing in 2012, they won the Champion's Cup in 2015.[1] However, the team struggled to draw fans, faced competition from the Edmonton Oil Kings junior hockey team for fans, and were denied the ability to promote the Rush branding within Rexall Place by the Edmonton Oilers.[1] Lacking any agreement with the City of Edmonton to play at its replacement, Rogers Place, owner Bruce Urban opted to relocate for the 2016 NLL season.[2]

In 2017, the team reached a five-year sponsorship deal with Saskatoon Co-op, under which the team's venue is referred to as Co-op Field at SaskTel Centre during Rush games.[3]

Current roster

Saskatchewan Rush roster
Active (21-man) roster				Inactive roster		Coaches
Goaltenders 31 Adam Shute 35 Evan Kirk Defensemen 20 Travis Cornwall 94 Matt Hossack  8 Mike Messenger  4 Kyle Rubisch (A) 23 Ryan Dilks 70 Holden Garlent 53 Justin Robinson		Forwards 17 Robert Church 32 Matthew Dinsdale 25 Ryan Keenan 42 Mark Matthews (A) 90 Ben McIntosh  3 Connor Robinson 77 Jeff Shattler 11 Austin Murphy Transition 16 Chris Corbeil (C) 19 Jordi Jones-Smith 74 Jeremy Thompson 13 Jeff Cornwall		Practice Squad 12 Zach Gould 88 Cameron Dunkerley 65 Ryan McLean 44 Tristan Rai		Head Coach Derek Keenan Assistant Coaches Jeff McComb - Offensive Coach Jeremy Tallevi - Defensive Coach Legend * Suspended list (C) Captain (A) Alternate captain Roster updated 2019-04-18 NLL Transactions

All-time record

Season	Division	W–L	Finish	Home	Road	GF	GA	Coach	Playoffs	Avg Attendance
2016	Western	13–5	1st	7–2	6–3	233	190	Derek Keenan	Champions	11,736
2017	Western	12–6	1st	8–1	4–5	231	212	Derek Keenan	Lost final	14,921
2018	Western	14–4	1st	6–3	8–1	254	196	Derek Keenan	Champions	14,639
2019	Western	11–7	1st	7–2	4–5	222	202	Derek Keenan	Lost Western Division semi-finals	13,459
2020	Western	7–3	1st	2–3	5–0	111	93	Derek Keenan	2020 Playoffs cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	12,007
Total	5 seasons	57–25		30–11	27–14	1051	893			13,482
Playoff Totals	4 appearances	9-4		6–2	3–2	171	146		2 championships	13,425

Head coaching history

Note: This list does not include head coaches from the Edmonton Rush.

#	Name	Term	Regular Season				Playoffs
			GC	W	L	W%	GC	W	L	W%
1	Derek Keenan	2016-	82	57	25	.695	13	9	4	.692

Broadcasting

Regarding local broadcasts, the Rush reached a deal with CKBL-FM (radio) and SaskTel MaxTV (TV) to broadcast its 2016 Western Conference playoff games.[4] CKBL-FM also broadcast the 2016 National Lacrosse League Finals between the Rush and the Buffalo Bandits with John Fraser calling play-by-play and Casey Guerin as colour commentator. For 2017-2019, The Saskatchewan Rush came to a local radio agreement with Saskatoon Media Group that would see all home, away and playoff games broadcast on CJMK-FM (98COOL-FM) for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons with play by play by Tanner Fetch, and return to CKBL-FM (92.9 The Bull) for 2018-2019 with Dave Thomas as the radio voice of the Rush. Also for the 2018-2019 season, a bi-weekly 30 minute TV program on the Saskatchewan Rush will be broadcast on Saturday mornings by Global Saskatoon and Global Regina, produced and hosted by Daniella Ponticelli. [5][6][7][8][9][10] All Saskatchewan Rush games are telecast through Bleacher Report's B/R Live in both Canada and the United States. For the Rush home games in Saskatoon, Ryan Flaherty is the play-by-play announcer, Former Vancouver Stealth play-by-play announcer Jake Elliott is the colour commentator, and Daniella Ponticelli is in-between team benches as the floor reporter.[11]

References

1. Gregor, Jason (2015-07-21). "Urban explains why Rush are leaving Edmonton". Edmonton Journal. Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
2. "NLL's Rush leaving Edmonton for Saskatoon". TSN.ca. 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
3. "Saskatchewan Rush ink five-year partnership with Co-op". Global News. 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
4. "In Brief: Saturday's Saskatchewan Rush game on TV; Bowling Silver". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
5. "SaskatoonHomepage.ca - Rush Reports". www.saskatoonhomepage.ca. Retrieved 2016-06-07.
6. "Tanner Fetch ,Professional Sports Broadcaster for the National Lacrosse League, The Saskatchewan Rush, CBS Sports and 98 COOL FM". Linkedlin.
7. nurun.com. "Waiting game for Casey Guerin". Peterborough Examiner. Retrieved 2016-06-07.
8. "Saskatchewan Rush Partner With Saskatoon Media Group". nll.com.
9. "Welcome to the Team, Daniella!". Saskatchewan Rush Lacrosse. 18 October 2018.
10. "Dave Thomas (@wwsportsdave) | Twitter". twitter.com.
11. "Sask Rush names play-by-play broadcasters". Clark's Crossing Gazette.

External links

• Official Site