Rollercon: #3 Denver Pounds #2 Rose City, 306-77
LAS VEGAS, NV -- Rose City came into their Rollercon weekend hoping that they'd be in a position to repeat their hard-fought 151-115 win over Denver from earlier in the season. However, the complete lack of their primary jammer rotation – Scald Eagle (broken fibula), White Flight (meniscus), and Soulfearic Acid (did not travel) – helped send them to their second blowout loss of the weekend. The depleted Rose City were comprehensively beaten 259-101 by Philly earlier in the day, and Denver smashed Rose 306-77 in Denver's first game of the weekend.
Rose opened the bout with Mel Mangles, who didn't take much time with the star in the frame. She got out and lead at speed -- but was boxed for a major cut after trying to skip down the inside on her first scoring pass. That let Denver jammer Heather Juska roll for 15, making it a 13-point lead once the two points from Mel's first pass were added to the board after an official time out.
19 points over four jams for Denver followed before a game of jammer musical chairs ensued as Denver's Julie Adams and Rose City's Untamed Shrew traded places multiple times. Rose managed to get 5 on the board during the chaos and take the score to 34-7, with two for Mel Mangles in the very next jam.
RCR's The Blast Unicorn gave up eight in the next jam before being boxed on a major cut after being knocked out by Denver's last line of defense after skipping round their rear three-wall and stepping back in in front. Rose challenged the call, but two minutes of intense deliberation couldn't change the referees' mind.
Sharpless took Denver to 57 before Unicorn was out, and Rangeon added 10 to take the period to its halfway point. Shrew took Rose to 67-19 when Juska was boxed on a low block, catching a Rose blocker's leg as she attempted her first pass to knock her down and out. Rose looked to gain a measure of control over the next few jams to eat 10 points into the deficit – but Juska put up a natural 24-0 over Unicorn while the Rose jammer struggled after an unpenalized blow to the face.
Denver passed 100 with six minutes left in the period. Juska pushed the lead to 100 before the half's final jam, but Joyride pulled it back to 133-45 when Sharpless was boxed with under a minute left in the period.
Mel Mangles lined up behind a full pack with only two Denver blockers to beat. She was boxed for a major cut on her first scoring pass though, and Sharpless put up 17 before she was released and Rose's four points hit the board. Juska then pushed Denver to a 164-49 lead as The Blast Unicorn was blasted by the entire Denver pack.
Denver continued to dominate the depleted Wheels of Justice team, though Mel Mangles did give Rose fans something to cheer about with a highlight-reel spinning initial pass for lead midway through the half. Juska took Denver past 200 before Amanda Sharpless took the lead past 150 either side of some consolation points for Mangles. Some strong hitting by Mercy on Rangeon aside, it was painful watching for Rose City fans as Heather Juska took the lead past 200 and Julie Adams took Denver past 300. Amanda Sharpless closed the game out with the scoreboard reading 306-77.
Rose City takes about a month off before facing Minnesota at home on Friday, August 24; Denver plays Minnesota on Sunday at Rollercon (live on DNN), with their last game before the West playoffs coming against Windy City in Chicago on Saturday, August 25.
Comments
Thanks for the recap!
I tried watching, but my pathetic home network was not up to the task.
A couple of small typos: I think you meant "Denver's last line of defense" in your fourth paragraph, and it's Sandrine Rangeon, not Francine (understandable since her derby name is Francey Pants).
Thanks!
These have now been fixed. Sorry it took a while... the London Bureau is a long way from Las Vegas, and this was one event I was covering in the flesh!
Congrats Denver!
A really impressive display at Rollercon. Denver is now my favorite for the Western Championship.
I couldn't agree with this
I couldn't agree with this comment more. Wow! Undoubtedly no. 1 in the West right now, and a prohibitive favorite to take it all. BAD looking good too - I slot them second. Third is a tie between Rose (w/ at least WF and Soulfearic, if not Scald) and RMRG (w/Urkin.)
kinda boring actually
I don't see that there's much to read into this bout. No team in the top 10 can lose their 3 top jammers for a bout and have anything but the slimmest chance of winning against any other top 10 team. And watching the bout was pretty dull since you knew who was going to win.
I don't see that Denver can take Gotham given their 100+ point loss just over a month ago. Rose (with their full jammer lineup) may be the only team that has a decent chance to take Gotham, again, based on their 69 point loss after losing Scald Eagle on her first jam.
So the big questions, in my mind, for Westerns is what does Oly look like this year and what is Rose's jammer situation going to be? That's not to dismiss Denver who is looking more likely to go to champs this year than last year. But they were no slouch last year and couldn't pull it off. That's the great thing about Westerns, high levels of uncertainty because of the consistently high levels of play.
There are many differences I
There are many differences I could point to, but the key difference between this year and last year's Denver? Rusk out, Rangeon in. Her moves are sublimely legit - and getting better by the jam. Also, it's not just this bout - look how they handled Minnesota (who was not missing any stars.)
Add some blocking difference
Speaking of Denver differences, Shaina Serelson has been a fine addition to Denver's blocking rotation--delivers some stiff hip blocks like nobodys business. If you go check out the video from the Rose/Denver encounter a few months ago, you'll see Shaina put some hip blocks on Scald Eagle that practically stop her in her tracks, which is very difficult to do. I also get the impression/vibe from watching the interactions with teammates on the track that she has a bit of a positive inspirational influence on the team.
I suspect the issue that Denver may have to look out for is consistent mental focus--If they played the first half of their first encounter with Rose the way they played the second, they may well have come out of it with a victory. In their bout with Rocky, I remember that they led by a big margin up until the last 10 minutes then caught penalty fever, frittered their huge lead away and damn near the bout if Rocky had more time. Keep the focus and discipline for 60 minutes rather than 30 or 50 and that may well lead them to ATL as a #1 or #2 western seed.
Also couldn't agree more.
Also couldn't agree more. Good call... There are no holes in any set of blockers Denver sends out there, and Serelson is everything you say and more. Huge addition. The Rose bout earlier in the season was my first exposure to her - she caught my eye in much the same fashion as KCRW's Trauma did last year. Somewhat under-the-radar, but so crucial to the cause. No doubt they need to be vigilant regarding their focus (players, coaches too) - things went sideways for them in the earlier Rose bout you mention when for some reason they failed to field a jammer at one point during the first half. They recovered and played well for the most part, but the damage was done. I predict they will remain focused and will be headed to Hotlanta in the top slot out of the West.
losing top jammers
No team in the top 10 can lose their 3 top jammers for a bout and have anything but the slimmest chance of winning against any other top 10 team.
Just want to take a second to give props to Rocky Mountain in this department. Obviously NOT the same situation as Rose since their #1 jammer loss occurred after 2011 championships (not mid-season)...but what they did against Minnesota without DeRanged, Urrk'n, and Triple Shot Misto (their "3 top jammers" from 2011) was pretty darn impressive IMHO. Seeing Rose get beat so soundly without their big 3 really made me appreciate the 2012 RMRG squad even more.
Can't wait to see how the DNN ranking-masters handle this mess. :)
May Rose vs Denver
In the Rose vs Denver game in May, I only skated 5 jams due to breaking my finger in the game. Would you say that this theory of losing a top jammer would apply to that game as well then?
Personally, I believe it
Personally, I believe it unquestionably applies in that particular case. Juska doesn't bust a digit, I believe Denver prevails. And this is to take nothing away from Rose. It's not just the points these elite jammers score - it's the cumulatively extra-draining effect of having to defend them, it's the key moments of on-the-fly defensive pack support they provide in traffic (Soulfearic and Juska are both expert at this...) things like that. Just imagine how much more Denver would have stomped Philly by at ECDX had V. Diva been out. One jammer or three missing - it's not an excuse, but it matters quite a bit.
hard to say
I would suspect it would have helped but I'm not sure the numbers support it would have changed the outcome. You only got lead once in those 5 jams and had only scored 15, and given up 13 points to Rose. Plus, losing 1 jammer of 4 halfway through a bout is certainly not as bad as losing 3 of 3 for an entire bout. But, there is something to be said that you were net positive points and your continued playing would have given the other jammers more rest. So I believe the score would be closer but I'm not sure it would be enough to win. Now, combined with avoiding the error of not fielding a jammer that could have led to a narrow victory, who knows. I'm sure people would like to see both teams at full strength play each other but will we get that chance...
Rose / Rat?
Rat City has had a good record so far this year (lost to BAD by 5, lost to Rose by 33). With Rose missing key jammers they may take that spot. I do hope Rose gets healthy by regionals, as they have proven themselves to be #1W at full strength. RMRG I think would still be missing Urk'n by champs...
Random derby thoughts
According to DNN, White Flight has a meniscus injury, and my understanding is that meniscus injuries do not heal but require surgery to repair. Although it is possible to still play though the pain, playing though pain is exhausting and one wonders how she would hold up under the strain of a multi-day event such as regionals. Also according to DNN, Urrk'n is done playing this year and will not be available to Rocky. But Urrk'n reportedly retired last year, only to return and skate again for Rocky, maybe she'll return yet again.
---
I agree that Rat is a strong team this year, with strong jammers and a solid blocking core. Their losses to Bay Area and Rose City were more of the nature of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. One should not expect such events to repeat themselves on a consistent basis, Rat City is due to upset somebody.
---
In sports upsets are rare, which is why upsets are valued. Rare things are valued, common things not. If upsets were common, they wouldn't be upsets. In sports the favorite usually wins. This is why if you're going to bet on some kind of sports game you don't get to bet on whether team A beats team B, but whether team A beats team B by so many points, the spread, or expectation. And what Denver did at Rollercon was beat my expectation and by a considerable amount.
When watching a game what I look for is how the favorite wins. Is it because their opposition folds under the pressure (yeah, that's boring, watching a poorly played game not much fun) or do they execute their game plan effectively while being actively opposed. Rose fought hard and they never give up, but Denver's blocking sliced and diced Rose's defense with impressive skill. And Denver's defense proved nearly impenetrable. Rose is a league with a large pool of talented skaters and The Blast Unicorn, Joyride and JK Rolling are fine jammers and would be accepted into any travel team in the world.
AoAs
They've got a nice stash of A-worthy talent on their B-Team too - jammer-wise, keep an eye out for Police Brutality and Mutch Mayhem in the future. A future which for Rose will be very bright indeed for many years to come.
White Flight
As far as I am aware, the injury is not *that* serious.
She was at the bouts walking unaided, and the rest was precautionary to speed recovery and not risk further damage. Given the results of this game make no difference at all to any rankings judgements and provided some valuable track time (and training video) for Rose's back-up jammers coming into Regionals, that looks to me like the right call.
I'm certainly not reading a whole lot into how Rose will perform later in the season based on this weekend. They were using it as a training exercise, and knew nothing was on the line. Denver were great (and have gone up in my estimation), but my view of Rose as a complete unit hasn't changed much. It does demonstrate a certain fragility I hadn't really suspected, but hopefully that won't be an issue later in the year.
---
And as for Urrk'n, she has confirmed that she's pregnant. She's not coming back this year.
agree and disagree
I agree it's important to judge a team when faced with adversity. While I think the weekend was a write-off for Rose, there is one thing that does trouble me with their prospects this season. I hate to say it but I disagree that Rose played hard and didn't give up. I think Rose looked defeated from the moment they skated onto the track against Philly. Their loss of focus and determination is what would cause me to consider what chance they have to make championships. I think there were moments were Rose played effectively, but mostly the team was a mess, and nothing like how they looked earlier this season.
Upon reflection I think this may be because the loss and shuffling of players on such short notice left no time to retool strategy to fit the players. They couldn't run their usual strategy without their key jammers, and when trying to adjust their defense kept leaving huge holes. Maybe Denver has just gotten that much better since their last meeting but I suspect if one were to watch those 2 bouts side by side they'd see the fall of Rose more than the rise of Denver.
Could the Rose 2nd tier jammers be "accepted" onto a travel team, sure, but they wouldn't unseat any jammers on any top 10 team this year. I don't want to detract from them because they are all awesome players, among the best in the world, but none of them are probably even in the top 50 jammers playing today. Whereas I would put Soulfearic Acid in the top 10 of the world and Scald Eagle and White Flight in the top 25.
My prediction is that Rose will pound Minnesota by a comparably margin to Denver over Minnesota. That will give us 1 more data point to use for arguing before regionals sorts all this out. And I think the regional rankings, and hence brackets are going to really matter, as always, for westerns. The only team of the usual top 6 I see as unlikely to make it is RMRG but the other 5 all have a good odds of going, depending on the breaks, the brackets, and the level of play.