It’s entirely possible that I’ll be the only person posting in here, but I wanted to open a discussion of this season’s National Lacrosse League action, since it is flat-out the best spectator sport ever devised by humans.
Last night, the season opened up with a game between the defending league champions, the Toronto Rock, and the team that finished last season with the best record, the Calgary Roughnecks. Toronto got off to a very quick start and were up 5-0 after the first quarter, but Calgary got back on track in the second, cutting the lead to 6-3 at half time. In the third quarter, the Roughnecks came out flying and had taken the lead, 7-6 before Toronto was able to respond. Calgary’s string play continued the rest of the game and they emerged on top, 12-9, when all was said and done, with Dane Dobbie as the Roughneck’s top scorer, picking up three goals and three assists.
Things in the league are much tighter this year after the contraction of the Boston Blazers. The dispersal draft over the summer gave every team a top notch player or two, making each organization that much stronger. There are apparently hopes in Boston that team management can reorganize things this year and they can resume operations again for the 2013 sason, but at this point it seems unlikely. That leaves the league with nine teams; five in the West Division, and four in the East, with a possibility of a crossover situation in the playoffs, depending on how teams records wind up.
Based on what I’ve seen and heard so far, I’d say the top teams last year are still the teams to beat this year so look for the Rock and the Buffalo Bandits to be fighting for top spot in the East, while the Roughnecks and Washington Stealth duke it out in the West.
Going into Week Three of the NLL schedule, it’s looking like my beloved Calgary Roughnecks are the team to beat. They are 2-0 to start the year, beating both the playoff finalists in their own houses.
Faceoff man extraordinaire Geoff Snider is looking even better than last year, winning 33 draws already, including dominating his little brother Bob last weekend in Washington (Bob is the second best faceoff man in the NLL).
Dane Dobbie has back-to-back hat tricks to open the season, so he’s off to a great start. Jeff Shattler has picked up right where he left off from last year’s MVP season and Curtis Dikson looks like he has improved from his Rookie of the Year performance in 2011. Shawn Evans loks to be fitting in nicely with the offensive set and Mike Poulin has been doing a great job in the net.
Overall, the Roughnecks are looking scary good, which I find very encouraging.
I’ve never watched a game of lacrosse. I imagine I’d enjoy it, given my love of hockey! There aren’t any teams nearby in the NLL for me to cheer for based on geography. It looks like TSN has some coverage occasionally - I’ll see if I can catch a game sometime!
Go 'Necks! As a non-sports fan, I quite enjoy watching lacrosse - it’s fast and furious and usually fairly high-scoring, and the guys fight sometimes. Very primal stuff.
mnemosyne, if you take a wander over to the NLL website, they stream every game live – and for free!!! – from there and the season’s games are also typically archived for rewatching at a later date (although the recordings can be a little bumpy). If you’re looking for a quick taste, the NLL also has a youtube channel so you can have a peek at some highlights and whatnot.
The two closest teams to you are Toronto and Rochester, NY. Both have long legacies of winning and both look pretty solid this year (although Toronto is off to an 0-2 start so far). So no, there isn’t a team super close to you. Montreal did actually have an NLL team in 2002, known as the Express. They even set a league record in their very first game, scoring a record 32 goals against the other expansion team that year, the Calgary Roughnecks. Montreal suspended operations after the season and the franchise rights were eventually sold to Minnesota, where the team now plays as the Swarm (wearing what may well be the ugliest uniforms in all of professional sport).
Indoor lacrosse, also known as box lacrosse, is sort of a hybrid game using basic lacrosse rules, with some hockey and basketball flavour mixed in for good measure. From basketball, they’ve lifted the half court rules and the shot clock – you have 8 seconds to get the ball to mid-court and once over you can’t go back and you have 30 seconds total to get a shot on net or you lose possession. Games tend to be very fast and high energy as a result, with no dilly-dallying and no neutral zone trap. Because of the close quarters, box lacrosse also tends to be very physical, with punishing checks being an essential part of the game
And hey, you gotta like a sport where there is a distinction between legal and illegal cross checking!
OK, ok, field lacrosse is Canada’s official summer sport and hockey is the official winter sport, if you want to get all nitpicky.
I’m more of an MLL guy because I played field lacrosse and so naturally I feel that the box game is a bit…claustrophobic, but I was idly browsing through the site and I just happened to notice that my all-time favorite player (former Syracuse legend Casey Powell) plays in the NLL! When did that happen? I could have sworn he was in the MLL.
The John Tavares on the Bandits is actually good – he’s the all-time top scorer in NLL history and, now in his early 40’s is busily padding that total. He still has plenty of game too.
Powell has been playing in the NLL for quite a number of years. There are actually a lot of guys who play lacrosse year round, playing in the MLL in the summer and NLL in the winter. The money these guys make is not very impressive, so most everyone has a second (or third) job to pay the bills. The aforementioned John Tavares is a full-time school teacher. The NLL accommodates this by only having games on weekends.
Didn’t there used to be a pro team in the Baltimore area? I was just thinking the other day that I’d like to go to a Lacrosse game this year, but looking at the NLL site it looks like I’ll have to go all the way to Philly to see a pro game. (Or perhaps I’ll try to catch U of Maryland instead).
Yes, the Baltimore Thunder were one of the original teams in the league (back when it was called the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League) and won the very first league championship in 1987. They played their last season in Baltimore in 1999 before moving to Pittsburgh for a year, back to Washington D.C. for two years, and have finally settled in Colorado as the Mammoth, where they’ve remained and thrived since 2003.
Unfortunuately, as you note, Philly is your closest option now. I’m actually a little surprised there hasn’t been any buzz about getting another team installed in the DC/Maryland area in the last few years. I thought lacrosse was a pretty big deal in that part of the world.
A decent preview of the upcoming week in hot, sexy NLL action. The Mammoth play back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday and a split is forecast, although I think Edmonton might surprise in the Friday game and pick up a win with their revamped roster. Saturday features three games, including the first east-west matchup of the year. As far as I know, every game is available to be watched on live streaming video feed through the NLL website.
I am SO geeked about going to the Roughnecks’ home opener on Saturday. w00t!
I just read this morning that Sportsnet in Canada is going to be covering the Battle of Alberta, broadcasting all four Edmonton-Calgary games this year. TSN (aka Toronto Sports Network), of course, is only showing Toronto Rock games, but at least they’re showing most of the season on TSN or TSN2. Along with the games getting shown on CBS Sports Network, there will actually be some decent TV coverage for the NLL this year. Pretty sweet and a step in the right direction.
Sonofabitch! The Calgary Roughnecks blew an 11-7 third quarter lead and wound up losing to the Colorado Mammoth 13-12 in overtime. The Mammoth shut down Calgary’s offense in the fourth quarter and John Grant Jr. was an unstoppable force for Colorado, racking up 10 points, which seems to be his pace this year. Bastard.
Very bummed to see Calgary piss away their home opener. It was an exciting game from start to finish, though. A little too exciting.
Last night the home town Calgary Roughnecks went on to piss away a 2-goal lead in the dying minutes of the game and lose their second straight overtime game, this time to the Toronto Rock, who are starting to look like the defending champions again.
Predictions for Week 5 of the NLL schedule. Some interesting matchups with teams on hot streaks and teams in desperate need of wins. Should be good stuff!
The Colorado Mammoth are looking awfully damn good so far this year. At 5-0, they’ve beaten some of the best teams in the league and appear to be getting better game after game. John Grant Jr. is on a record-setting pace for scoring (although he’s boound to slow down at some point. Probably…), and rookie Adam Jones is well on the way to a Rookie of the Year trophy. They’re currently on a bye week, then return to action against Minnesota, who have been pretty hit-and-miss so far.
This changes everything in the West. The struggling Stealth offense now suddenly has a legitimate triple threat that everyone will have to fret over and the also-struggling Rush have a legitimate all-star transition guy who is capable of dominating at both ends of the floor.
This makes things very interesting all of a sudden.
Calgary’s 21 goal outburst on Friday was also the most goals the Mammoth have ever allowed in a single game. Now THAT is how you lay the boots to your main competition for the divisional title! So fun to watch the game online.
My main man, Geoff Snider then flew to Buffalo for the All-Star game and won the game MVP on the strength of his peerless faceoff work and a six-point scoring performance. Snider rules!
