Editor’s Note: Thanks to the help of the innovative team at SISU Guard, the Official Mouthguard of the NLL, we are beefing up our National Lacrosse League coverage for 2016! We hope you enjoy our look at the NLL season through a new lens with the aid of our partner SISU!
Still think it’s a young man’s league? Tell that to 41 year old John Grant Jr. after he racked up 7 points and the game winner on opening night in Denver.
If you haven’t watched a game yet, hop on it! Between Fox Sports GO and WatchESPN, fans in the US can watch all of the action and fans in Canada can watch on TSN and TSN GO. Last weekend’s games were perfect examples of what pro lacrosse should be, on the floor and in the stands. 15k showed up in Denver, 12k in Calgary and both crowds were in it all game long! Great announcing, great broadcasts, great fans and great game-play made for an incredible first weekend of lacrosse in the 2016 NLL season.
The biggest change to the game in a longtime is the new face-off rules. No longer can a guy pinch the ball in the back of his head and just run to safety. It’s the NCAA one-step rule and it’s already made a difference. We’ve seen violations early on and a lot of balls being pushed quickly to the wings. I don’t think it sped anything up, but maybe we all just need time to adjust.
Four very different squads played on opening weekend, here’s what happened…
Georgia Swarm (0-1) @ Colorado Mammoth (1-0)
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Quick Thoughts
- 8 different Mammoth scored a goal in the first half.
- Both teams threw a challenge flag, both were incorrect.
- Penalties were few and far between.
- All four Swarm rookies scored at least one goal in their debut.
The first game of the NLL season was an absolute nail biter that came down to the absolute final minutes. Fantastic goaltending on both ends, quick transition teams and a high-powered offenses set the bar high for the rest of the year.
Colorado Notes
The very first goal of the 2016 NLL season went to an unlikely suspect. Defenseman Creighton Reid buried one in stride on a short-handed break with 9:26 minutes left in the 1st.
Returning young star Alex Buque didn’t let a goal in until 6:11 was remaining in the 1st. Buque made saves from distance and one-timers down low early, looking cool and confident all game long. The second-year made 42 saves to capture the first win of the season. It’s going to be hard to knock this kid off his game.
When the Mammoth don’t move their feet and ball, they don’t score goals. There were lulls where it looked like the offense was stuck in the mud. We watched the vets take countless attempts at highlight worthy goals but few were falling.
Jeremy Noble always seemed to just find space and was a perfect look for the offense all night long. The righty had 2 goals and 4 assists in the team’s first win. His stick is dialed in and his snipe game is on point. Callum Crawford scored his first in a Mammoth jersey after throwing a couple nasty fakes, the big righty buried it own his own. Playing against his former team had to be tough in Game 1, but Crawford seemed to gel nicely with the Mammoth offense. Scoring 2 goals and 4 helpers, he was good around screens and both shot and moved well through traffic. He also hit Eli McLaughlin on a nasty no-looker for a flashy goal from the second year forward.
Jackson Decker put his own name up in lights after snagging a nasty one-handed pass in transition from Downing. he flew down the floor and finished the play with his first goal. His second coming from Cam Holding half-way through the 3rd. This was Holding’s only point of the night.
Come the second quarter, fans were treated to a familiar connection. On a power-play opportunity, Adam Jones wasted little time to bury one on a rope from John Grant Jr. Grant’s first goal came short-handed from Dan Coates before the Mammoth went on a 5 minute break, letting in three Swarm goals. Fellow lefty Mike Burke stepped up to close out the half with an 8-7 lead for Colorado.
It should be no surprise that Jones and Junior led the Mammoth offense, both lefties racked up 7 points. It took Jones a minute to settle down and use his supporting cast but he got the hat trick by the end of it. Grant finished with 5 assists but most impressively the game-winning dagger.
Chris Wardle came out of nowhere in the 2nd quarter with a deke to shortside fake and finishing with an acrobatic cross-crease dive. Not having played since 2014, the effort earned the Victoria kid some love from the bench.
Rookie Jordan Gilles got his first career goal beating Higgins 1-on-1 after carrying all the way down the floor. The goalie Buque got his first assist of the season on the play
The Marketing and Events teams at the Colorado Mammoth killed it on Friday and a huge shout out goes to the fans for showing up big on a holiday, going nuts for the O and D and packing the place out! You guys take the NLL to a whole new level! Keep rockin’!
Next Game: @ Rochester – 1/9/16 – 7:30 pm ET
Georgia Notes
The Georgia power play stays moving and looking for shots inside. The had a lot of trouble connecting early but finished 50% on power play goals. The man-up unit struggled to cover rebounds which Grant made them pay for. They’ve got to cover guys coming off the bench too or they’re going to lose goals that way.
The Swarm’s transition team played quick and pushed the ball early, but hit the brakes at any sign of the offense coming off the boards. Quality ball movement didn’t come easy. Buque was turning a ton of shots away and the rest of the forwards were getting driven into the crease. Once they do start passing, any quality shot turns into a free for all instead of getting the rebound and setting up the O. Without a clear quarterback they were struggling to create any sparks when going at it alone and only found success when the ball found at least 3 or 4 different sticks per possession.
Shayne Jackson’s first attempt was wiped off with a crease violation followed by Jordan MacIntosh getting checked from behind on a near breakaway, forcing a no-goal.
The penalty translated into an immediate goal, the first goal for the offense that’s the talk of the 2016 season, from Johnny Powless, who made his own space and buried the shot. A minute later David Earl tied the game up for the Swarm on a breakaway, looking off help and burying it himself. To me Powless stood out as the grinder for the Swarm, making his own space and creating offense for others. He finished with 2 goals and 4 helpers in the loss.
Earl went down on his own trying to stop quickly near the boards and stayed down for a while. There hasn’t been any movement on the transactions list and no word on the Swarm website so I’m not sure the severity of the injury.
The all-star rookie class was fairly quiet in the first quarter but Syracuse-star Randy Staats wrote his name into the books as first Swarm rookie to find a goal, the helpers coming from two other rookies, Lyle Thompson and Chad Tutton. Staats’ second goal of the came off the bench where he just walked down Main Street and buried it top shelf. The 3 goal, 4 assist performance in Staats’ very first NLL game earned him the game’s third star.
Jackson is clearly going to be one of the main grinders this year on offense. Despite only having 1 goal and 2 assists, Jackson was in on everything and made a few huge plays on the crease only to be wiped out by violations. His only goal came after getting his own rebound on a 1-on-1 with the goalie and finally getting it in the back of the net. Tutton also played well and had a nice look for his snipe on Buque. He finished with 1 goal, 1 assist and swept up 7 loosies.
Powless hooked lefty Jesse King with his first NLL goal. King received the pass with soft hands on the crease and buried it behind Buque. King took a lot of deep bombs that didn’t fall early, but he was quick to drop back and play defense. On top of the goal, King finished with 2 helpers in his debut.
Lyle was tied up in the first half and mostly remained quiet, but making no obvious mistakes. He hustled on both sides of the ball and was extremely aggressive when he got the opportunity to pressure the ball carrier. His first goal came on a nice cut and feed from Staats, the second after he shopped up to space and let it rip. You can just watch goal 3 for yourself…
Obviously Lyle is going to play out huge for the Swarm and with an offense like theirs, it’s going to be hard for defenses to devote many resources toward covering him.
The defense did a great job against former teammate Callum Crawford’s shenanigans. The guy can get through traffic like nobody’s business but the D did a great staying at home. Crawford, one of the few veterans on the Swarm offense, was held to 2 goals on 8 SOG.
Both Joel White and Jason Noble had strong games as usual. White collected 6 loose balls and forced 3 turnovers on top of 3 assists and Noble had 7 loosies and 5 forced turnovers.
Next Game: Home vs Toronto – 1/9/16 – 7:05 pm ET
Mark’s Star of the Game
Buque and Junior have an obvious case for the spot but I’m going with young Randy Staats. Competing in his NLL debut, Staats played like a veteran for the entire 6o minutes and easily wins my Rookie of the Week Award (whatever that means). 3 goals and 4 assists in your first game? Dang, Randy.
Saskatchewan Rush (1-0) @ Calgary Roughnecks (0-1)
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Quick Thoughts
- First ever win for a NLL team from Saskatchewan
- Roughnecks defense was fast and aggressive
- Rush got off to slow start
- Face-offs were evenly matched although it was experience vs. inexperience
- Both starting goaltenders made 37 saves in the game
Just like Friday night’s nail biter to kick off the season, the second game of the 2016 NLL season was a thriller that also came down to the final minutes. The defending league champions started off flat, partly due to an extremely aggressive Roughnecks squad.
From the get go, the game was called extremely tight by the officials starting with a debatable illegal substitution in the first couple minutes, setting the tone for the game. A total of 36 minutes was served between both sides, of which 10 of the game’s goals were scored on an advantage.
Saskatchewan Notes
The Rush started the first half really flat even though they were at full strength and nearly identical to 2015. They came into the game so in shape that skilled defenseman Nik Billic was the healthy scratch. The whole first half was played with no sense of urgency and even a late-second period timeout turned out to be a waste of possession heading into halftime.
Lefties Robert Church and Mark Matthews are going to be the strong side for Rush, the ball was moving through them on every possession. Church was grinding to get looks in the low slot but just couldn’t slip the ball past Frankie. Church had himself a game, tallying 2 goals and 3 assists, both goals coming in the 4th quarter to help maintain the Rush lead.
Reigning Championship MVP Matthews was playing in mid-season form and even found one of the Rush’s two shorthanded goals in a row. Although not much connected in the first half, Matthews was sending feeds off the glass and taking a lot of quality shots. We also saw Matthews giving up a lot of shots to teammates with better looks. The selflessness earned him 3 assists and 2 more goals in the team’s first win!
Ben McIntosh was the first member of the Rush to post a goal this season, coming off a quick stick in the 2nd quarter from Church and Knight. The righty forward also finished with a shorthanded assist in the win.
Lefty forward Zack Greer was taking a beating off-ball down low and no better play shows this than the first viral lacrosse video of 2016. The punch/headshot seen around the world! As if to only add insult to injury, the refs sent him off for a 5 minute high stick for the epic sell by Harnett.
Greer finished with 2 really nice goals coming on feeds to the crease where he beat Scigliano 5-hole both times for Greer’s only two points of the game. Riley Loewen was Greer’s teammate who landed the shot to his dome, Loewen’s lone goal came shorthanded after backing down the defense and burying it.
Defenseman Chris Corbeil played aggressively on and off ball and even scored on a short-handed break during the faceoff because Calgary forgot to put the right number of guys on the floor.
The face-off rule got Jeremy Thompson early, but the oldest of the Thompsons finished 11 of 22, taking all of the draws for Saskatchewan.
Lefty Adrian Sorichetti was all over the floor for the Rush but remained quite until the final minutes of the game where he collected his only point on a goal in quick transition.
The Rush have a couple of weeks to fine-tune things before hosting the Stealth. The Stealth aren’t their scariest opponent right now, but if Saskatchewan keeps starting off so slowly, they’re bound to lose more games in 2016.
Next Game: Home vs Vancouver – 1/15/16 – 8:30 pm ET
Calgary Notes
It’s already weird to watch a Roughnecks game without Evans and the offense is certainly looking different. The lefties continuously cycle the ball will remain the strong-side, but Dane Dobbie is standing out as the quarterback of the offense.
Dobbie had the first, and third, power play goal for Calgary this season and finished with a hat trick and 1 assist. When left alone, Dobbie made the Rush pay with his rips from up top. Fellow righty Jeff Shattler stayed pretty quite until the kickoff of the second half where he received a feed from Dickson, buried the shot and ran up the glass to get the crowd roaring again. Shatter also finished the game with a helper to Dickson in the 2nd.
On the other side, Curtis Dickson looked like his typical self. Coming hard off the boards he created havoc on offense attempting wrap-arounds and crease dives. Dickson finished with 2 goals and 2 assists. One assist coming to rookie Berg, who immediately returned the favor and helped Dickson to his 2nd goal.
If he can build up his confidence to shoot the ball, rookie Wes Berg is going to be a defense-killer. Berg’s first tendency was to pass off the ball, which ended up creating more space for himself to get the ball back and bury it. Berg has a hard and fast shot, but his ability to rope a ball through traffic is superb. Fighting hard on the boards, Berg picked up 6 loose balls and finished with 3 points (1g, 2a).
Here is a look at the first NLL goal for @wes_berg #1stofmany #Roughnecks @NLLRoughnecks #NLL #GrowTheGame #Lacrosse pic.twitter.com/a2bO2UXmIM
— LacrosseRewind (@LAXEDHighlights) January 7, 2016
The defense was all over the Rush offense early and never let off the pressure. The Rush took a lot of long possessions that were well covered and the power play unit successfully killed off 3 of 4 chances. They clogged the passing lanes and swatted down a ridiculous amount of feeds. If they can keep up their health and can continue to pressure the ball like they did against Saskatchewan, they’re going to be scary this season.
The first goal of the game came from the least likely guy on the Riggers’ bench. Dan MacRae knocked a pass down, scooped the loosie and sprinted it back off a bad change for the Rush and buried it on Bold. MacRae played a solid game, scooping up a total of 7 loose balls and made a few big defensive plays on top of his game-opening goal. It seems he’s taken over the lead transition role from returning NLL Transition Player of the Year Karsen Leung who only finished with 1 assist and 5 loose balls.
Frankie Scigliano played huge in cage, making 9 saves with 0 goals in the 1st quarter and 11 saves with 1 goals in the second. This guys was pulling his team out of deep water every time they hung him out there. When the Rush eventually tied the game, Scigliano was pulled for Poulin for only 23 seconds. Scigliano was quick to react and made some clutch saves. I know the Riggers are deep in the trendy spot, but Scigliano looks like he’s got it locked up.
Defenseman Scott Carnegie played extremely tough for Calgary. The best example coming when he punched Greer’s helmet off to defend teammate Harnett who took a stick to the face from Greer. Carnegie helped set the tone for the Roughnecks extremely aggressive defensive unit, the Rush had trouble getting any where near the net without paying the price.
Curtis Manning and Garrett McIntosh split duties at the draw circle. There is a clear drop off without longtime face-off man Geoff Snider, but the tandem finished with a decent 50% average. For a couple of guys who have little experience at the circle and going against experience veteran Jeremy Thompson, I’d say they did a bang-up job and will be taking the face-offs against Buffalo this coming weekend. Manning was 9 of 16, a solid number for any draw-man in the league.
Special teams desperately need work. They found twine on 4 power plays, but that was on 8 attempts. The worst part, they gave up two shorthanded goals to the Rush in the meantime. The defensive side held the Rush to 1 of 4 attempts on the power play, a number to be proud of.
The Roughnecks had the chance to come back on the Rush and bring the game closer but a lousy attempt by the rookie O’Connor takes wrong shot a wrong time and a waster power play opportunity led to a disappointing finish to just a great start for the home team.
Next Game: @ Buffalo – 1/9/16 – 7:30 pm ET
Mark’s Star of the Game
Both goaltenders were standing on their heads in this game. I’m a sucker for goalies that change the course of the game and that always goes for the man, Aaron Bold. The guy only let in 8 goals on 45 shots, even though he was hung out to dry a few times. I like Boldy’s chances of taking the NLL Goaltender of the Year award away from Vinc. Also, according to Bold himself, he’s wearing a new hybrid style face-mask which is clearing up a lot of peripheral vision and is helping him to feel safe and confident. It’s the little things that will help fine-tune Bold’s game and lead this team back to another Cup.
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