Editor’s Note: We’re back with another NLL Game of the Week! 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!
Spicing things up this week is a huge rivalry with some serious implications. The Buffalo Bandits will be hosting Eastern Conference rival, the Toronto Rock and it will be as much of a “must win” situation as we could possibly see in Week 4.
Last’s week’s Game of the Week was intense! The Mammoth went to overtime with the Buffalo Bandits and Colorado came out on top, 13-12. Let’s hope this weekend’s matchup is just as good.
This week we gear up for a heated rivalry, with one team looking to desperately find a win while the other is looking to take advantage of an opportunity to tie for 1st in the conference!
The fans are going to roll deep into Banditland on Saturday night. The First Niagara Center hosted 14k last time around, let’s see if the Rock are ready for it!
NLL Game of the Week
Toronto Rock (0-3) at Buffalo Bandits (1-1)
When: 1/23/2016 – 7:30 pm ET
Where: First Niagara Center – Buffalo, New York
Watch: Fox Sports GO
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[mks_one_half]Standing: 5th in Eastern Conference
Watch For: Toronto is going to put up a dogfight. They can’t afford to go to 0-4 overall and in the Eastern Conference.
Leading Scorer: Rob Hellyer – 7 goals, 6 assists
Things to work on: They need better 5-on-5 play and execution on offense. Just move the ball, penetrate the inside and pepper Cosmo.
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[mks_one_half]Standing: 3rd in Eastern Conference
Watch for: The offense to play physically and tear apart the interior. The defense needs to bully up on the Rock to keep them unproductive.
Leading scorer: Dhane Smith – 5 goals, 8 assists
Needs to work on: Just scoring more goals. They’ve won and lost each game by one goal and the defense is doing their job. If they can lay into Miller, they might avoid OT.
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This could turn out to be a serious slugfest. I can’t remember how many fights broke out in this series last season. Toronto has had a tough go at it so far, posting a dismal 0-3 record. They’ve got Buffalo and Georgia on the docket over the next two weeks before taking a break until mid-February. They can face the break at a fixable 2-3 at best, but heading on the route of 0-5, all in the Eastern Conference. Stephen Leblanc is losing it, he’s already earned more penalty minutes this season than he did in 18 games last year on top of only connecting 3 times on 37 shots. Doyle is shooting 2 of 17 while Dan Lintner and Turner Evans have nothing to show after a combined 32 shots. They say that any team can win any given game, but the Rock have just looked bad. Their offense can’t connect, the team is straight up shooting a .092 average. The -17 goal differential is pretty embarrassing considering they’ve had three chances and have only come up with 19 goals after 3 games.
If Buffalo handles their business they will move into a three-way tie with Rochester and New England for 1st in the conference. 12 different Bandits have score at least 1 goal in the team’s only two games. Dhane Smith is leading the charge with 5 goals, while finding another 8 helpers with it. Face-off man Jay Thorimbert has made himself the guy to beat so far, grinding out 36 wins on his, and the team’s, 58 attempts. Cosmo and the defense have held up after two and looked sound went they went to overtime with Colorado last week, although they let in 15 total goals. Mitch Jones and Nick Weiss are playing hard on the loose balls, both grabbing 21 so far. Weiss leads the team in caused turnovers with 7, while Jones and Bennett are right behind with 5 each.
Like I said, there’s no love lost between these two franchises. We hope, for Toronto’s sake, we will see a close one in Banditland.
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Week 4 Games
Saturday
- Colorado Mammoth at Vancouver Stealth – 10 pm – Fox Sports GO
Which game are you looking forward to the most? Make your predictions for this weekend and the rest of the 2015 NLL season in the comment section below!
