After a few weeks of waiting in the wings in the No. 2 spot, the Rock finally scale the mountain and claim the No. 1 spot outright after taking down the Seals 12-11 at Scotiabank Arena last Friday night. Buffalo slips to No. 2, but not for lack of effort, making an impressive fourth quarter charge against the Roughnecks (our new No. 3) at home. Technically, the voting amongst contributors resulted in a tie between the Roughnecks and the Swarm for third, but Georgia is the only top-four team to lose this weekend (against Colorado), so I have no qualms with having them take up the No. 4 spot. New England stays at No. 5 in the NLL Power Rankings, after splitting the home-and-home weekend series with the No. 11 Wings. Saskatchewan moves up to No. 6 after returning to the win column, which wasn’t an easy feat against the No. 8 Warriors. Although Colorado beat Georgia, they remain at No. 9 and Rochester stays at No. 10 after having the weekend off for some much-needed R&R.
It’s a relatively quiet weekend coming up, with only three games on the docket, but I imagine some significant movement in terms of rankings when we revisit the list next week. Toronto will face a hungry New England squad looking to catch up with the top-three in the East standings, Buffalo travels down the I-90 to take on their archrivals Rochester in what is sure to be a barn burner, and Colorado makes the trek to Saskatchewan in what could be a major showdown in terms of playoff seeding down the road (if Saskatchewan loses, they’ll both have 4-5 records with no real team in the West establishing itself from the rest of the pack halfway through the season). Let’s be honest though, weekends in this league are never truly quiet, and I’m anticipating at least one big upset. Check back next week to see how everything shakes out!
NLL Power Rankings: Week 11
# | Team | Votes (1st) | +/- | Results | Next |
1 | Toronto | 54 (4) | +1 | W 12-11 v SD | Sun @ NE |
2 | Buffalo | 51 (1) | -1 | W 12-10 v CAL | Fri @ ROC |
3 | Calgary | 40 | +1 | L 10-12 @ BUF | Bye |
4* | Georgia | 40 | -1 | L 8-10 @ COL | Bye |
5 | New England | 36 | _ | L 10-14 @ PHIW 17-11 v PHI | Sun v TOR |
6 | Saskatchewan | 32 | +1 | W 15-13 @ VAN | Fri v COL |
7 | San Diego | 27 | -1 | L 11-12 @ TOR | Bye |
8 | Vancouver | 18 | _ | L 13-15 v SASK | Bye |
9 | Colorado | 17 | _ | W 10-8 v GA | Fri @ SASK |
10 | Rochester | 9 | _ | Bye | Fri v BUF |
11 | Philadelphia | 6 | _ | W 14-10 v NEL 11-17 @ NE | Bye |
* Indicates tie