NLL Insider

NLL Insider has learned that recent reports out of BC that have Athan Iannucci signing a deal with the MSL’s St. Regis Indians are very much premature.

Iannucci, who it still New Westminster Salmonbellies property, has reportedly been approached by a number of Ontario based teams, but the Philadelphia Wings’ sniper has still apparently not signed with anyone as yesterday’s reports indicated.

Although sources say it is very likely that Iannucci will be signing with an eastern based club in the next while, NLL Insider learned first hand that yesterday’s article on BCLocalNews.com jumped the gun when they announced that Iannucci had already swapped sweaters.

Although St. Regis does appear to be one of the clubs interested in Iannucci, there have been no contracts signed with them or anyone else in the MSL as of Monday night.

• Brian Beisel says why wait for ‘09. Jr. Excels ready for a run this year: The Independent
• Casey Powell comes back to play in Canada for the Chiefs: NLL Insider

OK, lacrosse fans. This one’s almost just too easy. Almost like playing t-ball.

And I’m still trying figure out if this is something serious, or if it’s something written to intentionally get you bent. So at the very least, here it is for you to decide on your own: Seems there’s a TV sports fella in Buffalo who goes by the handle of Paul Peck and he’s got this cute little blog on his TV Web site. He’s crumbin’ on the Bandits big-time, wondering if it’s a “real championship” should the Bandits beat Portland Saturday night in the National Lacrosse League’s Champion’s Cup game. “I enjoy the game, like covering the guys and appreciate the enthusiasm of the fans,” he scribbles. “But it’s not a traditional sport, and it shouldn’t be considered a championship for this title-starved town.”

I don’t know this guy, but words like that mean he’s either brave or stupid. Maybe both. Or, maybe he’s just a P.T. Barnum type, knowing that if he creates a circus, the crowd will come. As of Tuesday morning, there’s already more than 50 comments to his blog, so he’s right about the circus. There’s plenty being said over at WingsZone, too. And ya know what? He deserves whatever sort of comments come his way. Lacrosse fans have a way of coming together to defend the game they love.

I do know this: I’m gonna be keeping an eye open in the locker rooms and media areas this Saturday in Buffalo. Something tells me we’ll all know if any of the players read his blog.

• ESPN2, ESPN360 reach deal for title game: NLL.com
• Buffalo’s Steenhuis named Transition Player of the Year: Buffalo News
• Minnesota’s Cousins named Defenseman of the Year: NLL.com
• Sabrina or Ashley? You decide: NLLInsider.com

  I know the script writers thought that a Calgary-Buffalo final would make a great story with Steve Dietrich, Kyle Couling, and coach Troy Cordingly making their returns to the place where they played for so many years but Dan Dawson,  Brodie Merrill and coach Derek Keenan had other plans. And why not? Dawson and Merrill are two of the NLL’s marquee players and even though its been over 15 years since he played there, Portland Coach Keenan started his NLL career as a Buffalo Bandit as well. Here are a few observations on Saturday’s games.

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Well, here we are. It’s the final quarterfinal and the results of this week’s vote will finalize the final four of our National Lacrosse League Girl of the Week contest.

What a long, strange trip it’s been, but as we stare into that light at the end of the tunnel, we can smile with satisfaction knowing how much better the world is for our dedication to such important … stuff. Last week, Elizabeth of the Philadelphia Wings ran away with the contest against Caelee of Edmonton. Wasn’t even close, really, with a 312-157 vote count in favor of Elizabeth. Who will challenge Elizabeth in the semifinals is the winner of this week’s matchup, which puts Ashley of the Chicago Shamrox up against Sabrina of the Toronto Rock. Yet again, we’re looking at another classic case of the blonde vs. the brunette, but it’s not like we planned it that way. It’s just a convenient coincidence.

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You know the routine. Check out what we’ve got for ya after the jump, read the words and then proceed to make an intelligent, informed decision. The fate of all that important … stuff … depends on it.

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The Portland Lumberjax in the 2008 National Lacrosse League championship game? You would have seen long odds in Vegas not so long ago. Nevertheless, with their convincing victory over the Calgary Roughnecks at the Pengrowth Saddledome on Saturday night, the NLL final is exactly where the ‘Jax will find themselves this weekend.

Yet, if you ask Portland GM/Head Coach Derek Keenan if he thinks he’s living some sort of dream, his likely answer is hell no. I had a chance to chat with Jammer back in early March in Portland prior to their league game against Edmonton (which by the way they lost), and I never forgot what he told me. He said: “You know CH, in spite of how we’ve been doing to date, I really like our team”.

And as the Jax lumbered forward in the season, he liked it enough to hang on to his Sting rental players despite a raft of questioning. He liked it enough to tweak his roster at the trade deadline by acquiring goalie Matt Disher. Now, he looks like a genius.  Never mind the questions about next year. The future is clearly now and Portland has its chance to hang a banner at the Rose Garden. Just one more win.

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NLL Insider has learned that the MSL’s Six Nations Chiefs have inked American lacrosse icon, Casey Powell, to a contract that will have him in a Chiefs’ sweater this summer.

Powell is fresh off one of his most dominating NLL seasons to date, once again solidifying himself as one of the elite box lacrosse players on the planet today.

“Arguably the best outdoor lacrosse player in the world, Casey has developed into one of the premier box lacrosse players in today’s game,” said Six Nation’s GM Duane Jacobs. “We look forward to Casey helping our team in our quest for the Mann Cup.” (Read More…)

Ever been doubted? Ever had your ability questioned? Ever been told you have no business being where you are?

Welcome to the postseason world of the Portland LumberJax, who took those doubts and chewed ‘em up and spit ‘em out. No question about it: Doubt’s a great motivator and the Jax fed on it. They entered this National Lacrosse League playoff party with a 6-10 record but they’ve won two straight road games to advance to the Champion’s Cup game. So on Saturday, the club that was doubted, picked against and questioned will be playing for all the marbles. The team the Portland Tribune says asks itself “Why not us?” is now asking itself to find ways to beat the Buffalo Bandits, the team they’ll play for the title on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at HSBC Arena.

The Jax have so much going for them, including momentum, but they’ve also got goalie Dallas Eliuk going for them as well. The wily veteran stepped in for the injured Matt Disher in Saturday’s win over Calgary. He stopped 35 of 43 shots and it look like he’ll get the call in Buffalo, as well. Disher’s knee injury makes him questionable for Saturday, but he’ll travel with the team and it could be a gametime decision, says Portland coach Derek  Keenan.

• Roughnecks remain upbeat after loss: Calgary Herald
• 2009 Riggers could have same look: Calgary Sun
• Roughnecks look back and take stock of 2008: Calgary Herald
• Blazers generating heat in Boston for 2009: The Republican

After clinging to a precarious lead for an entire half and battling to keep it even in the third it almost didn’t seem fair for the Portland Lumberjax to go down 10-9 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Maybe that’s why they kicked off a six-goal run not even thirty seconds later, pouring the foundation for a 16-12 win over the Calgary Roughnecks to capture the Western Division title.

Ryan Powell and Peter Morgan went back and forth in that pivotal stretch, with Powell scoring three of his four goals in the fourth and Morgan adding his third and fourth of the game. Dan Dawson punched in 10 points with five goals and five assists while Derek Malawsky added one and seven and Brodie Merrill scored one, helped on two, and picked up 13 looseballs. Dallas Eliuk, who came into the game early in the second to replace an injured Matt Disher, saved the day with 35 stops on 43 shots.

For the Roughnecks, Kaleb Toth had three goals and three assists, and Scott Ranger and Jeff Shattler had five points apiece.

The Jax will travel to Buffalo next Saturday to take on the Bandits in the Champion’s Cup.

• Season-ending meltdown a Rough way to finish: Calgary Sun
• Jax sniper passes the praise: Calgary Herald
• Jax oust Riggers: Calgary Herald
• Riggers hacked down: Calgary Sun
• Eliuk helps Jax to shot at title: Oregonian
• Game over: Calgary Sun

Photo credit: Matt Wiater

Mark Steenhuis and John Tavares. There’s your game summary.

With Steenhuis snapping in seven goals and one assist and Tavares scoring two and assisting on 10 it’s really no wonder that the Buffalo Bandits were able thump the New York Titans 19-12 in the Eastern Division final.

With a 5-4 lead after the first, the Bandits blew it open in the second, scoring four while Bandits’ goaltender Ken Montour allowed just one goal on 13 shots, giving the Bandits a 9-5 lead to take into the second half. The Titans closed the gap in the third, outscoring Buffalo 5-4 to bring the score to 13-10–not a big enough lead for the Bandits, apparently.

The first five minutes and one second of the fourth quarter saw five goals from Buffalo–including a natural hat trick from Steenhuis–and produced an imposing lead the Titans had little hope of climbing out from under.

In addition to the points put up by Steenhuis and Tavares the Bandits got big games from Roger Vyse with one and five, and Kevin Dostie and Mike Accursi with five points apiece. Montour made 41 saves on 53 shots.

For the Titans, Casey Powell had two goals and four assists and Brendan Mundorf had three and two.

Buffalo will host the Portland Lumberjax next Saturday, 7:30 PM EST at the HSBC Arena for the Champion’s Cup.

• Bandits one step from title: Buffalo News
• Bandits punch ticket to NLL final: Calgary Sun

Watched a movie last night and saw a promo for the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs in the trailers. Pretty cool. We don’t see that type of advertising for the NLL yet, so just a reminder, the Eastern Divisional and Western Divisional National Lacrosse League (NLL) Finals are on tonight.

I was going to take a closer look at the games - but there’s already great content in the entries below from Shanny, Tutka, Pilson, Ward and Chavez - so instead I’m just encouraging you to catch the games via B2 Live TV or the New York vs. Buffalo game with WGR 550 Radio. Insider’s Teddy Jenner is also going to be on the WGR pre-game show. You can also tune into NLL Playoff Coverage this weekend on SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Channel 161.

Lacrosse is the fastest game on two feet and every indication is these NLL Divisional Finals are going to be great games. Watch for hard-hitting, high-scoring, intense action. It should be a great night of lacrosse where the winners advance to the 2008 Champion’s Cup final. Enjoy those games!

You have to admire the Portland organization’s commitment to the lumberjack lifestyle. There’s the plaid all over the place, big bad Jaxon, and the team’s unending desire to sign every single lacrosse player that even remotely resembles Paul Bunyan.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Calgary Roughnecks’ trade deadline day pick-up. If you can’t beat em, move your feet really fast. Calgary credits their late-season turnaround to none other than Josh Sanderson, who’s in the business of winning and has made a pretty good living at it thus far.

Of course, if we’re going to go down the list of potential Western Division-winning catalysts we can’t leave out the Arizona Sting rent-a-player program. Derek Malawsky, Brad MacDonald, Chris Seller, Bruce Codd and some guy named Dan Dawson have all been to the Champion’s Cup before and would undoubtedly like to get back without having to pay for their own plane ticket.

The Jax and Roughnecks face off tonight at 9:30 EST.

• Rough road ahead for Lumberjax: The Oregonian
• Roughnecks ready: Calgary Herald

Photo credit: Matt Wiater

While it’s easy to assume I only posted this blurb so I could make that horrible pun in the headline, the truth is that Roger Vyse deserves a lot of credit for what he’s accomplished in just one year.

Come playoff time last season you were more likely to find Vyse passing a water bottle than passing a lacrosse ball from his position on the bench. One year later and 20 pounds lighter, Vyse has turned himself into a go-to guy on a Bandits roster that isn’t exactly lacking for talent.

“Every time you talk to a guy about having to sit there are two ways you can take it,” said Bandits head coach Darris Kilgour. “You can say ‘woe is me, the coach doesn’t like me and this and that.’ Or you can say ‘I can do better.’ Roger knew that if he wanted to be a starter he had to show me in practice and by working hard. He’s done that and it really shows.”

• Bandits battle with surging Titans tonight: Buffalo News
• Bandits meet Titans in East Division final: Niagara Gazette

  I know last week is history but before I talk about the division finals I’ve got to go back to last week’s San Jose Portland game.  I was shocked, along with the coaches of both teams, that the Lumberjax and Stealth abandoned defensive lacrosse in this playoff matchup. (Read More…)

Did not do all that bad in last week’s look at the first round. Tied my hombre Ty Pilson in his picks.

Think this weekend’s Division Finals offer some pretty interesting match-ups that will no doubt dictate how both those games go. After the jump, checkout how I see ‘em playin’ out, and more importantly, why. (Read More…)

There’s a bunch of questions that won’t be answered for a while yet, but that won’t keep the Western Lacrosse Association from kicking off its 2008 season this weekend.

And even before the Nanaimo Timbermen open on the road against the Maple Ridge Burrards in the season’s first tilt on Sunday evening, there’s all kinds of  talk that the Langley Thunder could be the surprise of the season with some of the drafting they’ve done, along with an early candidate for top rookie in Garrett Billings, who’s one of the leading scorers trying to lead the University of Virginia to an NCAA title this spring (photo courtesy of University of Virginia). Still, ya can’t write of the defending champion Adanacs from Coquitlam, or the Salmonbellies of New Westminster. The Burnaby Lakers are in a lot of conversations too, and the Victoria Shamrox will be looking for ways to win without Dan Dawson, who is back in Ontario to run with Brampton.

No one’s counting eggs before they hatch just yet, especially Andy Ogilvie, the new coach in Coquitlam. “The ducks aren’t in place for us yet,” Ogilvie tells the Vancouver Sun. “It will be a little bit before our full roster is set. We have to find out who is coming back and who we’ll be keeping. It might take until June.”

• Timbermen waiting on Toth, Ranger and Couling: Nanaimo Daily News
• Shamrocks sport a new look: Times Colonist

Wherever it’s gonna be played, the National Lacrosse League Champion’s Cup game has got some TV love.

“The Score” will broadcast the title game on Saturday, May 17 at 7:30 p.m. for fans all across the lovely country of Canada. Details are still being worked out for a U.S. television deal, so stay tuned to catch that announcement. “We are thrilled to be back on The Score for our fans in Canada,” Commissioner Jim Jennings told NLL.com. “It’s a great network, and we’re pleased to air the championship game on a network that reaches across the country.” The winners of the Buffalo-New York and Calgary-Portland will play for the title on May 17, and the game will be played in either Buffalo or New York.

As for games this weekend, there doesn’t appear to be any television coverage. So plan on plugging into the B2 network. Or, if you’re gonna be on the road near Buffalo, you can catch the Bandits-Titans game on WGR (550-AM). Sirius also will have the game, on Ch. 161.

• Cast your vote today for Caelee or Elizabeth: NLLInsider.com

The lacrosse world is so huge that you could walk down a street in Cape Town, South Africa, see somebody wearing a lacrosse t-shirt and be able to strike up an immediate conversation with them. You can show up to any lacrosse game and talk with any fan and immediately bond with that person over just sheer love of the game.

But the best part about the game of lacrosse is everyone that is involved has a true passion for the game that goes beyond competition and the scoreboard.

With the 2008 National Lacrosse League division finals right around the corner, all the talk has been about “will the Bad-Ass Bandits punish the slick Titans O” and can the “High Flying ‘Necks continue their hot streak while containing the most lethal Offensive weapon left in the playoffs -Dangerous Dan Dawson?” Highly discussed water cooler topics for sure but, the one topic that has gone under the radar a bit has to do with one of our own here at NLLInsider.com.

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In the Western Divisional Final, Portland travels to Calgary as both teams pulled off up-set wins in their first round playoff games last weekend. They’ll look to put on a show Saturday. Tickets to this playoff game are still available and can be purchased through ticketmaster.ca or by calling 777-000. The game kicks off at Pengrowth Saddledome at 9:30pm EST.

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New York will travel to Buffalo in the Eastern Divisional Final this Saturday, May 10. The game kicks off at 7:30pm EST. Tickets are still available. The game will also be broadcast live from HSBC Arena on WGR Radio 550 AM, starting with a 30-minute pre-game show. Of course, you can also tune into B2 Live TV worldwide. That broadband broadcast will be available approximately 10 minutes before the start of the game.

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So how do ya defend a guy who’s scored 18 goals in his last four games? It’s not easy, but it can be done. Actually, it’s gonna have to be done if the Calgary Roughnecks want to live to see another National Lacrosse League game.

Yet that’s the challenge facing the Roughnecks on Saturday night when Dangerous Dan Dawson and the Portland LumberJax come to town for the West division final and the right to advance to the Champion’s Cup game. And for as much as Dawson’s been tearing it up lately, the Riggers can bring a sense of confidence into the match knowing they’ve been able to contain the tall one. In their three regular-season matchups, Calgary’s defense held Dawson to a combined 13 points (7 goals, 6 assists).

“They will be setting it up where he will be coming one-on-one at us,” Calgary defender Chris Seller tells the Calgary Sun. “If me or another defender get in trouble … we’re going to have to slide someone over to make sure he gets some help.”

Focused on Dawson, the Riggers will be. But they also know they can’t overlook the other LumberJax on the floor, either.

• Get your Calgary-Portland tickets: Calgary Herald
• Three Calgary captains, all at once? Calgary Sun
• Rookie Carnegie isn’t shy to help Riggers: Calgary Herald
• Please excuse Moleski for his late start: Calgary Sun
• Big ups for Captain Mullet in Edmonton: Edmonton Sun