NLL Insider

This information appears in Volume 12, Issue 1 of Inside Lacrosse Magazine. For more stats, analysis and expert predictions for the 2008 NLL season, pick up a copy today!

Inside Lacrosse magazine takes a look at the upcoming NLL season and ranks the teams in overall strength. Read on and see how we think the 2008 season will turn for each team.

Buffalo

“The goaltending will be a question. For years it was a given with Chugger in goal; now Thompson has to fill those shoes. He’s a good goalie but it will be interesting to see how he carries the load for an entire season. … The key is their discipline. If they start taking dumb penalties, they can really hurt themselves. This is a one-goal league and they have to stay out of the box to win close games. … They did well to get Sanderson and Llord a bit later in the draft. Llord will be good, and you can’t go wrong with the Sanderson bloodline. … Offensively, where Rochester’s guys need to have the ball in their stick for extended periods of time, Tavares can have the ball in his stick for literally a minute and a half a game, and he’ll have six scores on you. You get nervous when he doesn’t have the ball, because you know it’s coming. … People talk about Buffalo as undisciplined, taking penalties, but I see an extremely disciplined team on both ends. … They ask a lot of McCready and Steenhuis.”

Rochester

“They’re still the class of the league; they have so many weapons on that offense. … Everyone talks about Grant and the Evans brothers but Accursi was often the forgotten man — he could hurt you just as much. … You have to limit the amount of time they have the ball, but it’s also important to keep them on the floor, to try and tire them down on their offensive runs. … When you think of Rochester last year, they were like a machine. They systematically dismantled their opponents. And you do not want to get penalties against a team like that, because they are very good on the power play. … You need to take good shots, especially at a goalie like Pat, and you can’t allow them to organize themselves defensively. … . When I think of teams that Ed Comeau’s coached, they’re disciplined, focused and organized. His teams are a reflection of him. It’s no accident his teams win championships.”

Colorado

“They lost Prepchuk to Edmonton, but picked up Wulder, which is maybe an upgrade … You have to minimize Prout and Carey from taking over the game, and reduce them as transition threats. Sims is one of the best in the league off turnovers. … Govett was looking for a guy that was a lot like Gary, and with Bob, he got him. … Bob’s going to put his spin on that team and we’ll have to see how it comes out. … Their goaltending is still questionable. When Nash is good, he’s one of the best, but on any given night he can have a bad game. … They expect to win at home so if you can keep the game close, they start to question themselves and the pressure stays on them.”

Calgary

“Troy is installing a new pressure, trap-style defense, similar to the one Buffalo plays. It demands very athletic defenders, and with only about a month of training camp, I’m not sure if they’ll have enough time to implement it with success. It’s also very fatiguing by the third and fourth quarters. … In the long haul, Dietrich’s health will be the biggest question mark. He will be commuting a lot and already has bad knees. … This is the West Division team that’s improved the most for one reason: they got Dietrich. … Ranger is coming into his own. Last year he had a great summer and he was able to continue that into the winter. … Their defense is a little older, but they are scary deep. It will be tough to replace Taylor Wray, but the pickup of Couling, who is quiet but very physical, was big. … Hall is probably a 30-goal scorer for them, so that’s a pretty good trade.”

San Jose

“They’ve done a good job turning Americans like Wes Green and Eric Martin into good box players. … They feed off Cosmo and Doyle. If you can limit Doyle’s opportunities, you can beat S.J. … If they have one weakness, it might be in transition on the D end. … Whatever defensive deficiencies they may have - I do think they are a bit weak in the back end - Cosmo makes up for it in net. That’s the big thing for them. … They’re a rising team. They’re starting to round out their squad. It took a couple years after they lost Josh Sanderson, but they seem to be back on track. They have a lot of potential.”

Philadelphia

“Huntley will do a good job; that was the biggest move they made in the offseason. He’s a winner everywhere he’s coached. His knowledge of the field game and the indoor game will help the players there bridge that gap. … They’re getting more and more comfortable with the indoor game. They’re an aggressive defense, athletic and they chase. When you have some real thoroughbreds back there like they have, you don’t want them to be trotters. The more they play together and the more experience they get, you’ll see some real good improvement. … Thomson is a natural goal-scorer and he’ll be a good addition. He’s a big lefty who can get inside and finish.”

Toronto

“They got a lot better with Woods and Lough. They got a couple of big, athletic guys who are real leaders, and they’ll be bigger, better and faster in the back. It makes them much tougher. That gets them closer to the top of the Eastern Division. … The most important key for them is Watson. He single-handedly kept them in games last year and he’ll have to have another huge season. … They have the talent. They just have to get it together. When they traded Doyle last year, he was one of their focal points on offense for a lot of years and when he wasn’t there, it takes some time for the other guys to figure out who’s going to take all those shots.”

Edmonton

“They probably have made more changes than anybody in the league. … A couple of the guys they have aren’t ball-in-the-stick type of guys. Gill isn’t a [take the ball], go to the net type of guy and Stroup isn’t as much as he used to be. Prepchuk is and so are a few others, so it’s pretty balanced. … It’s not any one player you really have to watch out for. Their offense is a bunch of veterans and they all know what to do. They are willing to move the ball around so you really don’t focus on just one of their guys. It can be easier to know the ball goes through one guy, but that’s not the case.”

Portland

“Danny is a player who can get his points no matter who he plays with, and that usually means other guys will get more points because of that. Guys can push their point totals from the 40s to the 50s or from the 60s to the 70s and 80s with a player like Danny working with them. … From the draft, they got better defensively. … Dallas in net always gives you a chance, but they’ll need to create in transition, and will have to win a lot of low-scoring games. … They had a great schedule in their first year, and ran into some chemistry problems in their second year. … Codron will make an impact right away.”

Minnesota

“They traded Disher, so we’ll see if Patterson is ready to step up to that challenge. That will be the big change: Minnesota with just Patterson and no Disher. … Defensively, it might be a little tough this year. … They’ve never had that one guy in their offense, like a Dawson or a Grant who can take over games. They have to know how to share and spread around the ball pretty quickly to be successful offensively. … Cousins is the most underrated guy at ‘D’ in the league. He’s a stud - fast, strong, smart and can score goals. … Their goaltending will have to be good in the playoffs to go deep, and they’ll need someone to step up offensively, but I’m not sure that they’re ready for Rochester yet.”

Chicago

“On offense, they had some good players but they weren’t huge goal-scorers. They made a few deals and trades to make some things happen. … When their goalie made the save, they’re already running on you while you’re trying to make a shift change. And when that works for them, their confidence level goes up. … McGlone did well for them last year. There were times at the end of games and you’d look and an American rookie had the ball in his stick at the end for the crucial play. … Losing Woods will hurt. He’s a physical athletic defender, and he was leader back there. But the pieces from that trade will help their team out overall, especially if they have injuries early on.”

New York

“There’s a place on everybody’s roster for Merrill. There are so many things he can do and he does them all so well. … They’ll be better. A lot of them are field players but some are field players with 7-8 years of NLL experience, so you can’t give them the field tag forever. … It will be interesting to see whether Hall is used just on offense or as a two-way player. He has the talent to hurt you all over the floor. … You have to control Powell because their offense revolves around him. The pick-and-roll worked pretty well against them because they press out and they’re inexperienced. … It would take a miracle for them to make the playoffs. If they win the championship, I’ll quit coaching.”

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