NLL Insider

Now that the NLL sked is in full swing, the NLL Insider will be checking in with our “Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down” segment every Sunday afternoon.

We’ll look at the ball players that looked great on the weekend and the one’s that, well, didn’t look so hot.

A lotta guys looked good during this first full weekend of games, but like we’ll do each week, we wanna centre out the real difference makers, win-or-lose. Just scoring a ton of goals will help, but we’re thinkin’ bigger picture on the nods here.

So onto the first week…

Thumbs Up 

Jason Crosbie, Philadelphia Wings: 1G, 6A
Crosbie proved last night why any offense in the league needs a guy like him. Lots of great off ball movement that allowed guys like Iannucci and rook Thomson to have the kinda nights they did. Just plugs away to no end. Great passing all night. Wings had been missing a guy like Crosibe for the past few seasons and it showed. Crosbie makes their offense really complete.

AJ Shannon, Edmonton Rush: 3G, 2A
Really nice to see AJ play the kinda offensive ball he’d not really been able to play in Buffalo in years past. Let Shannon do what he does best, shoot (and score), and there’s no reason we won’t see him as a Top 20 scorer in the NLL. Even in an Edmonton loss, AJ was a big positive. Now they just need someone to step up on D with Andrew Turner MIA.

Roger Vyse, Buffalo Bandits: 4G, 1A (two games)
Like most of the Buffalo offense on Friday night, Vyse just wasn’t clicking, but with Greenhalgh and Bucktooth on the shelf, it was nice to see Vyse step-up and throw up four huge goals in the Bandits’ upset win at the Blue Cross. With only seven goals in his rook season and 12 last year, in just two nights of work, Vyse is already closing in on numbers he can definitely blow up this year. This is the kinda play Buffalo’s gonna need if it hopes to challenge Rochester at the end of the year.

Craig Point, Minnesota Swarm: 3G, 7A (two games)
His point total wasn’t blinding, but oh man, Craig Point was beyond composed playing in his first two games in the bigs. Point didn’t force anything stupid in either game against the Rock, setting up some beauties and even tagging Toronto for three of his own. To get a rookie as cool and clean as Point already showed he is doesn’t happen too often in this league.

Ryan Ward, Minnesota Swarm: 8G, 3A (two games)
When someone says Minny doesn’t have any superstars in their lineup, make sure to tell ‘em to look up Ryan Ward. Ward looked awesome all weekend. Not much more to say. Dude looked good and it showed on the score-sheet.

Casey Powell, New York Titans: 4G, 4A
Although some mighta missed Saturday’s late nighter, trust me, Casey Powell was off the chain! He scored from outside, took it hard to the cage and scored a couple that halted any kinda momentum Portland was hoping they’d be able to run with.  A secondary thumbs up has to go to Matt Vinc, who scored on an empty net to close out a huge season opening win for the Titans. Some great play in net by Vino too. NY definitely shut most of us up their first night out.

Thumbs Down

Glenn Clark, Toronto Rock Head Coach
Although specifics of what exactly went on Friday night are still being hashed out, Clark did in fact strike a Minny player after the game in the ACC tunnels. Although coaches like Terry Sanderson and Darris Kilgour can get a little jacked on-and-off the bench, they know when to draw the line. Whatever way you slice it, Clark crossed the line on Friday night. Stay tuned to NLL Insider for more on what transpired between the Rock and Swarm in coming days.

Travis Hill, Minnesota Swarm
Hey man, it was pretty cool to see Travis Hill rock the hell outta a bigger Cam Woods in a scarp he definitely won, but that hit on Jim Veltman was not cool and breaking away from a tilt and jogging away isn’t too cool either. Realize that hit on Veltman was probably a bit of payback for the high hit Ryan Benesch nailed Ryan Sharp with, but Hill’s was beyond intentional and kinda unclassy. Some great play on the court all weekend by Hill, but that two minute span kinda took away from the hard work he did elsewhere.

Dallas Eliuk, Portland Lumberjax
As much of a legend Dallas Eliuk is, dude got lit up pretty bad against New York. The Titans chased him outta the Jax’s net pretty early and rammed Portland in a hole right off the hop. But on a side note, nice colour commentary by Jax’s third string keeper Joel Weber on the B2 broadcast. Other teams might wanna look into letting an undressed player call some action on the B2 feeds. Made for a great game to listen to.

Terry Bullen, Toronto Rock Assistant Coach
I understand Terry Bullen probably wasn’t expecting to have to take over for Glenn Clark when he woke up Friday morning, but it really looked like the Toronto bench was an absolute mess in Minny a night later. That stick/equipment check call not only proved, well, bad, but it set the Rock up with a penalty to start the third period, which Craig Point ultimately burned them for a buck in. And then that Chris Webber time-out call the night before, I know it wasn’t Terry or Glenn, but that kinda stuff just can’t go on at this level. Also kinda odd to see them pull Mike Poulin, who’d only let in eight goals almost all the way through three periods of play. An ill (as in a cold, not illin’ for the young kids out there) Bob Watson ended up allowing the first shot on goal. Just a real mess behind TO’s bench this weekend. That kinda lack of control definitely trickles down through the rest of the team. Will be interesting to see what happens next week in Edmonton.

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