NLL Insider

Tonight John Tavares and the Buffalo Bandits face the Toronto Rock at the Air Canada Centre. It’s always a special time when the Bandits are in town. I would not say that they have the best rivalry in the NLL but from the first time these two franchises met there has always been some underlying nastiness.

In 1998 the Ontario Raiders joined the new NLL and took with them Les Bartley, Johhny Mouradian and Jim Veltman from the Buffalo Bandits. That was the first year that the import rule against Canadians was lifted in the Pro Indoor League  and the Raiders team was 100% Canadian. I played with the Raiders that year and there is no doubt that most of us carried chips on our shoulders.

Other than Jim Veltman, we were mostly the Canadians who were not good enough to fill the valued import spots in the league that had exclusivly American based teams. Along with the Wings, the Bandits were considered the class of the league and we badly wanted to knock them out of the playoffs. A friend of mine who watched us play the Bandits (in front of sparse crowds at Copps Coliseaum in Hamilton) summed it up pretty good when he said that we looked liked two teams that hated each other’s guts. Although we split the season series with Buffalo, and finished in three-way tie for third place with the Bandits and Knighthawks, the tie breaking formula relegated us to 5th place so we were on the outside looking in. History will mark that as the only year that Les Bartley missed the playoffs.

The next year, the franchise was moved to Toronto and the Toronto Rock was born. There was definitely a different feel to the ownership of the team. Bill Watters had assembled a group of high profile investors that included Bobby Orr, Don Cherry, Toronto Blue Jay executive Paul Beaston and many others. All of Toronto’s home games would be televised and the team would play out of the historic Maple Leaf Gardens. Within a few months, Watters was able to garner more publicity about lacrosse than I had witnessed in my lifetime. Although I was out as a player, I was hired as the TV analyst and actually remained on the practice roster and coaching staff of the Rock.

If something big was happening in lacrosse I wanted to be there, and I was. No one involved really knew what kind of crowd to expect for the first game. When I was a young kid I watched the Toronto Tomahawks of the old NLL play in front of crowds that seemed like a few hundred fans at Maple Leaf Gardens. I would have been happy if 4 or 5 thousand fans showed up to the first game. As it turned out there was such a large walk up crowd that the game had to be delayed and 11,052 fans eventually witnessed the Toronto Rock defeat the Bandits 11-10.

The game featured pinpoint passing, thunderous hits, acrobatic saves, and beautiful goals by the likes of Toronto’s Colin Doyle and Jim Veltman as well as Buffalo’s Darris Kilgor and John Tavares on the Bandits. The game also looked great on TV as the replays showed the skills of the athletes, and turned John Tavares, of all people, into an instant villain when he flattened Bob Watson with a late hit. My play-by-play partner Joe Bowen could not contain his excitement. He was astonished at what players were “legally” allowed to get away with, and many times asked me if there was actually a rulebook in lacrosse.

Not only did the Toronto Rock win the championship that season but it also it marked the first time the Bandits missed the playoffs. Over the next 10 years the Toronto Rock has been Buffalo’s most difficult foe.  In 22 regular season games the Rock have a 15-7 record against the Bandits and surprisingly they have an outstanding 10-3 record in Buffalo. Even last year, when the Rock went 6-10 and the Bandits were 10-6 the Rock still managed to win both games against Buffalo.

Tonight, over 10 years since their first meeting in Toronto, many of the original players are still involved. At 39 years old John Tavares is proving to be an ageless superstar. The NLL’s all-time leading scorer is second in league scoring with 36 points in 6 games. If Jim Veltman is able to play, it will likely be the last time he faces Tavares in Toronto. Dan Ladouceur was a rookie in 1999 and Toronto Coach Glen Clark was rebounding from an injury plagued rookie year and was trying to prove to the Toronto coaches that he belonged as a starter. Terry Bullen , Toronto’s current assistant coach was one of the best defenders in the NLL and Darris Kilgor of the Bandits was one of the best shooters in the league.

This is a huge game for both teams. They both are sitting with 3-3 records and, with the starts that Philadelphia and Minnesota have had this season, each team knows that a sub-.500 record likely won’t be good enough for a playoff spot in the east. Hopefully that will be enough to rekindle up the fire between these two rivals.

So Who’s Gonna Win?

This is a tough one. Despite their many injuries, Buffalo is proving to be one of the toughest teams to play against in the NLL. As long as Tavares is around, they will always have a potentially explosive offence. Toronto has looked dismal at times this season but will the emotion of playing the Bandits and having their coach back on the bench be enough to bring some life to their offence.

I’ll take the Rock in a barnburner.

As far as the other games this weekend take Colorado tonight. Three weeks off was the last thing Philadelphia needed after their great start and the Mammoth will win another home game.

Of course I may change my mind depending on what happens in Toronto but for now I will take Minnesota over Buffalo. Although I think Minnesota is due for a loss, Buffalo is too hurt to defeat Minnesota 24 hours after a Friday game. Rochester will defeat Calgary and not look back. In a few weeks their bad start will be a distant memory. Chicago will take New York, and sorry Edmonton, but Portland will win their second game against you this Sunday.

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