Shanny's Power Rankings: Week 8

Shanny’s Power Rankings: Week 8

February 18th, 2008 by Brian Shanahan

Week 8

There’s a new team at number one. The Wings answered the challenge this weekend by winning their first game on the road, at the “visitor unfriendly” Pepsi Center, with a monster fourth quarter. Aside from that change to the Power rankings it also looks like the teams fall into 3 different groupings: the contenders, the pretenders and the cellar dwellers. Philly, Minnesota, Colorado, and Rochester are the true contenders today. The next four teams have yet to show that they are serious challengers for the championship. Buffalo and Calgary have had serious injury problems, San Jose hasn’t shown the necessary “killer” instinct and Toronto doesn’t have the depth to match the top teams. As for the cellar dwellers, the Titans have a good argument for moving up but I will wait for next week. Portland is going to make the playoffs anyhow and Chicago and Edmonton are going to have long seasons.

1 (3)	Philadelphia Wings 4-0-0 5 straight goals in the 4th to capture victory in Denver.
2 (1)	Minnesota Swarm 6-1-0 Finally loses. Who would have predicted 6-1 at this point?
3 (2)	Colorado Mammoth 5-1-0 First loss on Saturday. The test will be how well they do with 3 of next 4 on the road.
4 (4)	Rochester Knighthawks 3-3-0 They’ve had their early season scare. Watch out now.
5 (5)	Buffalo Bandits 4-4-0 Won’t give in to injuries. Gutsy effort against Swarm prevents a three game losing streak.
6 (8)	Toronto Rock 4-3-0 Home win against Bandits will keep them in playoff hunt.
7 (7)	San Jose Stealth 3-3-0 Weekend off. This team is poised to make a jump up the ladder.
8 (6)	Calgary Roughnecks 2-4-0 Roughnecks have to learn to win without two superstars Dietrich and Kelesky.
9 (10)	New York Titans 3-4-0 Cruised to victory after 9-1 first half. Suddenly the Titans are in the playoff race.
10 (11)	Portland Lumberjax 2-5-0 Second victory against Edmonton will probably ensure a playoff birth.
11 (9)	Chicago Shamrox 1-4-0 Looks like it’s going to be a long season. Next 6 games: Buffalo, Rochester twice, Minnesota twice and Philly.
12 (12)	Edmonton Rush 0-5-0 Do they miss Andy Turner that much? They need to catch a break.

A longtime TV analyst for Rogers Sportsnet, Shanny won five Mann Cups as a player and is the voice of boxla in Canada. Email him at brian.shanahan@nllinsider.com or go to ShannyLacrosse.com.

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