NLL Insider

A lack of consistency is just killing teams this year.

With the NLL being as tight as it is skill wise in 08, you take a nap for even just a couple minutes and it’s likely lights-out before you even think about wakin’ up outta your slumber. Teams are hittin’ that snooze button one too many times this year, and usually, it’s not the teams or players you’d peg for sleepin’ in on a Saturday morning (or night in this case).

The guys that got my thumbs this week were either as consistent as the results I face after putting on too much chili sauce when I go out for Thai, or just packed it in multiple times like, well, when I got out for Thai (although packing it in should probably read packing it on, but whatever).

And again, although it mighta come off as me having a huge man-crush on Athan Iannucci last week, I gotta drop dude’s name again. Is this guy for real??? The game he dropped on Minny was just un-F’n real!! Every time he touches the ball you gotta be thinkin’ this guy is gonna score on you. And it’s the way he does it, where he’s just comin’ atcha on every possible angle, that makes him as close to unstoppable as we’ve seen this season.

Thumbs Up

Athan Iannucci
If Nooch is gonna keep looking like Super Man with a stick in his hand (Dwight Howrd’s has nuthin’ on ‘em), I’ll keep givin’ him my world renowned thumbs up nods. The way he works that crease, faking in mid air two if not three times sometimes, probably has that stationed net cam lookin’ the wrong way too. He wins loosies without even having to touch the ball. Uses his body so well isolating his man and then scoops an easy LB, putting immediate pressure on his defender seconds after he just undressed the dude. Best and most consistent player in today’s NLL, period!

Matt Vinc
As inconsistent as Rochester’s O played, it can’t take away from the fact that Vino’s first and third period heroics was some of the best goaltending we’ve seen outta the Big Apple since Gee Nash. Shut the K’Hawks’ O down early and at key moments in the game. Even though Rochester was beatin’ themselves up post-game for poor and inconsistent play, the reason that frustration even crept back into their game was because Vino looked like a monster in the cage. Hey, New York is playing way better than I had them doing early in the year, and I’ll be the first to admit these guys are playing great lacrosse right now. Hey man, I was wrong, it happens maybe once or twice in a calendar year.

Nolan Heavenor
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned how off the chain Heavenor has looked lately for Calgary. Win or lose, Heavenor is comin’ to play 60 minutes of lacrosse no matter what the rest of the Necks are doing. Even in a loss, Heavnor schooled Pat Jones’ a** at the Rose Garden’s circle and did the same to the trio of players Colorado tried to match up against him on the draw too. This all outside of the fact that guys like him and Jeff Shattler are putting up better O digits than some Calgary vets who are just not producing this year.

Rob Van Beek
Here’s another guy that’s really taken the leash off with this new up tempo style of play Dave Huntley brought in his bag of tricks this year. Guys built like a brick sh** house, has the wheels to create a ton of problems and threw down a sick hat-trick against Minny this past weekend. I’d take a team full for Beek’s versus a team full of some top scorers this year that only show up for a couple shifts a period. Van Beek is “on” 24/7 in 08 and gives the Wings the kind of baller few teams have in their lineup. With Geoff Snider, the Wings have two!!

Dan Sams
Gotta give some props to Dan Sams today. Can’t say he won the game for the Banditos, but he definitely played some solid ball in their cage and allowed ‘em to swing that momentum a little longer than they probably should have. He was clutch when he needed to be, calm when under pressure and gave the rest of the team the confidence they needed to snow the Rox. Buffalo’s getting’ guys steppin’ up all over the court.

And even though he got shelled in the fourth, Minny’s Nick Patterson was playing out of his mind for three periods until the floodgates opened in that nasty 11-1 last period. Gotta give him a secondary thumbs up here.

Thumbs Down

Kaleb Toth
Don’t wanna beat-up on Kaleb since he’s a class guy, but his performance on Friday night was just one in a long line of games this year where the two time Champ Cup winner was just not hitting the mark. Know Troy Cordingley took some heat from fans for sitting Toth, but evidently a message had to be sent. Kaleb’s on pace to throw up his lowest scoring season since his rookie and sophomore seasons in Toronto and the 17 end of year goals he’s currently lookin’ at would have him at a career low. Know he had a hurtin’ hammy, but also know 08’s Toth has not been at his best on the rug either.

Edmonton O
The first half definitely looked like guys were playing with a big more effort and urgency with Hamley runnin’ the show, but with all of two goals over the last thirty minutes of play and some defensive lapses that guys like Zywicki pinched ‘em for, it looked like the same old Rush down the stretch. Anthony Cosmo had a pretty easy time with the shots he was handling in the third and fourth periods for the most part, and while the Stealth O guys took it up a notch, Edmonton went back to the style of ball that sank Paul Day last week.

Rochester O
A combination of a stellar Matt Vinc and a frustrated O made the one time best offense in the league look pretty ordinary again this past weekend. Think there’s a lot of frustration creeping into guy’s games this year and it’s forcing them to take shots that they normally would hold up on. Their O was nowhere near as composed as they were a week previous and unless they have that secondary scoring coming from their fifth and sixth O options, the Hawks are gonna be in a dog fight this year every night. New York forced them into situations they didn’t wanna be in and it showed in the final score, not to mention their shooting percentage across the board was pretty atrocious.

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