NLL Insider

Pretty insane weekend’s worth of games again, especially the two OT thrillers that went down in Toronto and then Minnesota later on Saturday night.

Both games were edge of your seat, spill your beer on the dude in front of you kinda stuff with results that, once again, switched up the entire landscape of the East. Ditto for the West (minus the OT games).

Even though the thumbs are comin’ up, those OT nail bitters had me diggin’ through the books a bit. With records fallin’ this year faster than the Stealth’s attendance average, one more record looks like it might be droppin’… OT games y’all!!

Right now, we’re at 11 games being settled past four periods of ball. As far as I can tell, the 2006 season’s 12 OT games is the most any single NLL season has recorded (not including playoffs). With two weeks of the tightest lacrosse we’ve seen in years comin’ at us starting Friday night, ya gotta think that 06 record is on the ropes.

Check out the amount of OT games each regular season has seen since the NLL name change, all the way to today’s season still in progress…

Anyways, kinda a special thumbs up handed out there before the regular stuff. Thought that was another pretty cool number that this season is gonna get marked down for in the books.

Thumbs Up

Scott Evans
This guy has scored more clutch goals for Rochester over the last couple weeks than any other Knighthawk during the same span. First he dropped the Rock two weeks back and then scored a huge goal against Buffalo, right after the Bandits looked like they were gonna come outta the block hard to start the third. His goals have been key in the Hawks’ late season playoff push.

Matt Roik
Best single game performance by a keeper this season was that sick sh** Roiker threw down on Saturday night against the Rock. I can’t remember who was shooting, but at one point in the game Roik dropped to make a pretty good save on an outside shot down the middle. It was after the Rock picked up an immediate loosie on the rebound and rifled another that Roik really brought the house down. The second shot on the play looked like it was beyond a gimmie, but while still on his ass from the first save, Roik made this unreal secondary stop with his arms flailing that had the 15K plus in the ACC wonderin’ what their boys had to do to jam one in. He had about another 10 saves that would get heavy consideration if the NLL were to put together a vid of the top 10 saves of the year. No keeper in the bigs is making more or nastier secondary saves than Matt Roik.

San Jose Stealth
It’s almost unfair when you factor in that this year’s Stealth were privy to a non-cutesy peice of equipment known as the Flex Nimbo. Clinching a playoff spot using that strap-on is, well, almost unfair. Word is guys on the team sleep in this thing just so their bodies are never not “working” or getting too much rest. Do they look stupid in the thing? Yeah, of course they do, but dudes just clinched, so who’s the stupid looking one now? Well yeah, still them, but when you factor in that they wear the slogan “Think Fast” on their game day threads, it actually isn’t as stupid looking as you’d think.

Derek Suddons
Even though I’m gonna ding his crew below, beauty of a game on the press for pure D guy Derek Suddons. The Rock’s two-way game has been bagged on a bit this year and Suddons seemed to just take that area of the game by the balls on Saturday night and finished two sweet goals on the break that had him doing his best Steve Toll impersonation. Scott Campbell, another unlikely candidate for some heat on the other end of the rug, posted one too.

Mike McLellan
Even though his shooting percentage has dropped a couple percent since that crazy start to the year, McLellan is still clicking at a better rate than any regular starting offensive guy in the league and his four goals on Saturday night against Colorado were so huge for the Titans. What a pickup he’s turned out to be.

Athan Iannucci
Heard he broke some sorta record or something. Anyone else hear about that? Either way, guess I’ll give him a thumb for bein’ so gosh darn good this year.

Thumbs Down

Toronto Rock D
The Rock’s D didn’t do backup Mike Poulin any favors with what most described as their worst D showing of the year, usually their bread and butter. They lost a ton of 1v1’s that resulted in big goals for Chicago, including the OT winner. And although Mat Giles‘ elbow certainly looked intentional, just before Dan Ladouceur tried pumpin’ his face full of knuckle sandwiches, what coulda been a five minute major in the Rock’s favor ended up being more even strength ball that saw the Rox go from being down 9-7 to leading 10-9 while the two big boys cooled down in the box. And with Whipper on the shelf for a reported up to 4 weeks due to a sprained ankle… yikes!!

Edmonton Rush
I praised ‘em when they were smokin’, so gotta nail ‘em when they played what appeared to be some super gassed lacrosse on Sunday night. The Stealth just gutted a Rush team that dropped two straight on the weekend that once again has them in last in the West. Obviously Hammer’s boys are far from done, but gotta admit, that wasn’t what anyone would consider a good weekend.

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