NLL Edition: The Money Ballers

nll-edition-the-money-ballers

Well, after our Special Report on Saturday morning, no one was really able to put much a dent in Athan Iannucci’s lead in The Money Ballers during a busy night of lacrosse.

Nooch went loco in that Portland win (as did Dan Dawson) and drummed up a pretty commanding lead over his next closest competitor on the charts. The Wings’ massive come from behind “almost win” over Minnesota allowed him to continue to hold onto that, now 11 point, lead.

Nothing outside of back-to-back monster clutch showings by guys like Josh Sanderson or Jake Bergey is gonna be enough to take AI’s lead. And even though he broke Gary’s single season mark, I’m sure Athan’s far from done droppin’ jaws this year.

One guy that I gotta admit I was kinda surprised to see do as much damage on the boards as he has is Minny’s Sean Pollock. Swarm GM Marty O’Neill told me way back at the start of the year that Pollock would be a contender on the charts, and even though I’ve always thought Pollock was a solid baller, I just never realized what a clutch scorer he really was until this season. Pollock’s rhymed off four game winners this year, two of which happened in OT. Not too shabby (ditto for Ryan Cousins).

Edmonton’s Jimmy Quinlan is the second guy from the Rush this year to make an appearance on the boards. The first Rush 2008 OG though (the other was Mike Hominuck not too long after being dealt from Minny to Edmonton).

And even though they’re winning games at a pretty crazy rate, no Chicago Shamrox ball player is even close to the leader-board, which I think just goes to show how important Matt Roik’s been to them (just in case you hadn’t heard). Their highest ranked baller is Jonas Derks at 15 clutch points, which ties him for 38th with Peter Morgan and Jamie Rooney. Derks is however the third ranked ginger behind Pollock and Mark Steenhuis (or is Mark more of a dirty blond?).

Although I’d love to give him some quarter points for kissing the iron at least six times, including in the dying seconds of the fourth period, Blaine Manning still picked up a couple clutch points to keep him near the top of the charts. Lots is being made of Bob Watson’s clutch season between the pipes, but trust me, after rifling through stats all year to compile The Money Ballers, the Rock would be just as lost without Manning’s timely scoring as they would (and were) without Whipper.

Not really that much else to go over that wasn’t touched on on Saturday. Right now, Shooter’s really the only guy I think can touch Nooch. Should probably be a pretty decent race for third between Bergey, Manning, Dawson and Ryan Ward.

Anyways, here’s this week’s top clutch guys…





  FIRST THREE PERIODS FOURTH PERIOD OT CLUTCH
PLAYER TIE AHEAD GWG TIE AHEAD GWG GWG PTS
  G A G A G A G A G A G A G A  
Athan Iannucci (1) 1 3 7 6 0 0 6 0 1 0 4 1 0 1 48.0
J. Sanderson (T22) 5 2 7 3 1 1 2 1 2 0 1 2 0 0 37.0
Jake Bergey (T20) 4 2 5 4 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 3 1 0 31.0
Blaine Manning (T11) 1 9 5 10 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 31.0
Ryan Ward (15) 5 1 3 8 1 0 3 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 31.0
Dan Dawson (T9) 1 7 6 3 0 0 2 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 30.5
Sean Pollock (T30) 1 1 2 5 1 0 2 2 1 0 1 0 2 0 29.5
Craig Point (T24) 4 3 4 3 1 1 2 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 28.5
Jeff Zywicki (2) 4 5 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 27.5
Gavin Prout (5) 3 4 7 11 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 27.0
Colin Doyle (T7) 1 3 4 6 0 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 25.5
Brian Langtry (T28) 2 2 5 6 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 24.0
Mark Steenhuis (T9) 3 2 4 3 1 2 0 2 0 2 1 2 0 0 24.0
Luke Wiles (T24) 1 4 2 1 1 1 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 24.0
Scott Evans (T11) 2 1 6 2 2 2 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 23.5
Dan Carey (T30) 1 2 7 5 1 0 0 3 0 1 0 2 0 0 23.0
Andy Secore (14) 1 4 3 3 0 0 2 3