NLL Insider

Every Monday, NLL Insider will be looking at every Junior A team in the country and dropping our National Junior A Ranking, the best ten teams in Canada, period.

We’ll be looking at the BCJALL, OLA and yeah, even the RMLL. Not only do the boys in Alberta deserve to be looked at for our ranking, they deserve some serious respect from the rest of the country too. Are they churning out Minto Cup caliber ball clubs? Maybe not yet, but some of what’s shakin’ out in the province over the years has been extremely impressive, including the Edmonton Eclipse’s start to 2008.

Anyways, we’ll be looking at team’s records but also the quality of their opponents while we construct our weekly top ten. We’ll be looking at the quality of team’s wins and even losses, cuz as we all know, a gutsy nail bitter against the best team in the province is sometimes bigger than a beat-down of an 0-10 team that has no hope in hell. We’ll do our best to match up teams in different provinces. A tough task, but we’ll try our best, so save the emails that start, “Just do a provincial ranking, it’s impossible to rank across the country when they don’t play one another.” Yawn.

Junior lacrosse in Canada has to nix the “old boys club” attitude where everything that goes on in provinces is some sorta top secret affair. The country needs to think national, and we’ll try and start that this summer on a number of different levels through NLL Insider.

We’ll kick it off today with our first ever National Junior A Ranking…

(1) Six Nations Arrows (OLA)   5-0-0
Past Week: 10-0 win over KW, 7-3 win over Brampton, 7-6 win over Burlington

The defending champs came into the year with a lot of people doubting if they’d be able to even come close to repeating a fraction of what they did last year. The online “experts” are still doubting them after a 5-0 start to the summer. But hell, if this is the Arrows at half speed, once they hit their stride, things could get ugly for the rest of the province. Doubt their tending, D and even O all ya want, cuz all three are statistically the best in Ontario.

(2) Coquitlam Adanacs (BCJALL)   7-1-0
Past Week: 17-6 win over South Fraser, 7-5 win over Nanaimo

They came into the year as most people’s faves for the Minto, and after a 4-3 loss to Burnaby to start the year, the Adanacs have been beyond lights out while rifling off seven straight wins. They’re easily sportin’ the best keeper-D combo in the country right now, while Scott Defrancesco is posting the kinda season that’ll have NLL teams definitely giving him a second look this fall.

(3) Orangeville Northmen (OLA)   4-0-0
Past Week: 14-10 win over Whitby, 5-4 win over KW, 7-5 win over St. Catharines

Tender Nick Rose holds down the best GAA in the country (3.08), a slightly better one than even Coquitlam’s Joel Weber (3.62). Outside of their opening day win over Peterborough, the Northmen haven’t really dominated teams that they probably should have handled a bit easier, which includes last night’s squeaker against the A’s. They’re still definitely gettin’er done though and coming away with the results they need to challenge Six Nay at the end. Don’t think these guys have come close to hitting their best yet either, which is saying something considering they’re a perfect 4-0 to start.

(4) Victoria Shamrocks (BCJALL)   7-2-0
Past Week: 10-5 win over Delta

The Shamrocks are having their next crop of ballers step up pretty large this year, with great first halfs by guys like Matt Yager and Joel Henry. Matt Flindell has looked pretty solid, and at times spectacular, in goal so far too. If they hope to challenge Coquitlam, their O needs to be clicking 24/7, and with a nasty five game stretch comin’ at ‘em (Burnaby x2, Coquitlam, New West and PoCo, who already have a win over Vic), they’ll need to be finishing early and often. Sure they’re countin’ the days until Mike Pires comes back to the island from school. The kids a killer and a big time impact player.

(5) Burnaby Lakers (BCJALL)   7-3-0
Past Week: lost to Nanaimo 7-4, win over Port Coquitlam 10-8

Every year, everyone in BC, outside of Burnaby, says the Lakers’ days are done. And although this year it mighta looked a little more plausible than in previous seasons, Burnaby is still a good ball club and with a very decent 7-3 record, they’re proving that again. Right now they’re definitely riding their O, with many still thinking their D and tending might be a bit of a question mark over the long haul. Their home date against Victoria this coming weekend should be a pretty pivotal clash, especially with the Shamrocks already leading the regular season series 1-0 after holding the Lakers to only six goals earlier this year.

(6) Akwesasne Indians (OLA)   4-1-1
Past Week: 6-6 tie with Peterborough, 13-7 win over Mississauga

Before the summer started, the Indians were being projected anywhere from top four to bottom four in Ontario, but with a roster loaded with quality talent, they’re proving they’ll be a team to contend with in 2008. Akwesasne is currently running a pretty slick five game unbeaten run that has them second in the province. Keeper Justin Delormier will always give these guys a chance to win and with a crazy three headed monster in the form of the Thompson bros and Kyle Buchanan, their offense can be pretty dangerous too. And we haven’t even mentioned Pete Jacobs yet. Very impressive start to the year by the Indians so far.

(7) New Westminster Salmonbellies (BCJALL)   5-3-0
Past Week: 15-5 win over Delta

New West came in with a good amount of hype this summer, but after two fairly surprising losses to PoCo, they’ve been buried in the standings a bit. Pound-for-pound, the Bellies should be included with Victoria and Burnaby as that trio that may have enough juice to dump the Adanacs in the playoffs. Outside of their lackluster loss to Burnaby, their past five games have been pretty impressive and have shown what theses guys are capable of when they’re all on the same page. One thing for certain, Alex Turner is one of the most unselfish guys in the game today and could be the best set-up man in junior lacrosse.

(8) Peterborough Lakers (OLA)   3-2-1
Past Week: 9-7 win over Mississauga, 6-6 tie with Akwesasne

The Lakers only losses have been against a solid O’Ville team and a pretty underrated Burlington squad, but think it’s safe to say they’re still a step or two behind the big dawgs in the province right now. A win over Akwesasne last week woulda been pretty huge, but after coming out pretty flat to start the third period, they were lucky to inch out a tie in that one. Should be interesting to see how they look after Josh Gillam and Brock Sorenson are playing FT ball in the lineup again. Gilliam, who’s back from a solid 21 goal season at Dartmouth, posted one power player goal in the tie against Akwesasne. The sniper will no doubt be a massive lift to the Lakers’ O once he gets in his groove.

(9) Edmonton Eclipse (RMLL)   3-0-0
Past Week: 11-9 win over Airdrie

With the amount of quality 87’s the Edmonton Miners have on their roster, think everyone, as usual, thought they’d be the easy fave this summer. Enter the Edmonton Eclipse, who dumped the Miners a couple weeks back even though they were outplayed for most of the first two periods. The boys came up beyond clutch in the third and kicked off the season in style with a monster win. With their super impressive win over the Sr. B Sherwood Park Outlaws (yes, those Sherwood Park Outlaws), the Eclipse look far from flukes as they start the season on an undefeated 3-0 run. Can they hold off the Miners come August? Should be an interesting battle at the very least, but the two definitely look like they’re on a collision course this summer.

(10) Port Coquitlam Saints (BCJALL)   5-5-0
Past Week: 6-5 win over South Fraser, 10-8 loss to Burnaby

This last spot in the opening week was a tough one to handout. Lots of teams playing some hot-and-cold ball of late. KW in Ontario has looked pretty good at times, while St. Catharines’ and Burlington’s records probably aren’t too indicative of the kinda season we’ll see from them. Nanaimo in BC was a wild card kinda pick for people heading into the season, but the T-Men haven’t really come close to living up to that early season hype. The one team that has actually looked pretty impressive and have really worked hard for their current .500 record has been PoCo. With multiple wins over New West and a sick OT winner from Andrew Murphy against Victoria, the Saints have had some seriously solid showings in 2008. If they continue to get decent production outta guys like Murphy, the Cummings boys and Trevor Evans, 08 might turnout to be pretty decent for PoCo, a team many had written off before the first game even dropped.

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