NLL Insider

Although Orangeville is leading the National Junior A Ranking for the sixth straight week, they’re NOT one of the two remaining teams left in this year’s post-season that have yet to drop a game.

The two teams?

The Victoria Shamrocks and the team everybuddy loves to hate in Alberta… the Edmonton Miners, who’ve found a spot in the Minto for the past five years straight, but have a hungry as hell Edmonton Eclipse standing in their way this summer.

The two Edmonton based clubs kick-off their best of seven war tomorrow night at Sherwood Park Arena (7PM), and then have the next two weeks to figure out who reins supreme in Alberta in 2008. It’s shapin’ up to be maybe the most anticipated series in junior ball this summer.

Anyways, onto this week’s top ten teams in the nation…

(1) Orangeville Northmen (OLA)    22-5-0 (combined regular season and post-season record)
Last Week: 1
Playoffs: Swept Akwesasne 4-0 in OLA semi-finals.

Not only are these guys pound-for-pound the deadliest threat in all of junior ball today, they’re coming together and playin’ the epitome of playoff ball right now, which is provin’ to be a pretty unstoppable force. Lots of talk about various Northmen getting snubbed for end of season hardware, but the best part is, the guys wearing the black and silver could give two sh**s about who gets named what, cuz the only thing they’re worried about is booking that trip to Calgary for later this month. The skills there, the hearts there and the focus is most definitely there. It’s gonna take a special team to knock these guys off.

(2) Victoria Shamrocks (BCJALL)   19-5-0
Last Week: 2
Playoffs: Lead Burnaby Lakers 1-0 in best of five series.

The last time Victoria landed a gig in the Minto Cup there was just one player that is currently on the Rocks 2008 roster. The year was 2004 and that player was and is National Junior Player of the Year candidate, Cayle Ratcliff. Have been getting in a slew of emails in support of Cayle being named the country’s best player and the buzz around his solid summer should land him in the first round of the NLL Entry Draft later next month. Anyways, the Shamrocks are lookin’ so good right now and are no doubt the hottest team in the country. If they drop Burnaby, like it’s lookin’ like they will, combined with the way the Minto’s setup now, there’s no reason they can’t spoil the Northmen’s dream summer and land their first Minto since, technically, 1962.

(3) St. Catharines Athletics (OLA)   22-8-2
Last Week: 3
Playoffs: Lead Six Nations Arrows 3-2 in best of seven series.

Few had them going to the OLA final in the off-season, and while everyone was drooling all over Orangeville and Six Nations, the A’s are just a win away from pulling what most would have considered a bit of an upset back in May. Actually though, they mighta hoped for a better game heading into tonight’s Game 6 against the Arrows though. After taking that spaced out Game 2 and then Game 4 later that night, they really just looked beyond outta sync as the Arrows made this thing a series again, droppin’ em 7-1 in pretty badass fashion. With better shot selection and getting back to the kinda play on O that got them to where they are today, tonight should land ‘em that all important W and ticket to the Bunny Barn, which, for those that don’t know, isn’t as nice a place as it sounds.

(4) Burnaby Lakers (BCJALL)   18-11-0
Last Week: 4
Playoffs: Down 1-0 against Victoria Shamrocks in best of five series.

Can this team win a low scoring series against Matt Flindell and the Victoria Shamrocks? It’ll be tough, but with Mike Gilmore running traffic in their own end and Scott Lowe steppin’ up and giving this team a chance to win every night out, you better believe Burnaby is still in this series no matter what their haters are droppin’ now. We’ll get a bit more into it tomorrow when we take a look at the top post-season performers at this point, but man have Lowe and sniper Shaun Dhaliwal been golden this month. You can no longer call this team a one man wrecking crew and that’s what’s making all the difference in the playoffs.

(5) Six Nations Arrows (OLA)   22-11-0
Last Week: 6
Playoffs: Down 3-2 against St. Catharines Athletics in best of seven series.

This Arrows team might be nowhere near as skilled as we’ve seen from recent Six Nations Minto Cup winning sides, but if they can pull off this semi-final comeback, they might show that their heart and work ethic are just as massive as we’ve seen from them lately. But no doubt, that’ll be one helluva task. How good is Randy Staats? The kid we’ve got up for rook of the year is just tearin’ it up as the Arrows try and land back on their feet against the A’s. For those that don’t know Staats, tattoo that name in your melon somewhere, cuz it’ll be one you want to remember for years to come at just about every level of ball. Should be a beauty of a Game 6 tonight at the super humid Bill Burgoyne, let’s just hope they get a full three periods in the books. True story… a number of years back, it was so God damned hot in Burgoyne that the brown paint on the stands was melting and ruined my fave pair of jeans… seriously. Never was able to wear ‘em again cuz of the brown stains on the seat of ‘em, and no, trust, it was paint, so don’t go there.

(6) Coquitlam Adanacs (OLA)   17-7-0
Last Week: 5
Playoffs: Swept 3-0 against the Burnaby Lakers.

Look up “bust” in the dictionary and a team pic of this year’s Adanacs will take up the spot you usually find a definition, no words, just the picture. Seriously, WTF happened in Coquitlam this year???

(7) New Westminster Salmonbellies (BCJALL)   18-10-0
Last Week: 6
Playoffs: Swept 3-0 against Victoria Shamrocks.

Although the hype wasn’t to the point of what was behind Coquitlam this year, a pretty early departure from the post-season with the team that New West had has to be chopped up as a pretty big disappointment for 2008. The Shamrocks did a great job of holding New West scoreless during super important times during their series and ultimately stifled their top dawgs time and time again. Back to the drawin’ board this off-season with a couple grads that’ll be next to impossible to replace. NLL fans will get a treat though, cuz word is both Curtis Manning and Alex Turner have turned in their papers to the league, making themselves available for the Entry Draft in September. Rumour is San Jose will almost surely take Manning with their #2 overall pick, which is tough to argue with. Turner is also a likely first rounder too.

Note: Both Manning and Turner are currently seniors at Simon Fraser University, also playing on the schools lacrosse team. Although both have a year remaining at SFU, the NLL allows their clubs to draft non-American University/College talent during the Entry Draft. So although their final year at SFU might not allow them to play in the NLL in 2009, the NLL will not void the pick as we’ve seen done in previous years when dealing with a player connected to an American school. The team selecting either Manning or Turner will be able to hold onto their rights for the next two years following their draft year.

(8) Akwesasne Indians (OLA)   19-13-1
Last Week: 8
Playoffs: Swept 4-0 against Orangeville Northmen.

How much of a difference would a healthy Justin  Delormier have made against Orangeville? Not trying to make excuses, although Kyle Buchanan was not 100% either, but would that semi have looked any different had one of the best Junior keepers in the game had started during that one? Plus no Jeremy Thompson didn’t help either. No knock on the guys that dressed, and definitely no slight on the Northmen, but what coulda happened if those three were 100% an in every game? Congrats to the Indians on a weird and wild summer. Next season should be a pretty bright one for the Indians, who sported some solid prospects this summer and bring back some big names in 2009.

(9) Edmonton Eclipse (OLA)   17-1-3
Last Week: 9
Playoffs: Beat Calgary Raiders 3-1 in best of five series.

Well it’s the nine spot, so enter the Edmonton Eclipse, who’ve not only held down the nine spot for almost the entire summer, but outside of the top dawgs in Ontario and BC, are one of the few teams to hang around the top ten all summer too. The Raiders threw all the Eclipse could handle in that first series, but just like during the regular season, Edmonton proved just too strong, especially in clutch time. They’ve got one helluva beauty series starting tomorrow night against the Miners which could very well produce some of the most heated and intense lacrosse we’ve seen anywhere in the country so far this year. Seriously, if you are close enough to go to a game in that series, do yourself a favor and go.

(10) Edmonton Miners (RMLL)   11-5-4
Last Week: Not ranked
Playoffs: Swept Calgary Mountaineers 3-0 in best of give series.

They outscored and whipped Calgary into submission, outscoring the Minto hosts 24-9 and taking the series fairly easily. This is the first time the Miners have landed a spot on the top ten, so for those unfamiliar with ‘em, make sure to keep your eye on O stud Nate Schmidt, who tied the Eclipse’s Sean Reidfor the scoring title this summer. Schmidt’s is a guy that is no stranger to big games in Alberta or at the Minto and will be key in the Miners’ success against the Eclipse. He’ll need a better showing against his inter city rivals than the last time he saw them, when the Eclipse held Nate scoreless in a big 5-4 end of season win. Can they do what Burnaby has done and potentially continues to do out west? Either way, really lookin’ forward to this all-Edmonton series.

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