NLL Insider

Inside the Numbers

Who is the NLL’s top power forward?

Way back at the start of last season, I tossed up an article on Christmas Day, wondering about what we might be in store for during the 2008 NLL season.

One thing I asked was, who would be able to score 40 goals, get nailed for 40 PIM, and scoop up 100 plus loosies?

It was kinda my shortcut formula for the guy I deemed the best power forward in the game. Someone who could score, hustle, and even throw-down when need be.

The results? Well, no one actually hit the trifecta I was hopin’ for, but a bunch of guys posted some solid numbers nonetheless. After the jump, take a look at who came the closest to the 40/40/100. READ MORE »

NLL

Roughnecks eye health, happiness

Give Brad Banister the choice and the National Lacrosse League season will start tonight.

“I think we’ve got a really stacked lineup,” says the owner and general manager of the Calgary Roughnecks. “The veterans are in for an eye-opener here. We’ve got some really good young guys ready to challenge for positions.” Happy with the recent entry draft and in direct control of the team he owns, Banister’s amped for a 2009 season to get started so it can make up for a 2008 team that was, to a degree, a disappointment while battling some key injuries and inconsistincies.

READ MORE »

NLL Top 50

NLL Insider Top 50: Jarett Park #46

He’s found himself on two tickets that don’t get the biggest crowds in the game, but after suiting up for both San Jose and New York, for those that have had the chance to see him, know that Titans transitional stud, Jarett Park, has one of the slickest two way games goin’ on in the sport today.

Park’s stock went through the roof this past winter, helping lead an explosive New York two-way game that snowed some of the best in the bizz in ‘08.

His speed is pretty blinding, as long as his hair is outta his face, which allowed Park to rank within the league’s top 10 in loosie pickups. Jarett’s first step is one of the best in the sport, already ten feet past the opposition’s O guys when they finally realize Park just picked their pocket. READ MORE »

From the Stands

Fan Poll: Who’ll Big it Up in ‘09

Right now at Inside Lacrosse, we’re already starting to do a bunch of prep work in anticipation of the ‘09 NLL season, with our preview issue in the works weeks, if not months ago.

And like every year, the staff is divided on where teams should be ranked from top to bottom. We keep having to tell Jenner to stop logging in votes for the Anaheim Storm, but that’s just the tip of the ol’ iceberg.

Whether you dig the rankings or not, it’s basically carved in stone that any sports preview mag has to have ‘em in there. That’s life, like it or not. Seriously, it’s written down somewhere. READ MORE »

The Beat

Curt Styres: man about town

It’s hard to instinctively like a man who lives in a 21,000 sq. foot mansion. Unless you’re trying to get invited over on Superbowl Sunday, since he does have that in-house theatre with ten reclining leather chairs. Even so, you’re a lot less likely to find yourself thinking “oh how nice for him” when you could be reminding yourself that he’s probably got a garage bigger than your entire house. But there’s a reason that today’s Democrat and Chronicle article on Mr. Curt Styres is nearly 3000 words long. READ MORE »

NLL Insider

The Roots of the NLL

Always a lotta talk about who dominates the pro game. What region across North America produces the most pro ball players?

Some of the crew at NLL Insider is actually working on a pretty cool long term project looking at what junior system produces the “best” lacrosse players, but today we’re just gonna take a quick look at the basics.

What region produced the most pro ballers in 2008?

We broke it down based on six regions/backgrounds looking at a player’s roots. So it’s gonna be; British Columbians, Albertans, Saskatchewanians (Philly’s David Mitchell and yes, if you’re from Saskatchewan you are apparently a Saskatchewanian), Ontarians (with two Montrealers thrown-in that made Orangeville home), Native Americans, and Americans.

No more Aussies, but Gordon Purdie, respect brother.

We looked at the 295 players that saw minutes last winter. So with that said, after the jump, check out how last year’s NLL roots broke down. READ MORE »

NLL Top 50

NLL Insider Top 50: Steve Toll #47

He may not of had as “big” a season as he did in ‘07 when he was named the league’s first ever transitional player of the year, but Steve Toll’s game is one that has created major problems for teams since he first burst onto the scene in a full-time role with the Toronto Rock in 2000.

Toll actually had a pretty impressive hockey career leading up to that choice of committing full-time to pro ball, having played college hockey with RIT and for teams like the Fayetteville Force and Indianapolis Ice of the CHL.

Since then, Toll’s filled up his fist with five pro rings and garnered a rep as one of the quickest Canucks to ever play the game. Hell, one of the quickest period to ever play at this level. READ MORE »

The Beat

What if Legein had spent summers playing lacrosse?

When Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Stefan Legein announced his retirement from hockey at the age of 19, before his first pro training camp had even begun, hockey parents everywhere began to panic. What if their snowflakes eventually grow tired of wearing skates to bed and playing hockey 398 days out of the year, walking away from million dollar salaries and the fame and endorsement deals that come along with a spot in the pros (yes, even occasionally in Columbus) to work at a pizza place in Oakville? Well, as long as they’re happy, right? Oh ho ho. Wayne Gretzky to the rescue. In today’s quote that I have taken out of context, the Great One recommends enrolling your children in indoor lacrosse. Maybe the next time an NHL prospect feels like walking away from the show in favour of a low-paying job, the NLL can be there to mouth the words call me.

• Indoor lacrosse coming to Sunrise, with bonus article comment predicting ‘epic fail’, possibly due to lack of shuffleboard: Business of Sports
• Knighthawks re-sign Scott Evans for three years: TSN
• Nick Cotter and his disbelief are blazing a trail to Boston: newsdurhamregion.com
• And you can go ahead and blame the Victoria Shamrocks for not being able to see the Mann Cup battled out on a dirt floor: Times Colonist

From the Stands

Fan Poll: JT and Junior go down to the wire

Well, the American Idolish style votes are in (and it’s a fan poll people, get a grip, your lives aren’t seriously that sad, are they???) and with close to 4,500 submitted, the results came back kinda like most probably thought they woulda.

John Tavares and John Grant went back and forth throughout the week, with the Buffalo Bandits’ legend just eeking out a 25 vote lead.

Bottom line though, think it’s pretty safe to say that “this” generations top dawgs are definitely between the two past Champion’s Cup winning snipers.

How do they stack up past those two Cups? Check it out after the jump. READ MORE »

NLL

Logo time: Which one’s the worst?

Today’s announcement of the Toronto Rock and the New York Titans playing a National Lacrosse League regular-season game down in the Sunshine State is pretty cool. Kinda gets ya to thinking of the expansion possibilities and while the league hasn’t come right out and said it outright, why else would there be a game there but to test the waters?

This is the kinda stuff that gets a man to thinking, especially an old man like myself, of all the expansion experiments the NLL has taken over the years. Some of these expansion teams have produced fantastic memories but one of the things everyone looks at first, and remembers the most, is the logo. And team colors. So let’s take a look at some of the teams past and figure out which extinct team had the worst logo. Go ahead and click on the “read more” tag to take a stroll down memory lane and then drop your vote for whichever team had the most god-awful logo.

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The Life

One Magical day in ‘98

 I remember telling my parents that I didn’t want to go to Baltimore that summer because I wanted to celebrate my 19^th birthday at home with my friends and at the same time legally walk into a bar for a beer. The year was 1998 and my brother Fred and 25 other guys were making their way across the border for the World Field Lacrosse Championships. I had already witnessed my brother play in the 1992 under19 field games in New York, so I figured I wouldn’t be missing much. Besides, Canada hadn’t won since before I was born!

 Man, was that a bad decision! Not only was my 19^th birthday totally average and uneventful, I missed what many lacrosse enthusiasts have called the greatest lacrosse game ever played; indoors or out!

READ MORE »

NLL Insider

NLL in Florida: 2009 Regular Season Game to Expansion Franchise?

The National Lacrosse League (NLL) will play its first ever game in Florida on Saturday, January 3, 2009, when the New York Titans play to host the Toronto Rock. The game will start at 8 p.m. at the Bank Atlantic Center, home of the National Hockey League (NHL) Florida Panthers.

Tickets for the game will be on sale starting Friday, September 26. Check FloridaLacrosseCup.com for more info.

The game is being used as a dry-run to test possible NLL expansion into Florida says Kevin Finneran, a former player who is part of a Florida Group interested in NLL investment. A press conference is scheduled for later today, but NLL Insider already talked to Finneran about the up-coming game, league and expansion. READ MORE »

NLL Insider

NLL Leaders: Air Miles , Anthony Cosmo.

 Anthony Cosmo just had about 50,000 miles knocked off his annual travel schedule when he got traded from the San Jose Stealth to the Chicago Shamrox last month. Actually there is one player in the NLL has traveled more than Cosmo in the last 4 years but  the accumulation of Air Miles will slow down considerably for Cosmo in 2009. READ MORE »

The Beat

The NLL’s very own Knight Rider

Anyone who ever laid eyes on the Six Nations Arrows Express truck at Minto 2006 had to figure it was only a matter of time until this happened. Donner is way out, Styres is way in, and the Rochester Knighthawks have pimped the hell out of their ride.

What you see here is a Ford F-650, half K-Hawks, half Amerks, all beast. All that’s missing is Troy Bonterre’s mug painted across the hood. Love it or hate it, after all the uncertainty Knighthawks fans had to endure last season you can’t deny that it’s nice to see some promotion going on already. And imagine, won’t you, the marketing-mobiles this could inspire a few of the other NLL teams to roll out. READ MORE »

Inside the Numbers

One Goal Games in the NLL

You hear it all the time in the NLL.

“If only we won some of those one goal games, we woulda made the post-season.” Or something like that, right?

Rochester, who dropped five one goal games in 2008, finished 8-8 last year, but could have just as easily gone 13-3, right?

Same with Minnesota on the other side of the table. The Swarm went 5-0 in games decided by one, with their 10-6 end of regular season record potentially being more like something in the ballpark of 5-11.

After the jump, check out who excelled when things were close and who coulda had a whole different season if they coulda posted one or two more in 2008. READ MORE »

NLL

Shamrox ready to turn it around

It’s kinda tough to win when, in your first seven National Lacrosse League games, you have games where your defense gives up 19, 18 and 17 goals.

That’s a big reason the Chicago Shamrox got off to a 1-6 start in the 2008 season but just as the Shammies were being written off, something happened. Something clicked, and “it” started to come together. Matt Roik gave Chicago a solid presence in goal. Brad Self sparked the transition game, and Cody Jacobs lit it up on offense. That’s the combination that helped the Shammies score a surprising win over the defending champion Rochester Knighthawks and the confidence that fueled a 4-game win streak put the Shamrox in playoff contention with a 5-7 record.

But then, something else happened.

READ MORE »

NLL Top 50

NLL Insider Top 50: Billy Dee Smith #48

There’s no in-between with Billy Dee Smith.

You either love the Buffalo Bandits defender or hate his guts. Most probably hate ‘em, but it’s part of what makes Smith so great.

The World Lacrosse Champion, Minto Cup, President’s Cup, and Champion’s Cup winner is the epitome of the kinda guy you hate to play against but love to have runnin’ in your own crew.

Smith has a first-step and blinding speed you almost never see from Canadians and is a guy a lot of NCAA coaches probably see now and wonder why they never offered him a scholarship.

Billy Dee’s hard hitting, take no prisoners attitude has got him in a bit trouble with the league in recent years (this year getting nailed with a multi-game suspension for making contact with an official during a dust-up with Blaine Manning) but that same style has also added an element to Buffalo’s D that makes them so hard to beat in their own end. READ MORE »

From the Stands

Fan Poll: The Best Player of “This” Generation

With all the talk of John Grant potentially never being able to play the game again, there’s been a lot of discussion about who really is the best player of “this” generation?

Names like Gary and Paul Gait, John Tavares, Jim Veltman, Tom Marechek and a few others dominated the hell outta the 90’s, there’s no doubt. But who’s been doin’ what those legends did, over the past ten years or so in today’s NLL?

That’s what we’re asking you.

Originally, we were gonna leave JT off the list, since he definitely belongs to that core group from the 90’s, but after lookin’ at what he’s done since say 2000, there’s no denying Tavares’ game, which in 2009 will reach 18 seasons, spans more than just one generation.

Anyways, after the jump, check-out the ball players we feel are the best of “this” generation and let us know who leads the pack. READ MORE »

The Beat

Hey JT, has anyone asked you about retirement yet?

You’ve got questions and he’s got answers: this month in the IL Fan Zone John Tavares will be telling you everything you want to know about his NLL championships, leading the league in all-time scoring, his six Mann Cups, dealing with young Toronto Rock fans at his day-job, not laughing at Mark Steenhuis’s hair, and whatever other aspect of his record-breaking career you can think to ask about. Submit early, submit often, and check back for the answers both online and in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

• And from the imagine if it was Shanny that said this files, Tracey Kelusky opened up about his good friend and summer ball teammate John Grant to the Calgary Sun, noting that ‘we’re losing our Crosby for a long time’.
• Got a few extra minutes? Head over to vote in the Inside Lacrosse LAXIE Awards
• Got a few extra dollars? See what you can do for Savilla Eliuk

Inside the Numbers

Keepers at Their Best When the Heats On

Behind the NLLInsider.com scenes this summer, there were a ton of emails going back-and-forth with readers and a few NLL GM’s, and myself, in regards to what actually makes a good keeper?

It actually got pretty in-depth, heated and at times, ridiculous, but it definitely got me thinking (which some might say is a rarity).

With teams at all levels playing different systems and styles, some breading low scores (see the Toronto Rock during their prime) and some high (see teams like the Minnesota Swarm and Philadelphia Wings today), it’s pretty tough to measure a tender’s skill based solely on stats or even W’s cuz of the kinda ball their crew plays. READ MORE »