NLL Insider

Every week this season at NLLinsider.com we’re going to be putting our heads together to argue and exchange threats over email bring you the All-NLLinsider Team of the Week. Quite simply, the All-NLLinsider Team will consist of the six best players to step foot on the floor in any given game every weekend. 3 F, 1 T, 1 D, 1 G, all awesome. With eight games going off in week two the competition was fiercer than Snider’s beatdown of Bonterre. For a look at whose efforts made the cut for the second All-NLLinsider Team,

Forward: Pat Maddalena

What I like about Mr. Maddalena here is that I could rattle off his stats from this weekend’s bout with the Boston Blazers and then recline in my desk chair, job done. That he scored more goals than any other Titan during the obscenely offensive 19-14 romp would have made the case for him alone, but add on that he assisted on more than he scored and his four goals, five helpers have him as close to being a shoe-in as anyone will ever get on these heavily-scheduled weeks. Scoring three of the Titans’ five powerplay goals himself and assisting on a fourth, the fast and fit Maddalena will likely prove to be the turning point in any number of tight games in the eastern division. Sidenote: how often do you notice that he’s about 5′8″ and weighing in at less than 170 lbs.? Maybe once in a while when he’s burning by a pair of your defenders to rifle one low and open scoring. Maybe.

Forward: Gary Gait

Simply put, Gary Gait is here because he shouldn’t be. In his first game back after three years off there should have been no way he lived up the hype piled on him by fans, media, and fellow players. Yeah, well, five goals later.

His offensive outburst wasn’t quite enough to propel the injury-riddled Knighthawks past the Philadelphia Wings but that’s not a good enough argument against him. Neither is the fact that he had zero assists, since he wasn’t exactly out there playing skee ball with a lacrosse stick and forgetting he had line-mates. Of the eight shots he put on net, five of them went in. Oh, what’s that? You want to point out that he wasn’t in optimal game shape? THAT MAKES HIM EVEN SCARIER.

Forward: Merrick Thomson

Watching Philly’s first match two weekends ago, there were probably quite a few mouths dropping open at the sight of Merrick Thomson’s game. For a split second I almost regretted pitching a giant fit that I didn’t get to draft him in our fantasy league. Watching Philly’s second game two days ago, it’s pretty probable that even more mouths hit the hardwood. This was the Merrick Thomson we’d been waiting for.

Four goals and one assist, one goal on the powerplay, one on the man-down, and three in the all-important second quarter when the Wings erased their deficit. The hesitant Thomson of the week prior was gone and he was orchestrating plays, finishing shots, and refusing to waste a single second on the clock. He beat the Knighthawks ‘tenders from way out and he beat them from inside and if one of the main things the Wings were missing was someone to step up and take control while goal-machine Iannucci is on the sidelines then look out, because they’ve got it.

Transition: Brodie Merrill

There was plenty that went right for the Portland Lumberjax in their 14-5 embarrassment of the Colorado Mammoth: Matt Disher looked more like a force field than a goaltender, the offense was even-keeled and firing on all superb cylinders, and while the Mammoth transition game was all but eliminated, Merrill made the middle of the floor his own. In between siphoning off 19 looseballs and keeping the tempo of the game in Portland’s possession, Merrill found the time to score one and assist on two. And in the one play that most will remember from Saturday night, after Rich Catton’s high-stick to Ryan Powell’s head went largely unpunished by the powers that be, Merrill took matters into his own meaty hands and lured Catton off the bench for a fist-laden lesson he won’t soon be forgetting. Though the Jax may be a young team struggling with expectations after losing a couple key components from last season’s line-up, Merrill is giving them everything they need to pull together and knock a few experts on their asses.

Defense: Andrew McBride

It wasn’t just the Dance Mix ‘96 pumping through the speakers at HP Pavilion that had the Calgary Roughnecks fired up Friday night. A role not normally reserved for a defender, Andrew McBride played the part of sparkplug in Calgary’s 12-10 win over the Stealth. Like it wasn’t enough for McBride to lead the high-pressure defense in cutting off passing lanes, eliminating shot opportunities, and disassembling Stealth offensive plays, but down 4-1 at 7:09 in the second it was McBride setting up Jeff Moleski on the fastbreak to cut the SJ lead in half. And later on in the game when they were desperately trying to protect their one-goal lead with one minute remaining there he was again, teaming up with Jeff Shattler to make a Scott Ranger shot count. Compared to his team’s 58, McBride and his defensive corps kept the Stealth offense to just 36 shots and it was McBride and his never-ending energy that kept the momentum swinging in his team’s favour against a group that it’s way too simple to lose a lead to.

Goalie: Ken Montour

It would be really easy to not give this guy any credit. Believe me. I had another goaltender’s photo and stats all ready to go. But just because Ken Montour and Mike Thompson happen to be standing behind the most relentless defense in the league doesn’t mean that game in and game out they don’t build a brick wall in front of opposing teams.

This past weekend Montour wasn’t taking on the Toronto Rock of ‘08, whose offense being described as anemic would have been an insult to hemoglobin deficiencies everywhere. A lot has been made of the new power-forward look of the Rock, but what was made of them Saturday night? Six goals. Two in the entire second half while the Bandits crept up from behind for the win. Ken Montour is a guy that you likely won’t notice putting up a huge game with last-second arm saves and perfect body placement, because he does it every time he’s out there. This Buffalo Bandits team doesn’t need a big-game goalie. They need a guy who will step out and be one of the best players on the floor every single time even if not everyone notices. Pretty convenient that they’ve got him.

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