NLL Insider

First of all in case Chavez forgets, I have to toot my own horn and let everyone know that I went 5 for 5 in the picks this weekend. Sure it was only 5 games in a relatively quiet weekend but there were some hair pulling moments where I was almost less than perfect – ala Tutka’s perm.  It was an exciting weekend in the NLL so as per usual, I will give you my take on the weekend’s match-ups!

But first – more about me If you listened to the pod cast with Inside Lacrosse’s Jon Brand, you will have noted that I made another ESP like prediction for the Colorado -Minnesota Game. If you missed it, it went a little something like this; ‘Colorado will be angry after a tough loss vs. Calgary and although they’ll be facing a tough travel day ahead of them, they will give the Swarm a real challenge. They will come out with a slow start and show signs of some tired travel legs but the adrenaline will kick in the second half that will push them past Minnesota.’ Well it’s pretty safe to say that I can see the future because that’s exactly what happened. Led by a season high performance of 8 points from Jamie Shewchuk and a great effort in relief by Curtis Palidwor, the Mammoth earned a huge split this weekend. Now sitting in third place in the West, the Mile High boys are playing some inspired ball and with a bit of a mean streak too. Those two hits by Nick Carlson and Jed Prossner were bone crunching and nasty! If this is what is to be expected over their remaining five games, opponents take notice ’cause this is a scary team right now!

A team that’s not so scary at the moment is the Edmonton Rush. Sure they were up 8-5 at the half and looking strong but as Rush fans have become so accustomed to in their short and painful history in the NLL, their team’s offense completely disappeared in the second half. A lot of credit has to be given to Matt Roik and the Stealth D but to only rack up two goals over the next 30 minutes in a must win game is a disappointment for a team that was trying to scale the basement ladder. One bright spot though for Coach Bob Hamley has to be the play of Brandon Atherton. Playing in his first NLL action the Prince George native stepped in against a very talented offense and turned away 38 shots for a solid first performance. While not technically out of the play-offs yet, with five games remaining I think it’s safe to say that Rush fans will see a lot of their future number one goalie.

Buffalo and Calgary solidified their holds on the top teams in the NLL and put a little bit more distance between themselves and the rest of the league. The second tier teams; Boston, New York, Portland, Colorado are all still in good shape to make it to the post season. While the lower tier is full of teams that just can’t decide whether they want to be contenders or pretenders. Well boys, now is the time to put up or shut up. With all the teams in action this coming weekend I think we could be in for a few more heated tilts like we saw in Buffalo this past weekend. Tune into NLL network and watch all the action or get a group of friends and head down to the games. This is the time of year when the players really feed off of a great atmosphere in the arena!

Battle on boys!

Jenner is a two-time Mann Cup champion with six years of NLL experience. Email him at ted.jenner@nllinsider.com also follow the Coquitlam Jr. A Adanacs and the Intermediate A Adanacs live, as Teddy brings you color commentary with Brad Challoner for the Jr's and play by play with Brody Allen for the Intermediates -- http://www.junioradanacs.com/multimedia.php

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