The Money Ballers: Week 16
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Mark Steenhuis‘ Buffalo Bandits mighta let one (well maybe two if you count the #1 seed in the East) slip away against Dan Dawson’s Boston Blazers on Saturday night, but it was the man that’s led The Money Ballers for a majority of the year that took this year’s clutch crown. That of course being the orange-and-black’s two-way scoring sensation, Steenhuis.
Actually, Steenhuis’ close-out, albeit in a loss, was one of his more impressive clutch showings of late.
Of Mark’s four points, three goals and one helper, each one of them registered on The Money Ballers (three go-ahead goals and one go-ahead helper), easily giving him the lead over Dawson, who last week looked like he coulda upset our Second Annual Money Baller champ.
So surprising stuff this year?
Dan Teat finishing third overall in The Money Ballers, playing clutch for a team that only managed to drum up a league low five wins. Teat had 69 regular points this year and had over half them them register on The Money Ballers as either a tying, go-ahead or winning point this year. So basically, every other time Teat’s name showed up on the scoresheet, it was making a difference to the Rush’s game. Pretty impressive stuff.
Also impressive in the same vein as Teat was Gary Gait this season. Gait mighta not been scoring in monster bunches like he did previous to his short lived retirement, but when he did score this year, it usually meant something on the scoresheet. The legend had 22 regular season goals this year, 13 of them either knotted games, pushed the Hawks ahead, or in two cases in the fourth period, won Rochester the game. You can’t teach that kinda clutch magic and you better believe his vet swagger will be leaned on against New York in a couple weeks.
After a snail like pace start to the year, Shawn Evans had one of the best second halves of the year anywhere in the NLL and shot up The Money Ballers leaderboard faster than Jenner gets to the top of the filing cabinet in the office when someone hollers “Mouse!” (click here for a similar reaction). Trust us, that’s lightening quick stuff in both scenarios.
What woulda happened had Casey Powell not missed those three games this year? He knocked both Steenhuis and Teat outta the way on the charts earlier this year, sitting at the top during Week 6 & 7. Then he was on the shelf for a bit and Steenhuis grabbed the torch and never passed it off.
Drew Westervelt, Cory Conway, Brendan Mundorf, Matt Lyons and Callum Crawford (Crawford was really impressive late for the Rush) are all names no one woulda had as top clutch players this year, but all five appear in our extended leaderboard below.
And how bout the reemergence of Kaleb Toth? Last year when we broke down The Money Ballers at the end of the regular season, we used Toth as an example of a guy that people might consider clutch because of a long distance memory versus what he’s thrown down lately. Then Toth factored in on five game winning goals for the Necks in ‘09 and looked every bit as clutch as that pro rep he ignited at Maple Leaf Gardens almost nine years ago. Toth improved his point total this year by an off the charts 30 digits, even topping his single season best point total with 80 this year (previous best was 79 in his first year in Calgary). Most improved baller in ‘09? Gets my vote.
With the Champion’s Cup on the line and only a few tics on the clock left, do you feed the ball to Teeter for that last shot?
Check out the rest of our season ending Money Ballers leaderboard…
| NLL WEEK 16 | FIRST THREE PERIODS |
FOURTH PERIOD |
OT | ||||||||||||
| TIE | AHEAD | GWG | TIE | AHEAD | GWG | GWG | |||||||||
| PLAYER | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | G | A | PTS |
| Mark Steenhuis (4) | 3 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 47.5 |
| Dan Dawson (2) | 2 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 41.5 |
| Dan Teat (T20) | 4 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 38.0 |
| John Tavares (5) | 5 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36.5 |
| Brian Langtry (T12) | 6 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 35.0 |
| Shawn Evans (T12) | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 34.0 |
| Casey Powell (8) | 3 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 34.0 |
| Gavin Prout (18) | 3 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 |
| Josh Sanderson (3) | 3 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33.0 |
| Jordan Hall (10) | 4 | 9 | 4 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 31.5 |
| Drew Westervelt (T35) | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 |
| Merrick Thomson (T20) | 4 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 29.5 |
| Brendan Mundorf (30) | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 29.0 |
| Gary Gait (T59) | 3 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28.0 |
| Ryan Powell (T27) | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 27.0 |
| Shawn Williams (6) | 4 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 27.0 |
| Kaleb Toth (11) | 1 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 26.5 |
| Matt Lyons (T41) | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 26.0 |
| Cory Conway (32) | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25.5 |
| Pat Maddalena (17) | 5 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 24.5 |
| Daryl Veltman (15) | 1 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 24.5 |
| Callum Crawford (56) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 23.5 |
| Colin Doyle (1) | 4 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23.5 |
| Tracey Kelusky (9) | 4 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23.5 |
| Peter Morgan (T37) | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 23.5 |
Player’s regular season point total ranking in brackets.
Weekly Leaders
Week 16: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 15: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 14: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 13: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 12: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 11: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 10: N/A
Week 9: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 8: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 7: Casey Powell, New York Titans
Week 6: Casey Powell, New York Titans
Week 5: Dan Teat, Edmonton Rush
Week 4: Dan Teat, Edmonton Rush
Week 3: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 2: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
Week 1: Mark Steenhuis, Buffalo Bandits
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