NLL Insider

Matt Vinc and the Titans are no longer post-season wildcards, they're favourites in '09. (Photo: Dave Sanders)

After breaking down how the West might shake-out last week, today we’re taking a peek at the highly competitive Eastern Division, which saw New York, Buffalo and Boston knotted at the top of the standings before the tie-breakers came into play.

Is Boston too inexperienced to win it all? Can the Bandits shake off this recent two game slide to be the NLL’s first back-to-back winner since the Toronto Rock? Can New York end Rochester’s season for the second straight year, or are the Hawks good enough this year to actually go all the way?

Find out the answer to those questions and more, right after the jump.

NEW YORK TITANS

(10-6 overall record, 8-4 divisional record)

Why they’ll win
Why will this team win it all, if they end up pulling it off? Bottom-line, cuz they know they can. Yeah Casey Powellwas one of this year’s biggest impact ballers and the team definitely plays better with him in the lineup, but this team is also playing with more confidence across the board, compared to even last year’s impressive run. As Jeff Dowling pointed out earlier today, the Titans have been without one of their best shut down D guys in John Orsen and D-heavy two-way worker Greg Peyser, for a good chunk of the season due to injuries, and seemingly not many outsiders noticed. Why? Cuz this team has depth and confidence more-so than the previous two years, and it shows on the rug. They’ve had similar injury problems like many teams did this year, they just hid their deficiencies better.

Why they’ll lose
After looking this team up-and-down, there really aren’t too many chinks in their armor, even though they snuck up on virtually everyone with that first place clinch in the final weekend of regular season ball. Although they have a respectful power-play unit, it’s also the one glaring negative in their six losses this season. The Titans power-play efficiency dropped dramatically in L’s this year, from being in the mid 40’s all year, to 30% in games they lost (12 on 40). Sure a decreased PP is a trend for most teams in games they lose, but keeping this year’s Titans’ in check a man-up, might be the only way you’ll be able to beat ‘em at this point. Rochester, one of the teams that beat the Titans this year, had the fourth best penalty kill this season and should give them issues this weekend.

Make or break kinda guy
Powell is no doubt an MVP contender and Matt Vinc should get some consideration for the best keep nod, but what a season American-Aussie Brendan Mundorf has had. He’s been unexpectedly clutch for New York this yearand has been a handle to keep contained. Forget about Mundorf, cuz I promise you many around the league still aren’t wise to his skills, and he’s the kinda guy that will make you pay all night.

BUFFALO BANDITS

(10-6 overall record, 7-5 divisional record)

Why they’ll win
Kenny Montour. John Tavares. Mark Steenhuis. Not sure there has been a more clutch threesome anywhere in the league this year. When the Bandits D is off their game, Monster has been unbeatable. When their O seems frustrated, JT and Steenhuis have taken over games (late) almost single handedly. Even if the rest of the team fails to show up, the three aforementioned ball players can win any game, against any team, any time, absolutely on their own.

Why they’ll lose
Last year the Bandits skipped into the post-season with two straight wins, carrying a ton of momentum when it’s needed most en route to the Cup. This year, they crashed out in their last two against East rivals New York and Boston, who’ll they’ll dance with this weekend. If Buffalo doesn’t come out firing on all cylinders and finishing often, their home floor advantage might not even be enough to get them out of the grave they started digging three weeks ago. The attitude they come out with to start against the Blazers will be extremely important to improve on the tone they are coming into the post-season with.

Make or break kinda guy
He’s the biggest “make or break kinda guy” the pro post-season has seen over the past two years, and that of course is Mike Accursi, who won one with Rochester in ‘07 and then the Banditos last spring. Over the last two years, Accursi has average 3.5 points per regular season game, while his playoff points per is practically two full digits higher (and his shooting percentage goes from decent to lights out too). He might end up being as big a difference maker as the three above guys were to the Bandits during the regular season.

BOSTON BLAZERS

(10-6 overall record, 8-5 divisional record)

Why they’ll win
The Blazers have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain, which always makes for a dangerous team come playoff time. If they lose to the defending champion Bandits in the opening round, they still can lay claim to having one of the most outstanding expansion seasons in league history. If they win, then they make history beyond what anyone expected from them this year (or probably the next five). They may be the youngest team in the post-season this season, but that also means they probably don’t know any better that they aren’t supposed to be able to beat the likes of the Bandits.  

If Boston does end up taking gold this year, it will be the first time an expansion team has won the Cup since the Buffalo Bandits did it in 1992. Rookie defender Jon Harnett, the team’s youngest player, would have not even turned four-years old when Buffalo won the title in ‘92. Both Tavares and Rich Kilgour are the Bandits only two remaining players from that team.

Why they’ll lose
Inexperience and a lack of pro Cup winners is obviously the most glaring difference between Boston and most other teams in the post-season this year. Like we mentioned above, it hasn’t really bothered them during the regular season, but obviously the post-season is a whole different ball game. They’ll also be opening things up in one of the most hostile barns the league has ever seen when they travel to Buffalo this weekend. Again, they showed two weeks ago those obstacles didn’t mean much to them when they dumped Buffalo in OT, but the oven gets a whole lot hotter in May, and the Bandits don’t mind the heat no matter how hot the kitchen gets.

Make or break kinda guy
He’s only fit into six games this year due to injury, but Sean Morris has taken some big last second shots for the Blazers since his return to the rug. With everyone waiting for Dan Dawson to tee off against Pat O’Toole in the dying seconds against Rochester (10-9L), it was Morris who took the last bomb, attempting to send things into OT. And then of course it was Morris who drove hard to the cage against the Bandits, scoring that super clutch OT winner to put the Blazers’ regular season to bed on the ultimate high note. Like we said earlier this week, if Dawson is the only guy teams are worried about on O when they play Boston this post-season, guys like Morris, or Lyons, or Bining, or Thenhaus, or Bloom, or hell, even defender Kyle Ross (two game winners this year), will burn you and bury you faster than you can say ‘dispersal draft’.

ROCHESTER KNIGHTHAWKS

(7-9 overall record, 6-7 divisional record)

Why they’ll win
It’s no coincidence that the Hawks’ improved play this year coincided with the return of Pat O’Toole between the pipes. Anyone on the K’Hawks’ roster will tell you that Paddy is hands down this year’s MVP, no questions asked. At his best this year, he’s been virtually unbeatable and has given a team that was giving up as many as 20 goals a night to start the year, a confidence and belief that they can return to the Cup final even with Grant and big Evy on the sidelines.

Why they’ll lose
As good as O’Toole plays their offense still needs to score. Rochester is the lowest scoring team in the playoffs this year, and only the Edmonton Rush scored fewer goals than them during the regular season. Although a lot of their scoring issues and slumps happened in the first half of the year, the Hawks only averaged 8.5 goals per game in their last four leading into this weekend, not surprisingly going 1-3 over that stretch. When the Knighthawks failed to hit double digits this year, they went a miserable 0-7.

Make or break kinda guy
O’Toole is obviously the guy that this team will be leaning on hard starting this weekend, but the Hawks will also need a finishing transition game to help bolster that sometimes struggling offense. Rochester’s O production from their D-first guys dropped from 31 goals in ‘08 to 24 this year. Nothing earth shattering, but spread those seven goals around and those single digits loses mighta been W’s had things played out differently. Although Chris Schiller and Steve Toll lead the team’s two-way scoring column, look for Bobby McBride to be a big difference maker if he can finish on the press like he has at times this year. He may have missed the first part of the season due to school, but how he dropped to the 16^th pick in the Chicago dispersal draft is pretty crazy.

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