NLL Insider

Finally the NLL playoffs are starting after the ridiculous momentum killing by-week. I suspect that the week off was to help avoid potential arena conflicts because I can’t see any other good reason waiting 14 days before starting the playoffs. If I can lose interest during the layoff what about the casual NLL fan. While I’m ranting, I’ll also add that we have to get our games back on TV next year. Yes, the fact that we can now see all games,  free, on the internet is great. But it only affects those of us who are already diehards, and there are probably less than 1000 of you out there.  The NLL needs the casual sports fan, those who found it while flipping the channel to Sportsnet on a Friday night and catching the Calgary Roughnecks and the Toronto Rock beating the tar out of each other (and then shaking hands at the end of the game).Too many people in Canada have asked me if we still have professional lacrosse. We’ve lost thousands of fans like that in Canada (yeah I know the team has been terrible in Toronto) but we’ve got to get them back. 

Enough of the negatives.  There are 18,000 rabid lacrosse fans in Buffalo who don’t care what’s happening elsewhere. And there are also a couple of hundred thousand hockey fans in Calgary looking for something to cheer about after their beloved Flames lost to David Bolland and Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Lets hope a few thousand of them decide to hop on the Roughneck bandwagon. (Who the heck is David Bolland? Just the latest ex-lacrosse player who’s making a name for himself in the NHL.)

In the meantime we have some great matchups heading into the 2009 playoffs.

Boston at Buffalo.

Two months ago this would have been an easy pick. Although last season was Buffalo’s first NLL championship in over a decade, the Bandits have been the most consistently dominant team in the NLL for the last 5 years. They have made it to the NLL final 3 times in the last 5 years and came within a goal of doing a 4th  time when they lost an overtime game to Rochester 2007.  It’s no coincidence that Mark Steenhuis’ emergence as a superstar in those 5 years has coincideing with Buffalo’s dominance but who would have thought that John Tavares would still be such a force at 40 years old?  How could you expect an expansion team to have a chance against the mighty Bandits?  The answer is that Boston is not your typical expansion team. Timing is everything and Boston’s ability to draft Dan Dawson and Anthony Cosmo, two of the best players on the planet, is not a luxury that most expansion team enjoy.  Although the Blazer’s have impressed me in many ways this season they will only go as far as Dawson and Cosmo can carry them. Its been a great season for Boston but even Cosmo and Dawson won’t be able to carry the Blazers to another victory over the Bandits.  Its serious time and the Bandits will show they mean business as dismantle the Blazers on their way to another championship game. The Bandits will take this one easily.

Rochester at New York

New York has been good to great all season long. Rochester has been somewhere between terrible and good all year but in all fairness their terrible games were without Pat O’Toole. This game will come down to the battle between Casey Powell and Pat O’Toole.  Rochester won’t win this game unless Pat O’Toole is the first star of the game. New York won’t lose this game unless Casey Powell has a terrible game. I’m a big Pat O’Toole fan but I’m also a born again Casey Powell fanatic. He is one of the best box lacrosse players in the world. Yes, I said Box lacrosse. I’ve watched him play the indoor game since he under whelmed  me with his debut in Rochester 10 years ago. However I’m sold on him now and Powell will lead his first place New York Titans to victory against the Knighthawks.

Colorado at Calgary

Calgary has been the class of the NLL this season while the once mighty Mammoth have battled injuries and had to claw their way into the playoffs. Even without the injuries I’m not so sure that Colorado’s bigger problem isn’t that they rely on too many players that are on the downside of their careers.  Yet while I say that I have to admit that Calgary’s success is largely due to some old foggies by the names of Sanderson, Toth, Malawsky and Kelusky.  Regardless of where they finished in the standings Colorado gave the Roughneck’s their first loss of the season and are capable of taking them out. Calgary’s weakness might be that they were too dependant on the power play this season and sometime’s struggled with their 5 on 5 offence.  With that in mind, I’ll say that Colorado’s only chance will be to stay out of the box. Even so, I think that Calgary’s defence  has a much better chance of shutting down  the Mammoth than Colorado’s depleted defense has against the quarterbacking of Josh Sanderson and Tracey Kelusky. Calgary will win this latest battle of the Rocky Mountain Rivals.

San Jose at Portland

Compared to the lunch bucket Portland Lumberjax the San Jose Stealth have been much more inconsistent team this season. Other than their 14-4 loss in Buffalo (a game that slipped away after a barrage of penalties) the Lumberjax  competed every game while San Jose seemed to sleepwalk though the first half of the season. However what is more important in the playoffs, regular season consistency or big game players? San Jose has a few big game players including one of the best in Colin Doyle. In their playoff clinching overtime victory in Colorado Doyle twice tied the game up in the last 3 minutes after Colorado had taken leads. Jeff Zywicki’s stats were down this year but there’s no doubt that he has proven himself in the big games (ie World Field Lacrosse Championships) as well.  On the other hand Portland has some big money players in Brodie Merrill and Ryan Powell who elevated his game to different level in last season’s playoffs when he scored 20 points in three games. On a hunch, I’m taking San Jose to get revenge on Portland who took them out last year.

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