NLL Insider

The BCJALL finished up a quick first round of the post-season this past weekend, both New Westminster and Burnaby sweeping their opening rounds to set-up some interesting BC semis.

The OLA kicks things off tonight, but also has an eight spot that is still up for grabs, the Whitby Warriors hosting the Barrie Lakeshores tonight  (8PM EST Iroquois Park) in a winner takes all (if you consider a first round against Orangeville “all”) wild card game that should see both teams going for broke.

And even though the Calgary Raiders still currently hold the top spot in the RMLL standings, the Edmonton Eclipse shored up two wins against both Calgary rivals that should give them a huge boast heading into the Alberta post-season, which starts soon.

After the jump, check out who sits where in our weekly top ten as we creep into a very heated post-season in Canada…

1 (1) Coquitlam Adanacs 20-1-0
Regular Season Skinny: Ran through BC with a near perfect record showing very few, if any, negatives in their arsenal all summer. Robert Church throws his name up with legendary past rookie, Kevin Alexander, as he leads the province in scoring. It’s the best BCJALL regular season record since the ‘06 Burnaby Lakers ran the tables 21-0. The Adanacs 257 team goals is also the best single season total since ‘02, when both the Lakers and Shamrocks rocked the scoring charts when names like Lewis Ratcliff, Scott Ranger and Gary Bining blew things up.
Playoffs: After a first round bye, the Adanacs kick things off against Burnaby on Wednesday night, the same team that played under dawg last year and swept the heavily favored A’s in this exact same series in ‘08.

2 (3) Orangeville Northmen 19-2-1
Regular Season Skinny: Even though ‘09 was probably more challenging than last year’s regular season campaign, the Northmen finished a point better than 365 days ago, still sporting, on paper at least, the most versatile, well oiled machine in the junior game.
Playoffs: Orangeville will have to wait for tonight’s extremely interesting and equally anticipated wild card throwdown between Whitby and Barrie, to see who comes away with that eight spot in the standings. Not sure it really matters to the Horn Heads though, who dummied up both Whitby and Barrie this summer by a combined score of 61-19 in four seemingly easy W’s.

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3 (4) Brampton Excelsiors 18-3-1
Regular Season Skinny: They entered the season with a ticket to the Minto already in hand, but they definitely did enough to be considered a very much legit Minto favourtie now that the OLA post-season has kicked off. The Excels got big seasons from some existing pieces, made some monster deals at the deadline and are getting good performances from Western imports, Dane Stevens at the top of that list. This team is very much legit, and will have more than hosting duties keeping them busy at the end of August.
Playoffs: The Excels run into the red hot Akwesasne Indians in their first round match-up, owning a 2-0 regular season lead on them, but have yet to face a reinvigorated team that screamed into a post-season they looked uninterested in to start the year. Might be this year’s David vs. Goliath showcase series.

Also… for anyone interested in volunteering at this year’s Minto Cup in Brampton, shoot the Excels an email at JuniorA@Excelsiors.com

4 (2) Burlington Chiefs 17-5-0
Regular Season Skinny: One of the best regular seasons in the Chiefs’ Jr. A history, their 17 wins bettering their 15 in ‘98, when NLLers like Pat Maddalena, Scott Stewart, Jamie Taylor and Shawn Wilkins were in the mix. With the amount of quality ’88’s on this team, this should be the most dangerous Chiefs team we’ve seen enter the post-season, but then again, they’ve yet to get past the first round… ever. Huge win over Orangeville was definitely a defining moment this year, but consistency hurt them games later against both St. Kitts and Brampton. Can they shake off the post-season curse they seem to be under?
Playoffs: Not many easy first round match-ups in the OLA this year, and their opening round series against Peterborough might be the toughest first draw out there for league leaders. At their best, this Peterborough team has the man-power to do big things. Could be the most intriguing back-and-forth series in the OLA’s first round. Series starts tonight in Burlington.

5 (5) Six Nations Arrows 14-8-0
Regular Season Skinny: Lots of changes since last year, namely trying to re-tune things after the graduation of Cody Jamieson, but after some signings, trades and stellar play from guys that were maybe not household names in previous years, the Arrows, at times, looked to be maybe the most dangerous team in the country (trust us, at times, they definitely were). Tons of potential throughout the season, but not sure they’ve even hit their stride yet.
Playoffs: The Arrows get matched up against the St. Catharines Athletics, the same team that pushed the orange and purple to seven games in last year’s semis in a pretty classic series. Six Nations took the season series two to zip, and that was before any deadline day deals.

6 (6) Victoria Shamrocks 15-6-0
Regular Season Skinny: They finished a couple inches ahead of the Bellies to land that all-important first round bye, bringing back a good pool of studs from last year’s impressive version of the Jr. ‘Rocks. Consistency on O during a 2-3 slide raised a few questions, but overall, the Shamrocks were definitely one of this year’s strongest sides. Similarly to the Arrows, at their best, Victoria could be in the Minto again this year, yes, beating out Coquitlam in the long run.
Playoffs: Victoria went 1-2 against the Salmonbellies this year, the team they’ll kick things off against this coming weekend. It might be the biggest early round match-up in the post-season anywhere in Canada. Fireworks guaranteed.

7 (7) New Westminster Salmonbellies 15-7-1
Regular Season Skinny: Think most thought the Jr. Bellies would be one of the stronger sides out west this year, but with the losses of guys like Curtis Manning, Alex Turner and Kyle Belton, there was no doubt there was a bit of rebuilding that was gonna be needed in some high impact roles. Well, in most cases, the big name ballers were replaceded, and the Salmonbellies have been a legit contender for most of the year, burying the Nanaimo Timbermen with some devastating scorelines, outscoring the T-Men 37-11 to ignite their post-season.
Playoffs: Just like we said in the Shamrocks bubble above, this series between New West and Victoria could be one of this year’s epic post-season battles.

8 (9) Burnaby Lakers 12-10-0
Regular Season Skinny: Some wrote them off much earlier in the season, but the Lakers pulled things together for most of the year and looked extremely impressive in their sweep of the Delta Islanders. Their two greatest strengths? Reliable starting and backup keepers through Brodie MacDonald and Ray Hodgkinson and timely secondary scoring on both the press and set O. Two things teams definitely needs during a long playoff drive and push.
Playoffs: A 2-0 KO of the Islanders, and now they face the #1 ranked team in the country, Coquitlam. They did it last year, can they upset the Adanacs two years straight?

9 (NR) Edmonton Eclipse 13-5-0
Regular Season Skinny: The regular season is still a game or two away from being put to bed in Alberta, but the Eclipse definitely are pulling off some momentum swinging W’s down the stretch. With wins over the Raiders and Mounties over the past week, the Eclipse stretch their neck out past the two Calgary rivals, potentially hitting their stride at the most ideal time during the season.
Playoffs: The top of the standings are still tight, the Raiders still actually holding a slim single point lead over the Eclipse. Our guess on how things will finish… 1 Raiders, 2 Eclipse, 3 Mounties and 4 Miners, which sets the Eclipse up against a very tough Mountaineers team. Whatever way you slice it, the 2 vs. 3 series in Alberta should be a classic this year. Still extremely hard to call-out a definitive favourite to book their plane tickets to TO/Brampton.

10 (NR) Akwesasne Indians 8-13-1
Regular Season Skinny: Their end of season record might not be envied by many, but the hottest team in Jr. A lacrosse right now is the very young Akwesasne Indians team that crashed the OLA’s post-season guest list like few have done before. After trading away high profile names like Peter Jacobs and Jerome Thompson, the Indians have surged beyond belief to close out their season, a 5-1-1 record down the stretch to lock up 7, beating St. Kitts on the weekend and drawing the Arrows last week. You lie large if you had them making the playoffs after the trade deadline.
Playoffs: It’ll be tough to get by Brampton, who they see in their first round series, but they are giving teams a lot of issues of late and cannot just be shrugged off like many thought they would have even just a month back. Trading away your most high profile studs may look like a team has given up, but giving up on the floor is one very different bag, and the exciting Indians do not even appear close to packing things in.

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