NLL Insider

Pat Heim and the Wings face a Bandits team also trying to figure things out. (Photo: Matt J. Wiater)

This past week I had to go to New York State for a couple of meetings.  When I was crossing the border at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, the U.S. customs agent asked me all the pertinent questions and then asked what I did in the past that I needed a P1 visa.  The P1 visa is needed by Canadians to play or coach with a National Lacrosse League team based in the United States.   I let him know that I have coached in the NLL for a few years with teams, including San Jose and Buffalo.  He leaned out of his window and said “What the heck is wrong with the Bandits this year?”  Before he finally let me go, I had to give him my theory.  That got me thinking not only about Buffalo but the other teams Shanny put in his Power Ranking cellar dweller group.  Not so much what is wrong, but what factors are playing into where they are right now.

Goaltending
Of the 17 goalies that have played a minimum 60 minutes, the only starting goalie from these teams to crack the top 10 for goals against is Buffalo’s Ken Montour.  Colorado’s Leyshon is 16th, Minnesota’s Patterson is 15th, and Philadelphia’s Miller is 14th.  Same with save percentage which is usually a better barometer for goalie stats and only Montour is above the 75% bench mark for adequate NLL keepers.  If you don’t get good goaltending, you need your offense to be explosive and none of these teams have shown that thus far.

Injured players
Every team goes through periods where players get hurt.  In some cases they are key players.  Being a key player isn’t defined by just stats.  For example, I’d say that both Rochester and NY had key players out for a big portion of the season last year.  Rochester’s Grant and Evans being the big names, but NY had lost key defender’s John Orsen, Matt Zash and Greg Peyser down the stretch and through the playoffs.

Buffalo, Philadelphia and Colorado have been the biggest hit by this.  Colorado lost Game 1 starter Curtis Palidwor to a freak injury that may keep him on the shelf all year and then lost heart and soul player John Gallant.  They also have to live without goaltender Gee Nash and sniper Dan Carey. 

Buffalo has had to play without all-time scoring leader John Tavares.  While everyone will acknowledge that the Bandits miss his scoring they also miss everything else about him.  JT sees the floor, can run the pick-and-roll game with anyone, can find Accursi when he cuts the middle and if that’s not enough, he joins the defense when his team is up a goal late in the game.  To add to the Bandit’s woes, goaltender Mike Thompson missed the start of the season, and left handers Sean Greenhalgh and Roger Vyse have reportedly been hurt as well.

What hasn’t been said about the Wings infirmary?  Single season goal scoring record holder Athan Ianucci out for the year, last season’s top goal scorer Merrick Thomson out indefinitely with concussion symptoms and to top that all off, two games in, they lost top shut down defender Sean Nadalen for the season with a knee injury.  The Swarm haven’t been hit nearly as hard as the others, but still miss face-off guy and spark plug Travis Hill.  As Rochester showed last year by making the playoffs, you can not use injuries as a crutch.

Management/Coaching change
All four teams made major changes coming into this season with the exception of Colorado who made their big change after two games when coach Bob McMahon was relieved of his duties and replaced by general manager Steve Govett.  Buffalo’s head coach/GM Darris Kilgour gave up his GM duties to Derek Graham, Wings coach Dave Huntley added the GM title and Minnesota GM Marty O’Neill hired Mike Lines, the fourth head coach in franchise history.  While this may have some affect on the play of the teams, it should be noted that only NY (which relocated to Orlando) didn’t have a change in one of these two positions since last year.

Roster shuffle
Aside from the injuries, this may be one of the biggest factors.  When teams overhaul their lineup it is usually because they had a bad season the previous year.  With Minnesota and Philadelphia missing the playoffs last year, Colorado losing in the first round and the Bandits playing poorly in the Eastern final, all four teams must have thought a change was needed.

Consider that of the 23-players that Colorado finished last season with only nine are currently on the active roster.  Steve Govett wanted to give the team a much needed infusion of youth and was able to do that by adding four high quality players taken in the first round this year. It’ll take some time for this group to mesh.  Same goes for Minnesota who have nine new faces this season including highly regarded rookie Zack Greer and the teams leading scorer through five games, Callum Crawford.  Minnesota was looking to shake up the offense and by shipping Ward and Culp away, the have accomplished that.

Buffalo has had less turnover, and they are really happy with rookies Corbiel, Clancy and Priolo, but it is painfully obvious that they are really missing the leadership that they lost.  As much as they miss captain Rich Kilgour, they are really missing the leadership of Phil Sanderson and Pat McCready as well.  McCready goes all out all the time and knows when and how to pick a fight to help the team.

Philadelphia has done their yearly shuffle looking for the right mix of players to get back to the playoffs that has eluded the franchise more often than not in recent years.   They added vets Dan Teat and Jason Crosbie to spark the offense and a few unproven players in Huntly and Seibald that will have to develop quickly if this team expects to gain ground on Boston and Rochester in the standings. 

There are a lot of games to be played and it will be interesting to see which teams can get healthy, good goaltending and gel as a unit.

Hall of Fame
At times I may be biased about teams or players, but if I had a vote, my brother would be one of the three to make it into the Hall of Fame.  If you consider what they have done as a player only Teddy’s stats put him well above the other offensive players on the list.  There are not many better pure finishers to have played in the NLL.

Rate This Story:

(+10 rating, 10 votes)

 Loading ...