NLL Insider

Fight Club, Road to the Mann Cup, Senior A

Video: Mann Cup Bench Clearing Brawl from Game 1 in New West

The term bench clearing brawl gets thrown around a little too casually these days for NLL Insider’s liking.

A couple guys find a dance partner, throw the odd haymaker, and all of a sudden it’s classified as a brawl. Lame.

The true definition of a bench clearing brawl? The battle royale that ignited during last night’s Game 1 of the Mann Cup between the New Westminster Salmonbellies and Brampton Excelsiors.

For a play-by-play of last night’s classic, hit up NLL Insider’s Teddy Jenner’s post-game blog live from the press box at Queens Park Arena, but for vid evidence of what a bench emptyin’ throw-down really is, check it out after the jump. READ MORE »

Fight Club

Video: Geoff Snider and Tim O’Brien throw down in heavyweight title fight

Geoff Snider and Tim O'Brien finally went toe-to-toe during the MSL playoffs this week. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

It’s the the title fight almost every lacrosse fight fan has been waiting for for a pretty long time now… Geoff Snider vs. Tim O’Brien, the two finally throwing down during the Peterborough Lakers and Six Nations Chiefs playoff series in the MSL’s provincial semis.

Right off the hop, O’Brien went to the centre cirlce to “take a draw” against the Lakers’ face-off king, seconds later both heavies going buckets and finally squaring off for the gold in maybe the most anticipated scrap since Snider and Chris Kinnear went twice during the ‘05 WLA season.

Who won? After the jump check out the fight vid from Tuesday night, and then log your vote for who you think walked away with the belt and is the true heavyweight champ of the sport. The two play again tonight in Game 2 of the series. READ MORE »

Fight Club

National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups: Your champion is … Jamie Hackel

And so the final man left standing after our season-long series of National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups? It’s none other than Jamie Hackel, who scored a 4,082-5,326 win over Andy Ogilvie. Can’t say it’s much of a surprise. Dude’s one tough hombre, but considering the fellas he “beat” en route to this title, it’s pretty impressive. Even better is Hackel’s humor about the whole thing. And how do we know of Hackel’s humor? We called the fella and chatted with him for a bit, that’s how. READ MORE »

Fight Club

National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups: It’s Ogilvie vs. Hackel for the title

If anything, we’re bummed that Pat Campbell is no longer fighting in this tournament. Not because we’re not happy about Jamie Hackel’s win over the goalie by a vote count of 2,700 to 1,890 in the second semifinal of our National Lacrosse League dream matchups, but because we won’t be able to run that most righteous photo of Campbell duking it out. As it is, we’ve got ourselves an outstanding matchup for the final: It’s Hackel up against Andy Ogilvie, so turn the page, read up and vote for the 2009 champ! READ MORE »

Fight Club, Inside Lacrosse Magazine, NLL

Inside Lacrosse Magazine: Roughnecks goalie Pat Campbell ready for NLL playoffs

Pat Campbell’s story is pretty amazing. The Roughnecks goalie missed half the 2007 season after dealing with a mystery illness. Now he’s leading the NLL’s top-ranked squad into the playoffs, which start the first weekend of May.

NLLInsider.com contributor Ty Pilson originally wrote this story for the April issue of Inside Lacrosse Magazine. It’s appearing here updated to include his season stats.

READ MORE »

Fight Club

National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups: It’s Jamie Hackel vs. Pat Campbell

Fight club voters were out in full force this past week, kinda like an Andy Ogilvie blast to the dome and whattya know? It’s Ogilvie who secures the first berth in the title tilt, scoring a 434-174 victory over Tim O’Brien. Kinda sucks to see The Surgeon exit ’cause we all know and respect his skill, but the voters have spoken and can ya really debate Ogilvie’s victory? Not really. So who is he up against in the final? It’s either Pat Campbell or Jamie Hackel and if ya flip the page, we’ve got a nice surprise for ya. READ MORE »

Fight Club

National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups: It’s Tim O’Brien vs. Andy Ogilvie

When we kicked off this whole Dream Matchups series, never did we think we’d ever find a goalie doing so well. Aren’t goalies to fighting kinda like Europeans are to tough hockey players? Too bad Grapes isn’t around to answer that question for us but we don’t need him. That’s because Pat Campbell answers that for us with a resounding 375-87 win over Ryan McNish in last week’s matchup. So that sets up our final four and our first semifinal is a dandy: Tim O’Brien against Andy Ogilvie. READ MORE »

Fight Club

National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups: It’s Pat Campbell vs. Ryan McNish

That just about does it for Rory Smith, the talented Titans brawler, who really didn’t put up much of a fight against former Buffalo Bandits brawler Jamie Hackel. The old dude scored a 336-210 victory in the final tally. As bullish as Smith is, it apparently is no match for the experience of Hackel, who made quite a name for himself while in Buffalo. So now it’s on to the next round, where we have Calgary goalie Pat Campbell trading knuckle sandwiches with Edmonton Rush defender Ryan McNish. Who’s your pick? READ MORE »

Fight Club, Hardware

The National Lacrosse League Trophy Case Chase: Week 12

Calgary's Matt King has been one of the game's hottest tenders over the past month.

Do guys that are heating up mid-season have a chance for any end-of-year hardware in the National Lacrosse League?

Will ball players that tore it up large to start, be forgotten about in May if their game tones down the rest of the way?

Find out where those players land in The Trophy Case Chase this week, right after the jump, and hit the boards and let us know who your faves are this winter too. READ MORE »

Fight Club

National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups: It’s Jamie Hackel vs. Rory Smith

Did we read these numbers right? Geoff Snider’s done? You betcha, at least according to the votes of you. Thing is, if Snider’s gonna lose a fight to anyone, it’s gotta be to someone like Andy Ogilvie, who outpolled Snider by a 966-666 count in the last installment of our National Lacrosse League Dream Matchups. Anyone else notice the coincidence of Snider’s vote count? Yeah, me either. In any case, on we go to the next round of our matchups, which puts Jamie Hackel up against Rory Smith. READ MORE »