BUFFALO BANDITS 2014 SEASON PREVIEW
Team Acquisitions:
(F) Jerome Thompson
(F) Corey Fowler
(F) Jordan Dance
(F) Tyler Ferreira
(T) Brandon Goodwin
(T) Alex Kedoh Hill
(T) Nick Weiss – Vancouver Stealth
(T) Matthew Bennett
(G) David Diruscio
Team Losses:
(F) Shawn Williams
(F) Aaron Wilson
(T) Jordan Critch
(T) Joel Matthews
(T) Hayden Smith
(D) Colin Boucher
(D) Rory Smith
(G) Eric Penney
(G) Kurtis Wagar
Offense: The 2014 NLL season was definitely not a banner year for the Buffalo Bandits offense. While the additions of Ryan Benesch (led all Bandits in scoring with 78 points) and Joe Resetarits (sixth on the team with 42 points) proved to be major coups for the team during the offseason last year, the combined scoring abilities of Mark Steenhuis, Dhane Smith, John Tavares, Shawn Williams and Jamie Rooney just weren’t enough to help the team rise to the occasion as the offense finished the season ranked third-last in the league.
With teams like the Calgary Roughnecks, Edmonton Rush and the Toronto Rock scoring goal amounts of 237, 220 and 219 respectively, the Bandits offense truly has its work cut out for itself as the last time that the Bandits scored more than 200 goals was during the 2009 season when the team tallied 223 goals.
Looking to improve their offense heading into the 2015 season, Bandits GM Steve Dietrich and head coach Troy Cordingley believed that some true treasure was to be found in the 2014 NLL draft and free agency markets. After the draft was said and done, the Bandits were able to acquire four solid left handed scorers in Goodwin, Bennett, Ferreira and Dance to help balance out the incredibly solid right handed scoring team of Steenhuis, Resetarits and the return of Smith to full-time offense. While the Bandits did well in the draft, the Bandits really made quite a splash in free agency. The additional acquisitions of left handed forwards like Thompson and Fowler will only add much needed speed and depth to the Bandits offensive roster. If the preseason is any indication of things to come, look for Thompson to become a major player for the offense this year.
While the Bandits have made slight improvements in their offensive output with 19 more goals compared to two seasons ago, the addition of two extra games to the regular season takes a little away from their accomplishment. That’s why any proof of true improvement in the Bandits offense will be shown in this second season as the veterans have now experienced one full season of head coach Troy Cordingley at the helm with the expectations that he carries and playing an extended 18 game regular season schedule.
Transition: Jay Thorimbert, David Brock, Kevin Brownell, Andrew Watt and Mitch Wilde will return from last year’s squad along with incoming veteran Nick Weiss, a returning Alex Kedoh Hill and ninth overall selection in the 2014 draft Brandon Goodwin. Thorimbert had an incredible season last year as he was ranked third in the league in the loose balls category with 191 and third in the league in faceoffs won with 253. While Dhane Smith led the Bandits transition players last year in goals with 20, his ability to use his body to punish any opponent advancing into the Bandits defensive area with solid contact and using his offensive prowess to set up teammates in the offensive zone for the goal helped cement his legacy as a true complete dual threat in the league. With the Bandits offense struggling at the end of the season to find the back of the net, Smith’s promotion to full time offense this year came as no surprise.
Another major highlight from the Bandits transition squad last year came from the stellar play of rookie Mitch Wilde. Wilde’s pre-season reputation as a true speed demon came to fruition last year as Wilde was able to hone his speed to beat the opposing defenders on the turnover for the goal himself and helped push the ball up to scoring forwards like Benesch and Tavares for the goal as well. Wilde’s speed combined with Smith’s scoring touch proved to the rest of the league that the Bandits true bread and butter lied in their transition game.
With the loss of Smith, the Bandits transition squad it will need players like Wilde and Watt to use their veteran leadership in maintaining the standard of quality set by last year and help incoming rookies like Goodwin to catch up with the rest of the pack and even add his own indelible stamp on the team.
Defense: The Buffalo Bandits defense that allowed a league tying 211 goals allowed from 2013 were definitely not the same team that played day in and day out during the 2014 season. The off-season acquisition of 2012 NLL Western Division All-Star Rory Smith from the Colorado Mammoth and incoming head coach Troy Cordingley’s philosophy that defense wins championships helped the defense tremendously to help become the true rough and ready defense that the team truly deserved. Using their size and strength, the Bandits physicality was proven on the floor time in and time out and gave starting goaltender Anthony Cosmo the confidence he needed to help return to his former all star glory. Last season’s defensive squad should be commended for their league third best ranking in goals allowed with 200.
One of the biggest stories to come out of the Bandits during the 2014 season was the outstanding play of defender Steve Priolo. During the course of 18 games last year, Priolo recorded personal bests in every offensive category (26 points) while also unfortunately setting personal bests in the penalty category as well. His stellar play on both ends of the floor netted Priolo a nomination last year for defender of the year.
With the departing losses of Rory Smith to Vancouver and the release of Glen Bryan, the scary fact that the Bandits defensive roster only contains three truly defensive players in Priolo, Billy Dee Smith and Derek Suddons is kind of a scary thought. The only real hope for the defense to maintain the bar set from last year will be if transition players like Nick Weiss, David Brock and incoming rookies Goodwin and Matthew Bennett can adapt to playing more of a defensive role.
Goaltending: The last line of defense for the upcoming 2015 Buffalo Bandits will be the return of starting goaltender Anthony Cosmo. During the offseason, it was announced that backup goaltender Kurtis Wagar had retired and his position would be up for grabs during training camp. After a hard fought battle between free agent goaltenders Rance Vigneux and David Diruscio, it was decided that Diruscio would receive the backup position to Cosmo.
What a difference a year makes. With Troy Cordingley’s defensive minded strategy in place and the addition of defensive tough guys like Rory Smith to the defensive ranks, Cosmo’s self confidence and swagger returned and slowly but surely Cosmo’s transformed back into the consummate all-star player that GM Dietrich had in mind when they traded for him in 2012. Cosmo’s solid play in net during the 2014 season helped garner a nomination for 2014 goaltender of the year helped by his rankings of fourth in the league in wins with 8, third in the league in goals against average with 10.77 and a league record with 752 saves en route to helping lead the Bandits back into the post season.
Regarding backup goaltender David Diruscio, the sky is the limit regarding his playing ability for the team. The only thing that will help you come to some sort of conclusion of if he will be an effective backup or not hopefully comes from the facts that he was the Goaltending MVP for the Canadian Lacrosse League last year and won the league championship with his Niagara Lock Monsters. The big question heading into the regular season will be how his CLAX experience translates into the world of the NLL.
Practice Roster: Rounding out the Buffalo Bandits 2015 practice roster will be forwards Jordan Dance, Tyler Ferreira, Corey Fowler and transition player Matthew Bennett.
With the regular season expanded to 18 games and the possibility of many more past that due to playoffs, these players will be crucial to the Bandits success. “I would believe that the practice squad players are going to be very crucial to this league,” head coach Troy Cordingley said last year and he was right. “Injuries are going to happen. Even though the practice squad is dubbed the practice squad, it really is not. They will be suiting up sooner or later”.
During the course of the Bandits 2014 season, the team lost transition player Andrew Watt to lengthy injuries. The team dove deep into their practice roster and pulled a gem out with Mitch Wilde. Wilde effectively took over the open transition position vacated by Watt and helped use his playing time to not only help Andrew Watt heal up but also effectively secure a starting position on this year’s squad.
While no one likes to see any player injured, injuries do happen. Who will effectively step up to help the Bandits out this year will be anyone’s guess but the team does have a very deep pool of offensive talent to step in on a moment’s notice.
Season Outlook: With the team being a post away from winning the Eastern Conference finals and going undefeated coming out of this recent preseason, I believe that Buffalo Bandits General Manager Steve Dietrich, Head Coach Troy Cordingley and the Bandits scouting staff have done an incredible job in the offseason to assess the problems that the organization had in terms of their roster and effectively plugged in the players that are the most effective to fill those vacancies. The addition of Jerome Thompson and bringing up Dhane Smith to offense full time will help bring additional firepower to the lagging offense.
The additions of Nick Weiss and rookie Brandon Goodwin on transition/defense will help the team be able to get more loose balls and effectively keep their opponents from receiving second and sometimes third chances at their net.
While Cosmo had himself an incredible 2014 season, his ability to maintain and possibly succeed last seasons’ totals will be no small feat. As long as his defense is able to keep opponents to outside shots and limited opportunities, his confidence will return and the all-star Cosmo will return. What happens though if Cosmo is injured or has to be pulled due to poor performance? Hopefully Diruscio will be able to silence the critics and prove why he deserved the backup role from the departed Wagar.
With the Bandits last season proving that they have the playing abilities of an 8-2 team and a 0-8 team as well is truly a puzzling thing to grasp. Which team are they truly? Using their performance in the playoffs and this past preseason as the bench mark for the upcoming season, I can only say that anything is possible.
