One year removed from an appearance in the Major League Lacrosse championship game the Hamilton Nationals are sitting at home in 2012 singing a different tune.
The lone Canadian franchise finished 4-10, in the penultimate position in the standings, and finished last in the league in attendance.
The Nationals lost their first three games of the season while many of the players, including their top six scorers—Joe Walters, Kevin Crowley, Stephen Keogh, David Earl, Garrett Billings and Cody Jamieson—all played out the remainder of their respective NLL seasons. The team did not have the depth and could never recover.
A four-game losing streak from June 16 to July 13 put the nail in the coffin of the Nationals’ season.
Casey Powell, who gave the Nationals a jolt towards the end of the season and propelled them into the MLL Championship game, played in only three games all season.
Goalie Scott Rodgers played in only nine games this season and was hampered by some injuries.
In terms of attendance, Hamilton did average about 325 more people per game than last year, but they were still 6,372 less people than the next team on the list.
There are some positives to take away from the 2012 season however.
Despite having a poor record the team still had six players selected to this year’s All-Star Game. There’s plenty of talent on this roster.
Second-year pro Matt Dolente developed into a strong face-off man. As an All-Star this season, he was one of only five players that was both durable and talented enough to take over 300 face-offs (395). He won 55.4-percent of them, finishing third of those six behind elite face-off specialists Greg Gurenlian and Chris Eck. Dolente’s emergence allowed Hamilton to deal Geoff Snider for more assets to help build a deep team that could survive injuries and the end of the NLL season.
The Nationals also ended the season on a high note, defeating playoff-bound Long Island Lizards—who still had not clinched a playoff spot—18-8. It was the Lizards worst defeat of the season.
More good news for the Nationals heading into 2013 is that there won’t be any expansion teams, therefore there won’t be an expansion draft, where top young talent like Jeremy Boltus and Kevin Leveille.
With a win to go into the off-season to help ease the bitterness of all the losing and a roster still stacked with young talent the Nationals will take aim to return to Championship Weekend next year.
