Minnesota to Swarm New England Wolf Den

January 24, 2015

When Minnesota travels to New England, the Black Wolves lay their undefeated start on the line and hope to make it 3-0 in their inaugural season.  It would be great for the franchise to open with three straight home wins to begin creating a fan base. This should be a fantastic game.  With regards to styles, these teams match up well in that it should be an extremely fast paced…

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Rock Stay Undefeated, Beat Bandits

January 24, 2015

The Toronto Rock (3-0) delivered on Rock owner Jamie Dawick’s guarantee of a home opener win by defeating the Buffalo Bandits (2-2) by a score of 13-11 at Air Canada Centre on Friday night. “I thought we started the game very well,” said Rock Head Coach John Lovell.  “I thought of the three games we’ve played so far we made the most mistakes (tonight).  I credit Buffalo, they were working…

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Bandits Hope to Lasso Rock in Toronto

January 23, 2015

After their first defeat of the 2015 season against the New England Black Wolves, the Buffalo Bandits (2-1) are starting to gain some ground in the Eastern Division standings. Riding a two game win streak and a half game out of first place heading into their week four matchup against the Toronto Rock (2-0) Friday night at the Air Canada Centre, Buffalo will try to play spoiler on the Rock’s…

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NLL Roster Stability: How Safe Are Jobs Season-to-Season?

January 22, 2015

Before the NLL season began, I looked into how year to year roster continuity affected on field performance (https://inlacrossewetrust.com/tracking-the-roster-stability-of-the-nll/).  The quick summary is that while championship teams are slightly more stable from previous years, there is a very large range which does not indicate the presence of a statistically signification correlation.  Rebuilding teams can also have immediate success unless they dip dangerously low into the range of about 30 percent…

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Minnesota’s Goaltending Conundrum

January 22, 2015

The Minnesota Swarm are two games into the 2015 season and are already struggling between the pipes. In the offseason the Swarm swapped goalies with the Edmonton rush, trading Tyler Carlson and in return getting Brodie MacDonald. Macdonald got the start in the season/ home opener on January 3rd against a very talented Colorado Mammoth team. While Macdonald spent most of the game keeping the Swarm in the contest, they…

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NLL Radar: Top 10 Sophomores

January 22, 2015

It is a tough job to make let alone crack a NLL roster year in and year out with a new draft every year and players going in and out of lineups due to injury’s or job issues. So making it to the second year in your pro career is an accomplishment in itself and this year’s sophomore class has many big name players in it.  The two teams with the…

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NLL Radar: Keep Eyes on JGJ, Ward and Thompson

January 22, 2015

John Grant Jr – with the OT winner last weekend, he has helped the Mammoth stampede their way to victory. One of the most talented players ever to pick up a lacrosse stick, viewers will be in store for a show. Dillon Ward – what can you say about Dillon other than “brick wall”. Yeah, he let in some shots he should have saved against Calgary but that happens with…

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NLL Rookie Report Week 3: Bandits and Stealth Young Guns Lead Pack

January 22, 2015

Week 3 of the NLL season was a quite one, as just one game was on the schedule. The Buffalo Bandits, after having a bye week in week 2 of the NLL season, traveled to Vancouver to take on the Stealth. Vancouver was coming off a devastating 20-11 loss to the Toronto Rock, and bolstered their defense with the signing of Colin Boucher and the activation of hulking 6’3, 220…

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NLL Power Rankings: Week Three

January 21, 2015

Only 1 game this past week in the NLL, but this week everyone is in action.  The Toronto Rock kick it off Friday night as Buffalo shuffles in, then they travel to Rochester for a Saturday night game against the Knighthawks.  The Swarm will face the Black Wolves, Edmonton faces Calgary, and Colorado with battle Vancouver.   NLL Power Rankings   Week 3   (1)1—Toronto Rock (2-0)  Has two big games…

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An Analytical Look at the Stealth’s Defensive Woes

January 20, 2015

Three games into the NLL regular season is far too early to make any sweeping judgments about the quality of this year’s Vancouver Stealth team. The team looks much improved at times, but haven’t put together a complete 60 minute effort and thus have fallen short in both of their opening home games at the Langley Events Centre. In defense of the offense, they’re doing what’s expected of them in…

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