The Edmonton Rush have tied an NLL record by starting the season with eight straight wins. The only other team to accomplish this feat was the Buffalo Bandits in 1993 when they became the first and only team in league history to go undefeated.
Can the Rush repeat Buffalo’s performance?
The short answer is no.
The Bandits went undefeated in an eight-game season and only needed two more wins in the playoffs to win their championship. Edmonton is not yet at the halfway point of their season and will play at least four playoff games to earn this year’s title.
It’s a much taller order this time around and a single stumble would ruin it all—even if they win their next three games to break Buffalo’s consecutive wins record, they’ll still have seven games to play to earn a perfect record.
Through their first eight games, the Rush have squeaked by with three one-goal wins but, to their credit, being the victor in one-goal games is usually a good indicator of a team’s ability to find ways to win.
While the Rush have beaten their two toughest opponents to date—the Calgary Roughnecks and Rochester Knighthawks, who are both 6-3 right now—they’ve also had a few after games, beating the Colorado Mammoth (4-7) twice, and the Vancouver Stealth (3-7), Philadelphia Wings (3-7) and Minnesota Swarm (2-7) once each.
Five of their final 10 games are against teams with records above .500, so things are likely to get harder from here.
That’s to take nothing away from what Edmonton has accomplished so far. The team entered the season with some big question marks. Would the offence suffer with two of their top three scorers from 2013 gone? (Ryan Ward moved to the Philadelphia Wings in the offseason while Corey Small blew out his knee in the offseason) How would the defense perform after team captain Jimmy Quinlan retired?
Obviously they’ve answered those questions. Sophomore Curtis Knight has stepped up his production and is tied with Mark Matthews for the team lead in goals scored (16) while Edmonton’s defense has three of the top 11 in the NLL in forced turnovers (Kyle Rubisch with a league-leading 18, Jeremy Thompson with 13 and Brett Mydske with 12). And when tested, the goaltending combination of Aaron Bold and Brodie MacDonald have given up just eight goals per game, combining for a ridiculously high .812 save percentage.
Whether or not they can go undefeated, one thing is clear: the Edmonton Rush are the team to beat in the NLL right now.
Their next test is this weekend against the Vancouver Stealth, Saturday, March 8 at Rexall Place in Edmonton.
