Rosters in the NLL were reduced to 20 from 23 prior to the 2014 season. We looked at this subject earlier in this year to see if there had been any impact and, with the regular season out of the way and the Champion’s Cup about to begin, now seems like a good time to revisit the subject.
Overall scoring was down in the league in 2014, with teams scoring an average of 11.4 goals per game compared to 12.1 goals per game in 2013. Although this might create the appearance that offenses were running out of gas in games this year, it doesn’t seem to be the case; four of the nine NLL teams had the fourth quarter as their most productive while only three were at their least productive in the fourth.
It should be noted, however, that all three of those teams that slowed down were equally unproductive in the third quarter, suggesting that they really were out of gas by the second half—the Edmonton Rush scored 49 goals in both the third and fourth quarters, the Buffalo Bandits scored 46 in both the third and fourth and the Vancouver Stealth scored just 42 goals per period in the second half, making them the least productive second-half team in the league.
The fourth quarter was, in fact, the second-most productive quarter overall, with 476 goals scored in the final frame. While this might indicate that offenses weren’t suffering any ill effects of shortened rosters, it might suggest that defenses were getting tired by the end of games.
One other key indicator of fatigue setting in is teams’ success in situations where they had to play twice in one weekend. As noted back in late February, to that point teams had only gone 3-9 in the second game of doubleheader weekends. Not good.
Things improved the rest of the way, however. Teams went 7-5 in the second games of two-game weekends after struggling early in the season. Overall, that means teams went 10-14 in those games, and that still suggests fatigue was a factor, but it seems teams were making adjustments as the year wore on.
So did reducing the rosters make a difference? I’m inclined to say yes, but perhaps not as significant a difference as some might have thought.
