The Bandits are off to a decent start to the NLL season, posting a 3-2 record. Many of the new faces have stepped up to the plate and produced for Buffalo, especially assistant captain Shawn Williams. However, one of the faces of last year’s team has been highly under producing.
When the Bandits brought Luke Wiles in through trade they expected to get a younger scorer to begin to take the torch from an older unit. Last year that’s exactly what happened. Wiles had a career best 39 goals and was second in almost every scoring category to John Tavares. It seemed that the team found their next great superstar. However, this year he’s been almost invisible.
Through five games Wiles has only three goals and six assists, a far cry from his stats of last year. He’s on pace to score a little over ten goals this season, nowhere near where his numbers should be. Besides his came winning goal against the Philadelphia Wings, it’d be easy to lose Wiles in the shuffle of Bandits forwards.
Many of his problems may be a result of an inability to make it to many of the team’s practices without a visa, as the Bandits practice up in Canada. He said in his postgame interview after the Wings game that he has struggled getting things going due to that lack of practice and was taking the mentality of “just keep shooting, things will start turning your way.”
No matter what the reason, if the Bandits hope to have postseason success this year they will likely need Wiles to be at the top of his game. Although the team does have other players that can carry some of the load this season, Wiles really puts them ahead of many others. He’s the key, what could really put this team over the top. Not only is this important for this season, but for years to come.
Tonight the Bandits take on the Rochester Knighthawks in an always important Eastern Division match-up. With the victory the Bandits would be only one game back of the first place Toronto Rock, but with a loss Rochester would move into a die with the Bandits at 3-3. The Knighthawks are coming off a 20-10 thumping of the Wings, so the Bandits will likely need all the scoring they can get tonight. Luke Wiles, it’s time to shine.
