The New England Black Wolves are currently atop the NLL’s eastern conference standings, tied with the 2-1 Rochester Knighthawks. Two road wins, a home loss, and a bunch of goals scored leave the Black Wolves still seeking an identity.
After three games played in the 2016 season, the Black Wolves are second in the eastern conference with 36 goals scored. Seventeen of those goals came against the Vancouver Stealth in the first game of the season. In the second contest of the season, New England hosted the then 0-2 Calgary Roughnecks. Calgary, yet to score over double-digit goals in a game, were able to hold the ‘Wolves to eight goals.
Calgary’s issue this season has never been defense, so that loss for New England fits many trends. The next time New England took the floor was two days later at Georgia, where they scored into the double digits again and picked up 11 tallies. More interesting, however, might be holding the Swarm to just six goals scored, who up until that game, had begun to look like a scoring powerhouse in the NLL.
So, 17 goals scored, losing to a winless team, and holding a prolific offense to just six goals. Who ARE these Black Wolves?
In the first two games at least, it feels like the opponent had a lot to do with the result. Vancouver is a team with inexperience between the pipes and a historical weakness defensively. Calgary, though it has struggled, has a strong defensive cast despite the loss of Andrew McBride, and Frankie Scigliano has played well in net. Georgia is the only team that went against its trend against New England, and that could be attested potentially to the Wolves themselves, who have now held all opponents under 10 goals.
While going into the season, New England was hyped to be an offensive juggernaut with the additions of Kevin Crowley and Shawn Evans, along with Quinn Powless returning, we may have identified the Black Wolves wrong all along.
The Black Wolves so far in 2016 at least, are a defensive team.
Andrew Suitor, the captain and when healthy one of the best defenders in the league, is yet to don an NLL jersey in 2016, and already New England is starting to look like one of the sharpest at defending the net. Derek Suddons, a free agent signing, has played well, but maybe even more importantly, goaltender Evan Kirk has been on his game.
With 180 minutes played, Kirk has seen every second of this season in the New England crease. His 7.33 goals against average is by far the best of all qualifying goaltenders in the league, with Georgia’s Brodie MacDonald next at 9.00. His save percentage of .847 is also the best in the league.
Kirk, and the New England defense in general, struggled last season. The career average goals against average of Kirk is 12.14, so this pace is unprecedented for him. The Black Wolves are in uncharted waters now and are still learning their own identity in ways they maybe did not expect.
