It’s Rochester’s Title to Lose
The Knighthawks went into Georgia and put a hurting on the Swarm. Rochester trailed at 1-0, and otherwise didn’t trail all night on their way to a thumping of a 16-9 victory. The big guns did what Rochester needed them to do. Nine points for Ryan Lanchbury, eight points for Connor Fields, the pair combined for 12 assists on the night but only one of those 12 involved Fields or Lanchbury assisting the other. They were getting the whole squad involved. And of course, there was Mike Sisselberger. He went 20 of 29 at the faceoff spot. Rochester came out of halftime and scored three goals in under five minutes, part of a larger 7-0 run. A dominant faceoff man enables runs like those. Sisselberger’s dominance led to the win in his first box lacrosse game ever. Not first NLL game, first box game of any kind. The Hawks gave Georgia their first loss of the year.
Faceoffs are the most important stat in the NLL
Building off the Sisselberger note above, the faceoff is a big deal. With the completion of Week Six, we have now seen 30 NLL games this season. The team that won the faceoff battle has a record of 20-10 in those 30 games. And when you look at the 10 losses, five of them occurred in overtime. Faceoffs can spark a goal run for you, as they did for Rochester. Faceoffs can also prevent a goal run, giving you a chance to slow the pace if your opponent is starting to heat up. Possession time tilts your way, it’s a way to lean on an opponent over the course of the game. Traditionally, the faceoff specialist has been more associated with dominating and tilting the outdoor game, where a top tier faceoff man is such a powerful weapon that rulesets were changed to weaken faceoff specialists' impact. Indoors, because of the shorter shot clock and the more up and down nature of the box game, the same level of impact might not have been felt. But it’s coming. Sisselberger went over 60% in his first ever box game. Toronto really misses TD Ierlan, and San Diego misses Trevor Baptiste. Jake Naso is creating offense for the Rush. Justin Inacio is at 60% for Calgary. Rookie Alec Stathakis is at 57% for Vancouver. The list goes on. If your club doesn’t have a true specialist yet, it needs one, or it’ll start costing you games.
The Tucker Out Lymphoma Cup will deliver the best games of the NLL season
The inaugural Tucker Out Lymphoma Cup played its opening game in Albany over the weekend. The cup features three teams: Albany, Las Vegas, and Buffalo, each with a connection to Tucker Williams and the Williams family. The game between Albany and Vegas on Saturday night was outstanding. Dyson Williams had his first career hat trick, including the goal that sent the game to overtime. Shawn Williams of course is the Head Coach for Vegas. The game itself was excellent, delivering highlight goals and back and forth play all night. It ended with Vegas taking the game in OT, stunning Albany at home for the Desert Dogs first win of the year. There were specialty jerseys worn by both teams for the game. Dyson Williams designed the Albany jerseys. There were shooting shirts in pregame bearing Tucker Williams name on the back. The jerseys were available for auction during the game, and Dyson Williams jerseys alone raised over $1,500 for cancer research. Everything about it was emotional, inspiring, and well done. Does it matter than Albany and Vegas have combined for two wins in six weeks? Of course not. I won’t miss a cup game the rest of the way, and I won’t even bother looking at team records before they face off.
Engrave Danny Logan’s name on the Defensive Player of the Year trophy
Ottawa and San Diego played to a 6-5 final score. A total of two goals were scored in the second half, and the Seals scored both of them. The defensive play was excellent. Both Zach Higgins and Chris Origlieri were standing on their heads in goal. But the biggest impact player of the night was Danny Logan. He deserves to be in the conversation as the best overall defensive player in lacrosse, indoors or outdoors. Jeff Teat shot 1/13 and had no assists; he spent the night seeing 91 in gold and purple across from him. It was Teat’s lowest scoring night in his NLL career. The entire left side of the Ottawa offense had two goals and no assists in total.
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