Clutch Kings: Kew the comeback
Andrew Kew, Georgia Swarm (Photo: Asher Greene)
The Clutch Kings tracks an individual National Lacrosse League player’s game-tying, go-ahead, and game-winning goals, then weighs them based on when they’re scored (first, second, third or fourth quarter, plus OT), but also in what on-floor situation they’re finished (even-strength, power-play or short-handed goals). The deeper into a game you go, the more a goal is worth. We break the data down into three distinctive segments: first-to-third quarter, fourth quarter, and then of course overtime. Our weekly leaderboard and scoring system can be found at the bottom of this article.
Andrew Kew, Georgia Swarm (Photo: Asher Greene)
Clutch Kings: Week 12
Same team. Different player. Similar success.
Andrew Kew has taken over the Clutch Kings lead from Georgia Swarm teammate Shayne Jackson, who previous to this past weekend, had held the #1 spot since our opening edition.
While there are other high-profile players that regularly positively impact the Swarm’s on-field success, offensively at least, Georgia’s victories have been tied closely to the production from Jackson and now more recently Kew.
During the Swarm’s strong 4-1 start, Jackson was averaging a hat-trick a game, collecting a ton of score-swaying points in Clutch Kings system, and even netting a fourth-quarter-tying-and-minutes-later-winning goal in a close one against the Panther City Lacrosse Club (12-10W) - more on PCLC in a bit.
In Jackson’s next three games, he had a combined zero goals. All of those games were Georgia losses.
During the Swarm’s hot-and-cold start, as we outlined in an earlier Player Rankings post, Kew was scoring 2.25 fewer goals per game in comparison to his breakout season last year. In fact, at the time, his goal-scoring decline was the largest data drop off anywhere in the league.
Since then, Kew has posted back-to-back four goal games, not surprisingly, both Georgia Ws. He also scored the OT winner (vs. Vancouver) and a very late fourth period winner (at Rochester) to take his season GWG total up to three. Kew and New York’s Connor Kearnan (sixth overall on our updated Clutch Kings leaderboard and a regular here the previous two regular seasons) lead the NLL in game winners.
Jonathan Donville, Panther City Lacrosse Club
Since we last saw you, Panther City’s Jonathan Donville has shot up the CK leaderboard as well. He’s tied for 44th in straight goal scoring in the NLL right now, but Donville sits second on our goals-that-matter-most countdown.
With a thrilling OT winner last weekend against the Colorado Mammoth and another game winner a few weeks earlier in Las Vegas, Donville has been money of late. He also has one of the highest game-trying goals total, while his three go-ahead goals are above average too. In fact, of Donville’s eleven total goals this year, nine have either tied the game, given PCLC the lead, or won his Fort Worth group the game. That’s, well, not mammoth, but massive.
Both Georgia and Panther City have a bit of a Mammoth vibe when comparing them to Colorado’s clutch Cup-crashing play over the past two seasons. Neither team is dominating (like the 2022 & 2023 Mammoth, if the playoffs started today, they’d be low qualifying seeds), but are getting inspired goal-scoring efforts from multiple players that rank on the Clutch Kings leaderboard.
Connor Robinson, Eli McLaughlin, Zed Williams and Tyson Gibson (Photo: John Harrison)
While their clutch touch had carried them to the last two Cups, the Mammoth aren’t getting that same money scoring this year. They’re not too far outside of our updated leaderboard, but neither Eli McLaughlin’s (our 2022 Clutch King winner) or Connor Robinson’s (2023’s CKs year-end leader) names appear below.
The 3-6 Mammoth, who’ve actually been hindered by seeing an above average amount of .500 or better teams so far this season (only the Philadelphia Wings have played more), are a combined 3-0 against Georgia and Panther City this year.
There’s still time, but if Colorado hopes to punch a late playoff ticket for a third straight seasons, they desperately need a win ASAP. Can they cue their own comeback? If any team is capable of that type of mid-season surge, it’s most definitely the often counted-out Colorado Mammoth.
Mitch Wilde and Connor Kearnan, New York Riptide (Photo: Brandon Hill)
NLL Club Kings: Week 12
CKs Rank. Player (NLL Gs Rank), Team, CKs Points (GTG/GAG/GWG)
1. Andrew Kew (T12), Georgia, 18.75 (3/2/3)
2. Jonathan Donville (T44), Panther City, 16.00 (4/3/2)
3. Shayne Jackson (T19), Georgia, 15.75 (1/6/1)
4. Austin Staats (2), San Diego, 14.75 (4/3/2)
5. Ryan Smith (T3), Rochester, 13.50 (3/3/1)
6. Connor Kearnan (T23), New York, 13.25 (1/2/3)
T7. Connor Fields (6), Rochester, 13.00 (3/4/1)
T7. Ethan Walker (T23), Albany, 13.00 (2/2/2)
9. Callum Crawford (T3), Panther City, 12.75 (3/5/1)
T10. Jeff Teat (1), New York, 12.00 (6/3/1)
T10. Josh Byrne (T7), Buffalo, 12.00 (4/1/2)
T10. Will Malcom (T28), Panther City, 12.00 (3/4/0)
13. Corey Small (T7), Toronto, 11.00 (1/2/2)
T14. Chris Cloutier (T33), Buffalo, 10.00 (4/1/1)
T14. Kyle Jackson (T53), San Diego, 10.00 (2/2/1)
T14. Clark Walter (T80), Saskatchewan, 10.00 (0/0/2)
T17. Mark Matthews (T39), Toronto, 9.50 (3/1/1)
T17. Jack Hannah (T53), Las Vegas, 9.50 (0/1/2)
T19. Lyle Thompson (5), Georgia, 9.00 (4/2/0)
T19. Alex Simmons (T19), Albany, 9.00 (2/2/1)
T19. Casey Jackson (T19), Las Vegas, 9.00 (2/3/0)
T22. Adam Charalambides (T7), Vancouver, 8.50 (5/2/0)
T22. Ryan Benesch (T7), Halifax, 8.50 (3/2/0)
Scoring System
First 3 Quarters (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Power-Play Goal: 0.50/0.75/1.00
Short-Handed Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Fourth Quarter (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Power-Play Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Short-Handed Goal: 4.00/6.00/8.00
Overtime (GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 6.00
Power-Play Goal: 3.00
Short-Handed Goal: 12.00