Clutch Kings: Lyle Thompson takes the top spot

He took over the top spot in this week’s NLL Player Rankings, and now Lyle Thompson takes #1 in The Lax Mag’s Clutch Kings too, becoming just the fourth player to lead our clutch-scoring countdown this season.

Blaze Riorden, Connor Kearnan and Ben McIntosh were earlier clutch chart toppers this season.

While it was Georgia Swarm teammate Shayne Jackson that sank the OT winner against the Rochester Knighthawks last weekend, Thompson still turned up when he was needed, netting both a game-tying and go-ahead goal in Friday night’s fire finish.

Maybe the most impressive of any player last week, however, was Albany’s Ryan Benesch. The FireWolves forward, who was a Money Ballers winner back in the day, scored four times in the team’s OT loss to the #1 ranked Buffalo Bandits last week. Each one of his goals either tied or pushed the FireWolves ahead. In addition to three go-ahead goals through the first three frames, Benesch would also bury a fourth quarter tying goal too.

This week, we’ll take an even deeper dive into what percentage of this year’s top scorers’ goal total are helping flip the flow of games, plus what forwards do most of their scoring in even-strength and power-play situations.

Note: Only players who have scored ten or more goals were included in this analysis.

Reid Reinholdt, Toronto Rock (Photo: Ryan McCullough)

Clutch King % of Scoring

For those that have been following since the start, a TLM Clutch King goal is simply a game-tying, go-ahead or game-winning goal. The Clutch King system also puts a point value on when goals are scored and in what situation (ES, PP or SH), but for this breakdown, we’re just examining what percentage of a players’ goals have tied a game, given their team the lead or won their team the game.

Of Reid Reinholdt’s 12 goals this year, 8 have either tied a game or pushed the Rock ahead. San Diego’s Tre Leclaire, who we recently highlighted in our Clutch Kings Rookie Edition, see most of his goals shift the score-line too.

1. Reid Reinholdt, Toronto 66.67%
T2. Tre Leclaire, San Diego 60.00%*
T2. Jess King, Calgary 60.00%
4. Josh Byrne, Buffalo 55.56%
T5. Blaze Riorden, Philadelphia 54.55%
T5. Zach Manns, Toronto 54.55%
7. Zach Herreweyers, Calgary 50.00%
8. Austin Staats, San Diego 47.37%
9. Eli McLaughlin, Colorado 47.06%
10. Dan Dawson, Toronto 41.67%

Scorers with ten or more goals with the lowest percentage of goals that are either GTGs, GAGs or GWGs, include:

1. Chase Fraser, Buffalo 0.00%
2. Curtis Dickson, Calgary 6.25%
3. Kieran McArdle, New York 10.00%
4. Jake Fox, New York 10.00%
5. Rob Hellyer, Toronto 15.38%
T6. Thomas Hoggarth, Rochester 16.67%
T6. Mitch Jones, Vancouver 16.67
T6. Austin Shanks, Halifax 16.67%
T6. Jeff Teat, New York 16.67%
10. Tom Schreiber, Toronto 17.24%

Riley Loewen, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jack Dempsey)

Even-Strength vs. Power-Play % of Scoring

Who has been doing most of their damage with an even amount of bodies on the floor and who’s been capitalizing with one or more missing? Well, every goal that Clarke Petterson, Jake Fox and Riley Loewen have finished has been in even-strength situations. Ben McIntosh, who previously with the Edmonton/Saskatchewan Rush had double digit PPG seasons, sits at only two with Philadelphia this year. With that said, Philly’s power-played production is presently ranked first in the NLL (52.4%).

T1. Clarke Petterson, Halifax 100%
T1. Jake Fox, New York 100%
T1. Riley Loewen, Vancouver 100%
4. Curtis Knight, Rochester 92%
T5. Blaze Riorden, Philadelphia 91%
T5. Challen Rogers, Toronto 91%
T5. Zach Manns, Toronto 91%
T8. Ben McIntosh, Philadelphia 90%
T8. Tre Leclaire, San Diego 90%*
T10. Jeff Teat, New York 89%*
T10. Tehoka Nanticoke, Buffalo 89%*

What players pop most of their goal-scoring points when their club has an odd-man advantage?

1. Larson Sundown, New York 60%*
T2. Mitch Jones, Vancouver 42%
T2. Reid Reinholdt, Toronto 42%
4. Logan Schuss, Vancouver 36%
5. Brendan Bomberry, Georgia 35%
T6. Brett Hickey, Philadelphia 33%
T6. Corey Small, Philadelphia 33%
T8. Curtis Dickson, Calgary 31%
T8. Dan Lintner, Saskatchewan 31%
Several tied at 30%

Tom Schreiber, Toronto Rock (Photo: Ryan McCullough)

Goals/Games Played

We looked at a variety of stat/games played figures in the NLL Player Rankings a handful of weeks ago, which with the amount of players missing games due to protocol placements and other MIA reason, has been worthwhile this winter. Here’s an update to the goals/games played rundown.

1. Tom Schreiber, Toronto 3.22
2. Mitch Jones, Vancouver 3.00
3. Lyle Thompson, Georgia 2.82
4. Austin Staats, San Diego 2.71
T5. Curtis Dickson, Calgary 2.67
T5. Wes Berg, San Diego 2.67
7. Joe Resetarits, Albany 2.58
8. Ryan Lee, Colorado 2.56
9. Shayne Jackson, Georgia 2.50
T10. Dane Dobbie, San Diego 2.44
T10. Holden Cattoni, Rochester 2.44
T10. Kyle Killen, Vancouver 2.44

Our updated NLL Clutch Kings is below. New names on this week’s Top 20ish include Will Malcom, who scored that sensational OT winner for Panther City last week, and Holden Cattoni, who was critically clutch in the same extra-frame game that Thompson and Jackson featured so prominently in.

NLL Clutch Kings: Week 14

CKs Rank. Player (NLL G Rank), Team, CKs Points (GTG/GAG/GWG)

1. Lyle Thompson (T1), Georgia, 18.50 (7/1/2)
2. Ryan Benesch (T4), Albany, 17.75 (2/6/1)
3. Josh Byrne (T22), Buffalo, 16.00 (4/5/1)
4. Robert Church (T7), Saskatchewan, 15.75 (4/3/1)
5. Ben McIntosh (T15), Philadelphia, 15.50 (1/5/0)
T6. Austin Staats (T20), San Diego, 14.50 (5/3/1)
T6. Tehoka Nanticoke (T20), Buffalo, 14.50 (2/2/3)*
T6. Shayne Jackson (T4), Georgia, 14.50 (2/2/2)
T9. Connor Kearnan (T7), New York, 14.00 (6/1/1)
T9. Chris Boushy (T36), Halifax, 14.00 (0/3/3)
T9. Stephan Leblanc (T72), Halifax, 14.00 (1/1/2)
T12. Eli McLaughlin (T27), Colorado, 13.25 (3/2/3)
T12. Blaze Riorden (T51), Philadelphia, 13.25 (2/3/1)
T14. Joe Resetarits (T1), Albany, 13.00 (5/2/1)
T14. Patrick Dodds (40), Panther City, 13.00 (2/0/2)*
16. Kyle Killen (T12), Vancouver, 12.25 (3/5/0)
17. Dan Dawson (T44), Toronto, 12.00 (2/1/2)
T18. Holden Cattoni (T12), Rochester, 11.50 (4/5/0)
T18. Andrew Kew (T18), Albany, 11.50 (3/5/0)
20. Wes Berg (T4), San Diego, 11.25 (2/5/2)
21. Will Malcom (T31), Panther City, 11.00 (2/1/1)
T22. Brett Hickey (T36), Philadelphia, 10.75 (3/2/1)
T22. Zach Herreweyers (T57), Calgary, 10.75 (2/1/2)

*Rookie

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

4th 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