NLL Power Rankings: Week 1
Brodie Merril & Curtis Dickson, San Diego Seals (Photo: Evan Bernstein)
Every week during the 2022-23 National Lacrosse League season, The Lax Mag will publish updated NLL Power Rankings reflecting the previous week’s performances, as well as incorporating a team’s overall regular season rep, status, and success rate.
With a number of Cup contenders blowing up their competition in Week 1 (Toronto, Halifax and Saskatchewan), the San Diego Seals remain in the top spot after a much closer result against the New York Riptide. Things don’t get any easier for the stacked Seals, who’ll host the reinvigorated Saskatchewan Rush this Friday at Pechanga Arena (10pm ET).
San Diego Seals 1-0 (1)
San Diego escaped New York thanks to a pair of last-second stops from Frank Scigliano and a fire 5-goal Seals debut for Curtis Dickson. Sharing the ball doesn’t seem like it will be an issue either, their new & old names all getting their fair share of looks last Saturday. Assuming his post-season starts don’t screw up his regular-season status, Mike McCannell (3A) has big ROTY potential pushing the pace on the Seals’ press.
Toronto Rock 1-0 (3)
In their one-sided, season-opening win vs. Vancouver: Nick Rose was outstanding between the pipes, Toronto’s defense was solid in their own end (Brad Kri: 3CTO) & punishing on the press (led by Mitch de Snoo’s hat-trick, defense-first players produced 6 goals & 6 assists in the win), plus their primary & secondary scoring options went off. New Rock forwards Corey Small & Stephen Keogh played their roles pretty perfectly.
Halifax Thunderbirds 1-0 (5)
From Warren Hill being back in GOTY-good form, Graeme Hossack leaner & meaner, five forwards finishing with 7 or 8 points against the shellshocked Wings (Chris Boushy, Cody Jamieson, Randy Staats, Clarke Petterson and Ryan Benesch), and an extra four from Eric Fannell, the Thunderbirds looked about as locked in as you can get during their Week 1 win. The squad is looking scary, and that was without Austin Shanks, who will be available for their next one on December 17 (at New York, 7:30pm ET).
Saskatchewan Rush 1-0 (6)
After last year’s slow & sluggish start to the season, the Rush clearly needed a statement performance in Week 1 to put the league on notice. They got that and more as they embarrassed the defending champs from Denver, 18-6. Like most of the teams in the Top 4 today, they got great goaltending (Alex Buque), awesome defense (led by Kyle Rubisch’s 8LB & 4CTO) and an explosive offense (Mark Matthews topping the charts with 11 Week 1 points). Their upcoming game in San Diego is easily this weekend’s most anticipated must-see match (Friday, 10pm ET).
Buffalo Bandits 0-1 (2)
We’ll keep them reasonably high based on the Bandits clearly being better than they showed on Saturday, but Buffalo has some areas to address early on. Their forwards were frustrated by FireWovles stopper Doug Jamieson, the Bandits defense looked out of sorts with Steve Priolo on the shelf due to illness (plus other less-obvious changes shaking up chemistry) and Matt Vinc did not have the best start of his career (11 goals allowed on just 38 shots). The bruised Bandits will have a week off to rest up for a huge Week 3 clash against the Rock. Last year, the Bandits did no worse than #2 in TLM’s NLL Power Rankings.
New York Riptide 0-1 (7)
Even with a loss, the resilient Riptide get pushed up a spot because of their overall effort against the #1 ranked Seals on Saturday. Jeff Teat was, well, incredible (4G, 8A, 11LB). Trade acquisition Reilly O’Connor (2G, 3A, 5LB) looked extremely comfortable, ditto for free-agent get Kevin Brownell (2A, 4LB, 1CTO). During the team’s post-game presser, O’Connor said, “We’ve got to find a way to win back here in two weeks to prove that we are one of the best teams too, which I know we are.” They’ll host Halifax on December 17 (7:30pm).
Colorado Mammoth 0-1 (4)
Their goalies got lit up (Dillon Ward & Tyler Carlson allowed 18 altogether), their defense struggled to limit looks (the Rush had 70 shots against them in Week 1), and up front, no one was finding the net with any real regularity (their 6 goals were the lowest team total last weekend). We saw the Mammoth at their absolute best during last year’s playoffs. Week 1’s performance was nothing close to what this group looked like last June. On Tuesday, the Mammoth signed Cup-winning vet Rhys Duch to a one-year deal.
Calgary Roughnecks 0-0 (9)
The Roughnecks kick off their season this Saturday against the Warriors at Scotiabank Saddledome (9:30pm ET). This will be the first time in a dozen seasons that the team will not have Curtis Dickson on their roster. “Like everybody says, the buzzword is offence by committee,” Head Coach Curt Malawsky recently told the Calgary Sun. “But truly for us, we got Pacer (Tyler Pace) on the right side and Jesse (King) on the left side, and then we’ve got a lot of young guys that can bang and crash.”
Panther City Lacrosse Club 0-0 (10)
Like the Roughnecks, the Panther City Lacrosse Club sat silent during the league’s season-opening Week 1. A team that likely feels a bit disrespected & undervalued by many around the league (including their peers), the now not-so-green group added some valuable assets over the offseason. Anything less than securing a playoff spot this season will likely be deemed a failure.
Albany FireWolves 1-0 (14)
Doug Jamieson looked obscenely good while holding the mighty Bandits to 10 goals on 55 shots. Equally impressive was Albany’s offense, which on paper lacked proven-pro-goal power, but they popped off against Buffalo in a big way. Tanner Thompson, Kieran McArdle, Connor Kelly and Ethan Walker all buried a pair, plus Hiana Thompson made his presence known up front too. Their four spot jump was the highest this week.
Rochester Knighthawks 1-0 (13)
The Knighthawks flipped the script in the second half to sour the Swarm’s home opener on Saturday. Yes, Connor Fields going off for 11 points was one of the weekend’s best individual efforts, but additional scoring from Curtis Knight (3G, 3A), Holden Cattoni (3G, 2A) and Thomas Hoggarth (2G, 3A) provided Rochester with arguably the most complete offensive effort we’ve seen from them since the franchise’s restart. A 46-stop outing from Rylan Hartley, who missed a lot of last season due to injury, was critically clutch too.
Philadelphia Wings 0-1 (8)
Not much to say other than their performance against the Thunderbirds was painful to watch. The Wings goalies got little help in front of them, and outside of a seemingly angry Blaze Riorden (5 goals), there was little consistency up front either.
Georgia Swarm 0-1 (11)
A nearly 24-minute scoreless stretch in the second half allowed the Knighthawks to sneak back in and sink the Swarm in their home opener. Leader Lyle Thompson was held to just a single goal on 12 shots, his 9 turnovers maybe even more concerning considering his typical positive possession totals.
Vancouver Warriors 0-1 (12)
It was mentioned on the TSN Game of the Week broadcast on Saturday, and many times since, but not having a single exhibition game clearly hurt the Warriors, who looked to be in pre-season mode. The Rock ran them in transition early, and Vancouver were very visibly a step or two behind. No Shawn Evans or a few others last week in Hamilton due to injuries or other reasons, it sounds like they might get a few notable bodies back for Game 2 at Calgary on Saturday night (9:30pm ET).
Las Vegas Desert Dogs 0-0 (15)
The Desert Dogs will get their first-ever game in this Friday when they travel to Fort Worth for date with the Panther City Lacrosse Club. Picking up proven pros through trades (Rob Hellyer, Reid Reinholdt and Jacob Ruest) & free agency (players voted Las Vegas one of the teams they’d most want to get traded to) gives Vegas an elevated-expansion-team vibe heading into their historic season opener this Friday (8:30pm ET).