NLL Power Rankings: Week 6
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.
Another week, another San Diego Seals win, keeping them at the top of The Lax Mag’s NLL Power Rankings for a sixth straight week. The Seals and the Rochester Knighthawks remain the league’s last two unbeaten teams, both with 4-0 records atop their respective divisions.
San Diego Seals 4-0 (1)
Last week we said the Seals have shown tremendous confidence in young backup goalie Chris Origlieri, giving him big minutes late in super-close contests. Well, this past weekend the Orangeville Northmen product got the start versus Vancouver, and again, gave San Diego’s staff even more reason to trust him. For those worried if sharing the ball would be an issue for San Diego’s stacked attack… Curtis Dickson, Dane Dobbie and Wes Berg are tied for third overall in league point production with 28 apiece. Seems to be going OK.
Buffalo Bandits 3-1 (2)
That opening-week slip against Albany feels like forever ago, because the Bandits are back to their dominating selves, this past Saturday easily swatting away the Swarm, 18-9. A former fourth rounder that has struggled to secure full-time minutes elsewhere in the league, Brandon Robinson is an early candidate for Breakout Player of the Year after his fire five-goal performance against Georgia.
Rochester Knighthawks 4-0 (5)
Last year it took the Knighthawks until late April to lock up their fourth (and final) win of the season. A week into January, and they’ve already matched 2022’s miserable mark. Their next seven games will see them against East Conference rivals (New York, Buffalo and Toronto) in a series of massively meaningful matches right up until mid-March. It will by far Rochester’s toughest stretch of the 2022-23 regular season.
Halifax Thunderbirds 3-1 (3)
Even with a win, Rochester’s dominating performance against Panther City pushes Halifax down a peg, who got by Albany in a really competitive contest. When Warren Hill looks as good as he did, Jake Withers is dominating the dot (he easily leads the league with 101 FOW right now), their offense is moving the ball as well as they were, and their defense limits good looks (all of which happened last weekend in Albany), well, not many teams will be able to compete with them this year. Anyone catch how high second-year American Ryan Terefenko was in the league’s LB column? He's in fifth (second if you subtract F-T FO takers) with 45 after four.
Saskatchewan Rush 2-1 (4)
Off this past weekend, the Rush get the Mammoth this upcoming Friday in Denver, a team that looks much improved since they smoked them in Week 1 (16-8). “We expect them to be much better,” said Saskatchewan Head Coach Jimmy Quinlan regarding their rematch with Colorado. “We’ll prepare accordingly, like we do every week, we’ll have a plan, and we’ll do our best to execute.” Saskatchewan took the regular-season series against Cup-winning Colorado 2-1 in 2022.
Toronto Rock 2-2 (7)
After struggling to sink their opportunities early, the Rock ruled the rest of the game against the Riptide, limiting Jeff Teat to just a pair of assists. They’re still struggling on the power-play (0-2 this past weekend, 6-17 on the season, 35%), but everything else looked figured out after their short two game slide. How big have their off-season vet gets been for them? Corey Small (19) is second behind only Tom Schreiber (23) for total points, and Stephen Keogh’s 8 goals sit second to just Schreiber’s & Small’s 9. Challen Rogers, who played in his more traditional D-first role, had probably his best game of the season last weekend.
Colorado Mammoth 2-1 (8)
Last year Mammoth forwards Eli McLaughlin & Connor Robinson finished first & fifth respectively in The Lax Mag’s Clutch Kings countdown, an in-depth look at the most money goal scorers in the NLL. So it should be zero surprise that it was McLaughlin that sparked a third period comeback against Calgary last week, and Robinson’s last-quarter triple (he had five total, all of which were either game-tying, go-ahead or game-winning goals) lifted the Mammoth to an important win over their division rivals. FYI: Clutch Kings is back next week.
Calgary Roughnecks 2-2 (6)
The Roughnecks were again edged by one of last year’s West Conference Finalists, this time dropping a one-goal game to the Cup-defending Mammoth, 8-9. It was the third time in four games Christian Del Bianco & Calgary’s defense have allowed under ten, a number NLL coaches usually feel should be enough for a W. “We’re still trying to find the right mix up front, I’ve been changing guys in and out throughout the start of the year,” Head Coach Curt Malawsky recently said. “Just trying to find that right mix of seven that can consistently put the ball in the net for us.” So far this season, Calgary’s top goal scorers have been: Jesse King (10), Tanner Cook (7), Tyler Pace (6), Haiden Dickson (6) and always-transitional threat Shane Simpson (5).
Philadelphia Wings 2-1 (10)
Philadelphia gets Panther City this weekend, which based on their recent track record, should be a victory. Last year, the Wings were 8-1 against teams that were unable to qualify for the playoffs, just 1-8 against those that played past the regular season. That trend has kinda continued a season later. Last year, the Wings needed OT to get past Panther City, who’ve lost three straight heading into Saturday (7pm ET).
Albany FireWolves 1-2 (11)
Even after last week’s loss, we moved the FireWolves up, Albany giving Halifax all they could handle in a back-and-forth battle that felt like it could have gone either way. Connor Kelly, who didn’t even play in the NLL last year (released by Panther City) and was a low-key free agent add for Albany this past offseason, is on pace to smash his previous single-season stats. He currently leads the team in goals (7), assists (9) and obviously points (16), plus leads all their forwards in loosies too (14).
New York Riptide 0-3 (9)
We had kept the Riptide in the Top 10 since the preseason largely due to early expectations and impressive outings in two tight losses to top teams, but last week’s uninspired effort against the Rock resets their ranking to last year’s lower levels. Rick Lisk has already made a move after replacing Jim Veltman just days ago, bringing in Chad Cummings, who addresses some of their early areas of concern. The Riptide are just one of three teams to rank in the bottom five in goals for (10.67) & goals against (16.67). They get a red-hot Rochester Knighthawks team (4-0) on Sunday afternoon, an intriguing match against 2019 expansion entries.
Panther City Lacrosse Club 2-3 (12)
After spoiling the Desert Dogs’ season & home openers to start the year, Panther City has struggled against stiffer competition, dropping their third straight this past weekend. They are one of four teams this year to average fewer than ten goals a game, earlier this week adding Jake Fox via trade to help kickstart some consistency up front.
Although he was held to zero goals this past weekend, Will Malcom’s early stat line has been impressive (9G, 15A, 31LB). He’s not completely on pace to hit the really rare 30-60-90 mark (G-A-LB), but is close. As far as forwards go, only Tom Schreiber, who himself is on track to crack that elusive statistical club, has collected more loosies than Malcom this year.
Georgia Swarm 0-3 (13)
Their goaltending has not stood up, their defense has allowed too many quality looks, their press has lost a step, and offensively the Swarm look out of sorts. That includes Lyle Thompson, who continues to turn over the ball at an alarmingly high rate. Prior to this season, Thompson was arguably the top possession forward in the NLL, but today leads the league with 25 TO after just three games (on pace to own over 100 more TO vs. last year’s total) . Offseason acquisition Andrew Kew has taken fewer shots than Thompson, but has one more goal than him and ten fewer turnovers too. Kew leads the Swarm in points (17).
When was the last time the Swarm started a season 0-3? Well, never. This is a first for the franchise, going all the way back to their expansion campaign in Minnesota during the 2004-05 season. They’ll get Buffalo for a second straight week, but this time in Banditland (Saturday, 7:30pm ET).
Vancouver Warriors 0-4 (14)
The Warriors had more shots, loose balls and face-off wins than the #1 ranked Seals on Saturday night, but let their Week 6 game slip away in the second half. Also lost this past week was the team’s leadership, both Dan Richardson & Ken Thomas stepping aside, Richardson’s departure done for personal reasons. Like a few teams that have struggled early this year, the quality of their opposition has been high-end for sure. Their next three could flip their fortunes, however, when the Warriors play the expansion Desert Dogs twice, and a goal-searching Panther City side after that.
Las Vegas Desert Dogs 0-3 (15)
No team has struggled to score goals more than Las Vegas this year, their 7.67 goals per game easily the worst average in the league. Their full-time forwards’ shooting percentage is also at the bottom of the NLL team-total table, highlighted by Rob Hellyer at just 8%. Over their first three, no player has scored more than three goals.
After nearly a decade away from the sport while playing professional hockey, Emerson Clark, a former draft pick of the Rock, suited up for Vegas in his first-ever NLL game last Friday night. Known as a fire fighter during his Junior A career with the Whitby Warriors, Clark scored in his pro-lacrosse debut with the Dogs. No fights though… yet!