NLL Power Rankings: Week 2

Every week during the 2021/22 National Lacrosse League season, The Lax Mag will publish updated NLL Power Rankings reflecting the previous week’s performances, as well as a team’s overall regular season rep, status, and success rate.

Although their trip to 2-0 starts have been decidedly different, two teams that are really standing out as this year’s early frontrunners are the Buffalo Bandits and the Halifax Thunderbirds. With that said, both teams are getting superb shot stopping form their starters, they’re defensively suffocating, their press has pace & pop, and their forwards have been frightening.

Buffalo Bandits 2-0 (1)
In The Lax Mag Top 100, we wondered where Connor Fields would fit into Buffalo’s very role-defined offense. How does serving as their leading goal scorer over their first two sound? Fields has been firing & finishing frequently (team- and league-high 8 goals), all his scoring getting done with ten on the turf, and he’s only given the ball away twice. Between Fields, the equally electric Dhane Smith & Josh Byrne (even though they served more than scored vs. Rochester), and Matt Vinc looking magnificent (as usual), we’re keeping the Buffalo Bandits at #1.

Halifax Thunderbird 2-0 (2)
Let’s not waste a ton of space here on the significant stars they have sidelined (and those losses are indeed significant) but rather focus on what’s going ridiculously right for this glowing group. Warren Hill was hotter than hot, Clarke Petterson was offensively unstoppable (scored his first sock trick, three in one game was his previous best), and not only did Chris Boushy bag a helpful hatty, he was a pestering pain in the Rock’s ass all night. Their depth has been tested tremendously early on, and honestly, not sure it could be performing better than it has.

Philadelphia Wings 2-0 (5)
It wasn’t until Corey Small’s fifth game with the Buffalo Bandits in 2019/20 that he hit 16 points. This year, he’s popped in that many over just his first two games with the Philadelphia Wings. His clutch touch in the fourth quarter allowed Philly to get past the Riptide to keep their record squeaky clean. They’ve snuck by the big league’s bottom two (here and in the standings), so for those that don’t think they’ve been tested yet, the Wings have a motivated Toronto Rock side on Saturday night to show critics just how legit they really are.

Vancouver Warriors 2-0 (9)
Too early to be this high in the Power Rankings? Not really. Whether you believe the BC boys (they’ve got more of ‘em rostered than any other team today) are for real or not, you cannot deny the pretty play of Alex Buque between the pipes, you cannot deny that Reid Bowering is the best rookie in the league right now (and that might have still been true if Jeff Teat played Week 2), and you cannot deny their offense is more dynamic than it’s been in a bit. Better yet, the Vancouver Warriors have done all of this on the road.

Toronto Rock 1-1 (3)
Before Clarke Petterson’s first (of six) almost nine minutes into the first frame, the Rock arguably looked like the better side. After that, not so much. Warren Hill very visibly frustrated them to the point that Toronto looked offensively timid. Their creativity was seemingly handcuffed until Tom Schreiber sparked a second-half surge that fizzled late in the fourth. A power-play that looked so promising in Week 1, appeared uninspired against Hill. They’ve got a big one against the undefeated Wings at home in Hamilton on Saturday.

Calgary Roughnecks 1-1 (11)
What a response in Week 2 by the Calgary Roughnecks, their 11-10 win over the Saskatchewan Rush an early (we’re still the champs) statement game after starting the season with that second-half stinker in Buffalo. The headline was most definitely Christian del Bianco’s play between the pipes (plus “our poop didn’t stink”), but the sub-head has to about the secondary scoring they got from so many in so many different spots. Their official CTOs only totalled two on the scoresheet (as of today at least), which just can’t be correct based on the jump & jam their back-end played with. Not at all shockingly, they are a much better team with Tyler Pace (2 goals) on the turf. And yes, we see you Haiden Dickson (hat trick vs. Rush), who almost doubled his career goal tally in a single night.

Saskatchewan Rush 0-2 (4)
Their record doesn’t reflect who the Saskatchewan Rush really are. They’ve lost two tight ones against two very good teams. Their defense allowed far fewer chances than in Week 1 (52 shots allowed vs. Halifax, only 36 vs. Calgary) and most of their top-end forwards are finishing or at least finding shooters. Adam Shute didn’t look quite as crisp as he did a week earlier. “We could very easily be sitting at 2-0 and be singing a different tune,” said captain Chris Corbeil. “But we haven’t got the breaks. We’ve got to play tighter and we’ve got to play better.” 2-1 at this time next week surely sneaks them back into the Top 5 here.

San Diego Seals 1-1 (10)
Although starter Frank Scigliano received a lot of the applause (and deservedly so) for the team’s statistically significant result on Saturday night, the San Diego Seals seldom talked about defensive unit deserves some credit too. Led by versatile vets Brodie Merrill & Cam Holding, the rest of the team’s own end are hard-hustling ball hounds who aren’t afraid to bang bodies, the group limiting the Mammoth to just 37 shots on target in their decisive 13-4 win. Rookie Tre Leclaire is tops on the team in goals (5) and is second behind only Dane Dobbie for the points lead too (8).

Albany FireWolves 0-1 (7)
The Albany FireWolves already had their first weekend off and get bumped here slightly due to various league-wide Week 2 results. They’ll likely need more production from their forwards, outside of Andrew Kew of course, if they want to win close contests like the one they dropped to Toronto. After Kew, their next five forwards (Reilly O’Connor, Joe Resetarits, Jordan Durston, Jacob Ruest and Tanner Thomson) combined for just 2 goals on 26 shots on net against the Rock. Will we see the much-anticipated return of Garrett Thul when they host the Rochester Knightahwks on Saturday? The last NLL game held in Albany happened on April 12, 2003, a 12-8 Albany Attack win over the Vancouver Ravens.

Colorado Mammoth 1-1 (6)
Two weeks, two drastically different results. After looking so pulled together in Week 1, the Colorado Mammoth struggled mightily against the Seals a week later. Their four goals for vs. San Diego was one of the lowest registered in an NLL regular season game. Did they just run into a hot stopper? Is their relatively young offense still figuring out who does what? Will a date at Dickies with Panther City help them figure some of this out?

Rochester Knighthawks 1-1 (8)
In his post-game comments, Rochester Knighthawks Head Coach Mike Hasen said, “We’re not quite there yet.” That probably was most evident in the fourth quarter during Rochester’s eventual 12-8 loss to the Bandits, the period they allowed Buffalo to bully past them to secure the W. There were too many offensive Ofers from players that popped in Week 1 to keep up with the Bandits over a full four (Shawn Evans, Turner Evans and Thomas Hoggarth had a combined 6 goals against New York, then zero vs. Buffalo). The team is clearly happy with the play of vet Evan Kirk, who may not be sitting atop the stopper-stats leaderboard, but has provided the group with leadership, experience and a safety net they didn’t have during their expansion season.

Georgia Swarm 1-1 (12)
Led by Lyle Thompson’s 10-point effort, the Georgia Swarm rebounded after an unimpressive Week 1 outing by pushing past a Riptide side that were without Jeff Teat and playing their second of the weekend. With the youngest roster they’ve had in a while, it will be interesting to see what an almost month-long break will do to the development of their newer NLL names. The Swarm’s next game only happens on January 8th when they travel to Philadelphia to face the Wings.

New York Riptide 0-3 (13)
The loss of Jeff Teat will sting for sure, there’s no way around that. It’s unclear how long he may be on the shelf while sitting on New York’s COVID-protocol list. Weekends like the one Kieran McArdle had will help though. His 15 points, albeit during two losses, were two of his strongest statistical showings since entering the league. Last year he had just 20 points during the Riptide’s 12 games before the pandemic pause. After three this year, McArdle already has 17. And yes, that is Callum Crawford at the very top of the league scoring charts (18 points after three games), again.

Panther City Lacrosse Club 0-2 (14)
Panther City Week 2 positives included the play of Mike Triolo (2 goals, 3 assists) and Dawson Theede (2 goals). Triolo has more points in his first two starts with PCLC than the six he snuck into with Rochester in 2019. Whether it was nerves for their first-ever home opener or Alex Buque’s backstopping is just that unbeatable lately (it actually kinda is), the kitty cats (we clearly have to call them this now, right?) weren’t able to claw their way back against the Warriors. Like Head Coach Tracey Kelusky told the team, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Patience, Panther City.