The best undefeated regular season starts in National Lacrosse League history
Jackson Nishimura, Albany FireWolves
If the Albany FireWolves end up extending their season-starting win streak to 5-0 this upcoming weekend, they’ll do what just 17 teams did before them.
Since the National Lacrosse League’s very first season back in 1987, there have only been 17 instances of a club starting the regular season with a W streak of five or more.
Last year, we were wondering if Albany would finish with a record-low win percentage, a season that included a painful 0-10 run from mid-January to early April. Their eventual 3-15 season-ending record just barely kept them out of the ten worst (by W%) seasons in NLL history.
A mere month into the 2024 season, and not only have they bettered last year’s win total, this run they’re on is crashing NLL record books near the front pages, not buried with the bad ones in the back. Although there is still a lot of lacrosse left this season, we ranked Albany’s in-progress and really rapid turnaround as one of 2023’s biggest box lacrosse stories.
Glenn Clark, Albany FireWolves GM & Head Coach (Photo: Heather Barry)
The Toronto Rock (3-0) are the only other undefeated team left this year. More on them in a bit.
Albany hosts the previously hot Halifax Thunderbirds this Saturday at MVP Arena (7pm). Prior to last weekend, the Thunderbirds were also perfect, later losing to the Philadelphia Wings in OT, courtesy of a crazy second-half comeback from Philly.
Below are those 17 teams that at minimum did what the FireWolves are hoping to achieve this weekend: a 5-0 record to start their regular season. The FireWolves franchise (Philadelphia Wings 1.0 and New England Black Wolves before ending up in Albany) are a win away from becoming one of only three clubs to have as many as four 5-0 or better starts to their season – the Buffalo Bandits and Colorado Mammoth (Baltimore Thunder) are the other two.
Kyle Sweeney & Anthan Iannucci, 2008 Philadelphia Wings
Team (Season) Consecutive wins to start season
Edmonton Rush (2014) 14
*Buffalo Bandits (1993) 8
*Buffalo Bandits (1996) 7
Rochester Knighthawks (2023) 6
Buffalo Bandits (2022) 6
Halifax Thunderbirds (2020) 6
Colorado Mammoth (2012) 6
*Washington Stealth (2010) 6
Minnesota Swarm (2008) 6
Philadelphia Wings (2008) 6
Philadelphia Wings (1993) 6
*Philadelphia Wings (1990) 6
Buffalo Bandits (2009) 5
*Calgary Roughnecks (2009) 5
Colorado Mammoth (2008) 5
Colorado Mammoth (2004) 5
Baltimore Thunder (1999) 5
*NLL Cup winners that season
While the Edmonton Rush’s incredible 14 straight wins to start the 2014 season might be the most impressive and is most definitely the longest from the above list, there’s actually an undefeated campaign up there too.
Calgary Roughnecks, 2009 NLL Cup Champions (Photo: Larry Palumbo)
The 1993 Bandits went as perfect as they could have possibly been based on schedule length over three decades ago. Buffalo went 8-0 during the regular season and then 2-0 during the playoffs to capture that year’s Cup. The 1993 Wings’ 6-0 start sits on that list too. Philadelphia lost just once during the regular season that year, and once during the playoffs - obviously to Buffalo x2.
Do strong undefeated runs to start the regular season translate to playoff and even Cup-winning success?
Well, that 2014 Rush team that looked so invincible, exited the playoffs in the West Finals that year. The Mammoth, who’ve kinda barely made the playoffs the previous two seasons (seventh & eighth seed), were Cup winners and runners up during their recent remarkable runs.
In fact, of the 17 teams listed here today, only five went on to win the NLL Cup (see the asterisks above). Three of those instances were from the mid 90s and earlier. The season’s most perfect starting team hasn’t won since the 2010 Washington Stealth.
Eli McLaughlin, Colorado Mammoth, 2022 NLL Cup Game 3 (Photo: Jack Dempsey)
Since 2014, when the league moved to an 18-game regular season, see below how the eventual Cup winner did during their first five games of the year. That includes last year’s Cup-capturing Bandits, who’ve started the last two season with a loss to… the Albany FireWolves.
Team (Season) Record after first five games
Buffalo Bandits (2023) 4-1
Colorado Mammoth (2022) 4-1
Calgary Roughnecks (2019) 3-2
Saskatchewan Rush (2018) 4-1
Georgia Swarm (2017) 4-1
Saskatchewan Rush (2016) 3-2
Edmonton Rush (2015) 3-2 (started 0-2)
Rochester Knighthawks (2014) 3-2
While record-making undefeated starts haven’t materialized to many Cup wins, strong or at least better than .500 starts have, something every champion since 2014 has done. If that first five-game record requirement continues in 2024, that would already eliminate the New York Riptide (0-3), Las Vegas Desert Dogs (1-3), Saskatchewan Rush (1-3) and Vancouver Warriors (1-3) from Cup contention. None of those four teams have a chance at 3-2 after five, and we might get a few more in coming weeks.
Dan Ladouceur, Toronto Rock, 2009 NLL Cup Champion (Photo: Graig Abel)
The 3-0 Rock, who are on yet another bye week this upcoming weekend, have already matched the franchise’s longest W streak to start a season, doing the same in 2000, 2010, 2011 and 2015. In fact, current Albany GM & Head Coach Glenn Clark played for Toronto during the team’s first 3-0 instance in 2000, a year that ended with a Cup. The Rock also won it all during another 3-0 start in 2011, which was the team’s last title.
Thanks to the NLL’s division demolishing, the FireWolves and Rock only play each other once this year, and that game won’t take place until April 6 in Albany.