The Links: Zach Manns pops off in playoffs, again; Eli McLaughlin ends San Diego’s season, again
Brad Kri & Adam Jay, Toronto Rock (Photo: Cristian Bender)
We spent Saturday morning collecting all the media mentions of last night’s first two NLL Quarterfinals between the Toronto Rock & Halifax Thunderbirds (15-11 Rock), and San Diego Seals & Colorado Mammoth (13-12 Mammoth).
Click here for The Lax Mag’s NLL Playoffs schedule, scores and more updates, plus keep reading for last night’s links from 2023’s opening postseason matches.
A handful of hours prior to the first face-off in Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre between the Rock & Thunderbirds, Toronto announced that Tom Schreiber had been moved to the team’s injured reserve list (upper body injury) and would obviously not be available for last night’s QF games. The roster transaction shocked virtually everyone on social media (“Oh no!”- many), The Lax Mag soon after confirming that the Rock were 7-8 when Schreiber was absent from their lineup going back to his rookie season in 2017. Schreiber was arguably the team’s MVP over the last two seasons, and has been inside The Lax Mag’s Player Rankings Top 10 for most of the recently completed regular season. Rookie forward Josh Dawick was added to the team’s active roster to replace the sidelined Schreiber.
Last year, the Mammoth lost their MVP, Ryan Lee, to injury early in the playoffs. Then a few weeks later Eli McLaughlin was sidelined due to an undisclosed injury too. Spoiler alert: Colorado would go on to win the 2022 NLL Cup.
In Schreiber’s place, the Rock received spread-out scoring, with all five of their full-time forwards finishing, Zach Manns leading the way with 3 goals (on just 5 shots) and 3 assists in the team’s 15-11 win over the Thunderbirds. Manns also netted Toronto’s fourth-quarter winner.
“We were joking around, calling him ‘playoff Zach’,” Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer told the Toronto Sun last night. “He’s a player who is supremely talented and he’s a bit of an x-factor for us. He’s had a tough season but he’s always working at it and he has a knack for coming up big in big moments.”
Although the playoff sample size is small, below, see Mann’s goals, assists, points and shots per game averages during the regular season and playoffs in 2022 & 2023. The chart below are combined two-season averages.
Zach Manns: Regular Season vs. Playoffs
Shooting an almost identical amount of times (he’s typically the Rock’s fourth or fifth shooting option in most games), Manns produces at a higher rate during the playoffs, with or without Schreiber on the floor (last year Schreiber played in all three of Toronto’s postseason games).
Manns, who finished fourth on the Rock roster in shots on goal in 2022 (behind Schreiber, Dan Craig and a since-traded Rob Hellyer) was the team’s top rated player in last year’s Clutch Kings series, where we track every player’s game-tying, go-ahead and game-winning goals, then weigh them based on when they’re scored and also in what on-floor situation they’re finished (click here for more on this year’s Clutch Kings).
He was selected by the Rock as the game’s first star, plus Coolbet’s Player of the Game.
The game was filled with an above average amount of penalties (especially for the playoffs) and a number of lengthy stoppages (especially in the second quarter). During these two team’s quarterfinal game last year, 14 minutes in penalties total were handed out. Last night refs wrote down 38 PIMs on the scoresheet, three of which were checking from behind calls, although the game’s most glaring went unpenalized.
This also happened, although Rock captain Challen Rogers and referee Josh Hiltz had a laugh later in the game.
Early in the game, the Rock were heavily outshooting the Thunderbirds. With 90s second left in the first quarter, Toronto was up 19-3 in SOG, 21-5 to start the second, and 30-13 several minutes later, although Halifax goalie Warren Hill was making a multitude of outstanding stops to not only keep the Thunderbirds competitive, but allowing them to enter halftime tied at five and clearly feeling really good about the next half hour.
“It was similar to last year but we didn’t make it quite as close,” Sawyer told the Hamilton Spectator. “They’re a really good team. They’re big and, using hockey terms, heavy up front. They push you around and really test you. We felt we left a lot on the table tonight. We had a lot of opportunities we didn’t cash in on that we usually do. Warren was really good early on and I think we were overthinking it a bit.”
Over the past two seasons, when Halifax has beaten Toronto, Hill has had exceptional outings in each of those Ws. Last night’s impressive performance by Hill resulted in a rare loss for the Thunderbirds when their starter has had that strong a night.
Warren Hill, Halifax Thunderbirds (Photo: Trevor McMillan)
With under four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Halifax forward Randy Staats jumped to snag a rebound that had come off the boards, and then immediately ripped an uncontested outside shot at the Rock goal. Staats, who missed all of the 2022 season due to an ACL injury, slowly dropped to his knee after the scoring attempt. Seconds later he was in very visible pain while laying flat out on the turf. The Thunderbirds medical staff rushed out to Staats’ side after the game was paused. He was later helped off the floor by his teammates, putting little to no pressure on his right side, which has a brace on his previously repaired knee. The Halifax forward had an impressive comeback season with his new team (had been traded from Panther City to Halifax in the offseason), leading the Thunderbirds in assists (59) and points (93), second behind Chris Boushy (38) in goals (34). The offensively potent pair led the team with a hat-trick each in last night’s loss. Although Staats did not return to the game, he was on the floor during the post-game handshakes between the two teams.
Update: On the Monday following the QF game between Toronto & Halifax, the Thunderbirds provided the following statement regarding Staats’ status…
Yesterday’s rare Friday night home game for the Rock at the FirstOntario Centre (Stars on Ice is in there tonight) had 8,831 fans in the soon-to-be-renovated stands.
The Rock vs. Thunderbirds game was a rematch from last year’s quarterfinals. Although it happened a round later, so was Friday night’s other playoff game between the Mammoth and host Seals, who met in 2022’s East Conference Finals.
Colorado stormed out to 5-1 & 7-3 leads over the first two quarters, led largely by Dillon Ward’s incredible play in the Mammoth’s crease, plus goals from five different scorers over those first 30 minutes at San Diego’s Pechanga Arena. Ward, who was named last year’s NLL Finals MVP, finished the night with 52 saves, several of which were highlight-of-the-night worthy.
Although #tradeward didn’t appear to trend at any time last night, the misspelling of his name did make an appearance. He noticed.
For comparison’s sake, here are the recorded save totals of all the goalies that played last night, Ward 14 ahead of the next nearest netminder:
Dillon Ward, Colorado (52)
Warren Hill, Halifax (38)
Frank Scigliano, San Diego (32)
Nick Rose, Toronto (31)
The Mammoth, who last year were never seemingly considered contenders for the NLL Cup they eventually won, and this year come into the playoffs seeded eighth of eight teams, have again excelled once the playoff switch is flipped. “It’s playoff lacrosse,” Ward told Raine Michaels during an on-floor post-game interview. “It’s only one game. We don’t have to be the better team, we just have to be the better team tonight. We came out here, executed our game plan, weathered the storm at the end, and Eli’s as clutch as they come. We just believe in ourselves. We just trust & execute.”
Colorado entered last year’s playoffs with a 10-8 record, this year one win worse at 9-9. In eight playoff games over the past two years, the Mammoth are 6-2.
Ward and San Diego captain Brodie Merrill, who failed to capture his first NLL Cup courtesy of last night’s loss, traded heated words during last night’s post-game handshakes. It appeared Ward was upset about something from earlier in the evening, Brodie barking back while Colorado Head Coach Pat Coyle came between the two star players. The fairly quick exchange never turned physical.
Ward mentioned that McLaughlin is “…as clutch as they come,” which lines up with our findings in last year’s and this year’s Clutch Kings math. Over the past two seasons, during both the regular season & playoffs, few players have comes close to scoring the amount of game-tying, go-ahead and game-winning goals that McLaughliln has (often doing it late too), who last night scored Colorado’s QF clincher with just 1.8 seconds left on the clock.
During Game 3 of 2022’s West Conference Finals between these same two teams, McLaughlin scored a late fourth-quarter finish in similar fashion. Like last night, it ended San Diego’s promising postseason run.
McLaughlin admitted that yesterday’s drawn-up play required him to pass the ball to an open teammate behind the goal, likely for a last second dunk attempt. With time ticking away, the confirmed Clutch King had other plans.
While McLaughlin’s money performance stole the show (4G, 3A), it was actually teammate Ryan Lee that led all players in points last night (4G, 5A). In 2022, Lee had another strong outing during the opening round of the playoffs (1G, 8A) when Colorado knocked off Calgary in the quarters, but would not return after sustaining a knee injury. This past season, Lee played just six regular season games while moving on and off the team’s IR. In the league’s Friday afternoon injury report, Lee was listed as questionable hours ahead of last night’s meagingful match.
Kevin Crowley, San Diego Seals (Photo: Mike McGinnis)
The Seals, who went all-in during the offseason, bringing in free agents like Curtis Dickson, Kevin Crowley and even Jesse Gamble (all on one-year deals), plus re-signing Dane Dobbie & goalie Frank Scigliano for single seasons, will have some decisions to make this summer. Many are also obviously wondering if Merrill, who’ll turn 42 in November and just completed his seventeenth season in the NLL, will return for another run at the only bullet his remarkable resume is missing: the NLL Cup.
The announced attendance at Pechanga Arena was 5,210.
Pechanga Arena, San Diego, CA (Photo: Mike McGinnis)