2010 National Lacrosse League season thread

[Jer15]

The Titans wound up winning 13-8 last night. Tonight, Toronto took care of Boston in Colin Doyle's first game back with the Rock, and in the most shocking result of the weekend so far, the Bandits only managed 5 goals in a 10-5 drubbing by the K'hawks (who were also sporting some nice new teal jerseys this evening).

The Swarm open in Calgary tomorrow, a game that's actually being carried on local Twin Cities TV. Meanwhile the Stealth are playing their first game in Washington state now, against Colorado. In an odd bit of revisionist history, they raised a 2008 Western Division championship banner to the Comcast Arena rafters before the game - with the Washington logo on it (the one I posted further up this thread), even though that title was obviously won in San Jose.

That IS weird!

I can't believe they did that. I figured that would just slip between the cracks.

I can honestly say, outside of Buffalo's no show, I wasn't all that surprised at this weekend's results. But being able to watch the game on TSN2 was just awesome! TSN2 is carrying all of the Rock's games this season for those who don't know.

[Viper]

Well, my Swarm hung in with Calgary for most of the game, at the Saddledome no less, but not surprisingly the Riggers proved to be too much for Minnesota in the end. 12-7 is your final.

On the uniform front, the Swarm took the turf wearing blue-on-white versions of the gold-on-blue jerseys with blue and gold sleeve stripes they unveiled midway through last season. Alas, that look doesn't translate very well to white jerseys.

Picture of new Swarm white jersey, compared to other recent Swarm jerseys

[-kj]

Actually, I think that look translates quite nicely.

[Viper]

Well, with Week 1 in the books and Week 2 just around the corner, here are some interesting early returns:

"30 goals for, six fights, almost 13 thousand fans, and most importantly, two wins, highlighted a pair of new-home openers in Orlando and Everett during the National Lacrosse League?s Week 1, the league planting the seeds for a new fanbase in their latest markets with very positive early results."

Article on NCAA all-time scoring king/Swarm rookie phenom Zack Greer, plus some other stuff

Week 2 team reports

[Viper]

Well, the Stealth and Rock both made out well in the Colin Doyle trade - they're both 2-0 now.

And my Swarm managed a split with the champs after a big 12-10 win in the home opener. Here's my photo gallery from the game. Notice anything different about the boards?

Update: Wow... the Bandits start 0-2 after getting swept by Rochester in their home-and-home. And the Blazers open with three straight losses, also getting swept by Toronto and then dropping one to Philly.

[Jer15]

Not having "uncle" John Travares must be killing Buffalo right now.

I'm actually really surprised at Boston's showing so far this season, they were supposed to be one of the favorites heading into the season. I mean with Dan Dawson and Daryl Veltman are supposed to be getting ball after ball into the net. The team's lack of scoring is really surprising as far as I'm concerned.

[Viper]

Not having "uncle" John Travares must be killing Buffalo right now.

I'm actually really surprised at Boston's showing so far this season, they were supposed to be one of the favorites heading into the season. I mean with Dan Dawson and Daryl Veltman are supposed to be getting ball after ball into the net. The team's lack of scoring is really surprising as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, Boston's defense is doing just fine, as is Anthony Cosmo in net. It's their lack of scoring production that's killing them so far, not to mention that it probably cost me the first ULL game (Dawson was one of my starters). To make matters worse, they get Matt Vinc and the Titans next week, so they could well be staring at 0-4 a week from now.

[Jer15]

That's exactly it.

The worst part of it is that if Boston does take that loss, they pretty much are already out of the playoff picture. That really hurts growing the sport in Boston.

[Viper]

Wow... just two weeks in and we already have our first coaching casualty. Just in time for the Mammoth's trip to St. Paul, no less.

[Jer15]

Wow... just two weeks in and we already have our first coaching casualty. Just in time for the Mammoth's trip to St. Paul, no less.

It seems crazy, but go 0-3 to start the season and you can almost count out your playoff hopes, so with that in mind it might not be so crazy when you consider that.

I just hope the attendance doesn't start to drop like it did when the Avalanche started to be a less competitive team. They have great attendance numbers in Denver and continue to be a solid franchise in a league that really needs to have more teams like them. Add that to the fact that they came out of the ashes of the failed Baltimore/Pittsburgh/Washington experiments.

[Viper]

Well, unfortunately for my Swarm the Woolies didn't start 0-3 - they got a 15-14 OT win last night at Xcel Energy Center.

The Bandits, on the other hand, are 0-3. They did finally find some offense... just in time for their defense to cut out. They also had a new kid (Angus Goodleaf, recently acquired from the Swarm) seeing his first significant pro action in net, and the Stealth gave him a baptism of fire. Washington is now 3-0 (all at home), but tonight they go into Calgary. If the Stealth can steal a win there we'll know they're for real.

[Jer15]

Max Seibald, the #1 Boston draft pick that has been holding out, has been traded to Philly.

[Viper]

The Stealth, the league's last undefeated team, fell to my Swarm last night 16-12 in a game that also featured:

• A bench-clearing brawl at the end of the first quarter
  
• A marriage proposal (accepted) between boyfriend/girlfriend fans at center-rink during halftime
  
• The obligatory Washington-state-vs.-Washington-DC joke (One of the PA guys did an impression of George W. Bush complaining that he always wanted to go to Stealth games but couldn't find their arena in DC)
  
• Last, but definitely not least, the play of the season so far for the Swarm, if not the entire league
  

The Swarm's 16 goals were the most I've seen them score in a home game since I've been a season-ticket holder. Meanwhile the Stealth looked way off their game last night, particularly on offense, where they were frequently misfiring on both passes and shots. Was this just a bad day at the office for Washington or are they destined to become this year's version of the 2008 Swarm (who also started 6-0, only to finish 10-6 and get bounced from the playoffs in the first round)? We shall see.