NLL Power Rankings: Week 1

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.

With three of the league’s seven season openers decided in overtime, plus two more by just a single goal, it’s safe to say, parity in the NLL is still very much present. After a convincing win over the Calgary Roughnecks, the Buffalo Bandits move to #1, with the Halifax Thunderbirds hot on their heels courtesy of a crazy extra-frame finish against the Saskatchewan Rush.

Buffalo Bandits 1-0 (2)
Josh Byrne & Connor Fields had four apiece. Dhane Smith & rookie Tehoka Nanticoke both buried hat tricks. And even though Buffalo was outshot 58 to 49 by Calgary, Matt Vinc was magnificent in their 16-9 one-sided W against the Roughnecks. The Bandits be lookin’ scary on the restart.

Halifax Thunderbirds 1-0 (4)
No Jammer, no problem. Obviously having their captain, Cody Jamieson, healthy and in the lineup is critical to their season-long success, but did the Thunderbirds ever look good in that OT thriller vs. the Rush without him. Warren Hill was a beauty between the pipes, Rhys Duch likely left teams with some regrets, and that Eric Fannell switcheroo rip was ridiculous.

Toronto Rock 1-0 (3)
Tom Schreiber scored quality & quantity, Dan Dawson had two historic tucks, Reid Reinholdt was a force, but the Rock’s power-play production might have been their biggest plus in that Week 1 W. The Toronto PP scored just eleven times during the entire 2020 season, ranking them dead last in the league. It took the Rock six regular season games to score five man-ups last year. They went 5 for 6 on Saturday vs. Albany.

Saskatchewan Rush 0-1 (1)
They couldn’t have come much closer, even having a goal denied for a tricky crease touch in OT, but the Rush looked sharp in their loss to the Thunderbirds. Adam Shute is certainly a starter, Robert Church (hat trick) & Mark Matthews (6 assists) were electric, and Kyle Rubisch (12 LB, 2 CTO) & Jeff Cornwall (1 goal, 10 LB, 1CTO) were defensive dynamos, as usual. We slipped them a few spots for the loss, but this team will be top of the table all year.

Philadelphia Wings 1-0 (5)
The expansion Panther City Lacrosse Club came close to spoiling the Wings’ season opener, but a Matt Rambo blast in OT has Philadelphia starting at 1-0. Led by Rambo-and-Hickey hat tricks, their offense looked good. Their four power-play goals proved pretty pivotal. Trevor Baptiste dominated the dot going 25 for 27 there. Ian Llord had 20 loose balls over 12 games last year. He had a game-leading 11 last week. A lot went really right in an almost L.

Colorado Mammoth 1-0 (11)
We’d like to revisit that part in our preseason rankings where we said “forget what we said in the first sentence”, because there was seemingly not much to question after watching the Colorado Mammoth dominate much of the game in their 16-11 W over Georgia. Dillon Ward was solid (42 saves), Robert Hope & Jordan Gilles were loose-ball leaches (21 combined), Ryan Lee finished with 5 goals, and Zed Williams scored that absurd one you’ve probably watched a dozen times by now. Well, watch it again.

Albany FireWolves 0-1 (8)
This’ll be the last time we question how the Albany FireWolves will replace Callum Crawford on the scoresheet this year. Although they failed to hit doubt digits (the flow of the game didn’t favour the forwards), Andrew Kew was sensational, scoring four and leading the game with five total. Doug Jamieson looked legit, again, and Albany’s backend is still beyond athletic, physical, and can really floor it on the press like few others in this league. They lost, but they looked good throughout.

Rochester Knighthawks 1-0 (9)
Not a bad debut for Knighthawks newbie Thomas Hoggarth, his OT winner also giving him a hat trick in Rochester’s season opener. The Knighthawks were impressive in their own end with off-season adds Dan Coates (4 LB, 1 CTO) & Matt Gilray (10 LB) fitting in nicely. And since we’re highlighting the new Knighthawk names, American rookie Charlie Bertrand (Virginia) bagged a pair in his first game in the box big leagues.

Vancouver Warriors 1-0 (12)
If Alex Buque plays anywhere near as well as he did in Week 1, he’s a GOTY finalist, easy. Mitch Jones should have been an MVP contender last year. He looked like one, again, on Friday night. Owen Barker was bouncing all over the box, his 9 LBs & 3 CTOs courtesy of the jump & jam he played with for four full quarters. Rookies Reid Bowering & Adam Charalambides were two of the best players on the floor, for either team, just a few shifts into their NLL careers. Clearly, the Vancouver Warriors are going to be fun AF to watch this year, and will be more competitive than they’ve been in a bit.

San Diego Seals 0-1 (6)
On paper they’re still a top team in the West. In this week’s rankings, San Diego slides after shooters were snake bitten by Buque (just 7 goals on 53 shots on target), ditto on the power play (0 for 3), and like Head Coach Pat Merrill said, “I felt like we weren’t on the same page a lot of the night.” Rookie performances from Tre Leclaire (2 goals, 1 assist) & Mac O’Keefe (1 goal, 1 assiet) were strong, but maybe most of impressive was the play of first round pick Patrick Shoemay (10 LB).

Calgary Roughnecks 0-1 (7)
They had a lot of looks on goal, their 58 shots on target the most of any team in Week 1, but failed to hit double digits in a very up-tempo game against the Bandits. Their youth showed in the third quarter, GM Mike Board telling the Calgary Sun, “That’s a good experienced team we were playing, and we’ve got a lot of rookies, so that was a good first half. But the third quarter was the difference.” They’ll have a very motivated Rush team to try and bounce back against this weekend.

Georgia Swarm 0-1 (10)
With incoming new names and others that have been pushed to different positions, it might take some time for the Swarm to regain their former form on the floor. The looks were there (53 shots on goal) but the finishing wasn’t (not as much as was required at least), especially on the power play, where they went a paltry 1 for 7. They’ve got the Riptide this Sunday before a really lengthy almost-month-long layoff. A W before that break would be extremely beneficial.

New York Riptide 0-1 (13)
Callum Crawford & Jeff Teat gotta eat (5 goals on 15 shots on goal between them), but the Riptide offense all chipped in and were involved a lot more than some might have guessed. When New York traded for Connor Kearnan, GM Jim Veltman said, “He is a crafty player that we feel will work well with our current players. This is a fresh start for Connor, and we anticipate good things from him.” He scored a hat trick on Saturday. They lost in OT to the Knighthawks, but Game 1 felt like progress was being made in many ways.

Panther City Lacrosse Club 0-1 (14)
There is no way anyone expected that outside of maybe the boys in the LC locker room. Panther City proved that they’re no expansion-team slouch with a tremendous effort in an OT loss to Philadelphia. He might have let one in early in that extra frame, but Kevin Orleman was the better of the two backstops on Saturday. Travis Cornwall & Matt Hossack, who teamed up on that historic first-ever franchise finish, were great in their own end too. When you play Panther City, you best be ready to battle.