Typically in the playoffs we see lots of excitement, lots of jubilation, and lots of heartbreak. The first weekend of the 2024 NLL playoffs delivered on all counts. I mean, it would be nice to see less heartbreak, but every team worked extremely hard over the last five months to get to the playoffs and since half of the teams are going to see their season end in the first round, heartbreak is not really something that can be avoided.

Awesome

Close games

ROC @ TOR: Veteran goalie holds opposing team under 10 goals for the win, while the young up-and-coming goalie on the other team also plays a great game but can’t quite stop that powerful offense.

GEO @ BUF: Veteran goalie holds opposing team under 10 goals for the win, while the young up-and-coming goalie on the other team also plays a great game but can’t quite stop that powerful offense.

PCLC @ SD: Young up-and-coming goalie holds opposing team under 10 goals for the win, while the veteran goalie on the other team also plays a great game but can’t quite stop that powerful offense.

HFX @ ALB: Veteran goalie holds opposing team under 10 goals for the win, while the veteran goalie on the other team also plays a great game but can’t quite stop that powerful offense.

Rock over Knighthawks

It seemed for a few minutes like the Rock were going to run away with this one, as they scored four goals in about a minute and a half early in the first. Hartley was obviously not seeing the ball well. But then Hartley was pulled from the game and Riley Hutchcraft came in. Hartley was out for less than a minute, and some other guy with the same jersey came back out. The second Hartley saw the ball very well, keeping the Rock to only five goals the rest of the night. Actually, the Knighthawk defense in general was strong, preventing shots all night. Tom Schreiber seemed particularly frustrated, running around to all the places he usually scores from, but still unable to get good looks. Now, because he’s Tom Schreiber, he still managed a couple of goals and led the team in shots, but it looked like he was ready to go off for five goals and a mittful of assists. Knighthawks said no.

Nick Rose kept his incredible season going, showing why he is not only the likely favourite for the Goaltender of the Year award, but was in the MVP discussion as well. He got a lot of help from his defense, as per usual, particularly Mitch de Snoo and Brad Kri, who managed to keep Connor Fields somewhat quiet.

The hot start kept the Rock in the lead for the rest of the game, but with the way that Hartley 2.0 was playing, no Rock fans were very comfortable with the lead until the very last minute or two of the fourth quarter.

Bandits over Swarm

This game was close all night, tied at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 over the first half. Buffalo managed to pull away a bit in the third, but their three goal lead vanished by the mid-way point of the fourth quarter. The Swarm managed to tied it and took a one-goal lead, which lasted for 39 seconds before Kyle Buchanan tied it up again. The last six minutes of the fourth were scoreless but by no means uneventful.

With the game right down to the wire, Dhane Smith fired a shot with almost no time left, and it beat Dobson. The arena went nuts, the Swarm were heartbroken, and the Bandits started to celebrate their victory. But we all know the drill – all goals scored in the final two minutes of regulation that are close are automatically reviewed. Nobody was in the crease, and the ball did cross the line, but it did so a tenth of a second after the game clock ran out. There’s a picture online of the ball whizzing through the crease, maybe a foot away from the goal line, but the shot clock at 0.0. This time, the Bandits and their fans were heartbroken, and the Swarm had a second life.

Overtime lasted four minutes, and both defenses played outstanding before Josh Byrne ended it. The Swarm had their hearts broken again but this time, there was no doubt. The Swarm season was over, and the Bandits had made their way to the semi-final.

Seals over Panther City

However close you thought the Swarm/Bandits game was, the Panther City/San Diego game was closer. It matched the Saskatchewan/Buffalo game from a couple of months ago where every goal either tied the game or broke a tie. It was tied at the end of every quarter, nobody had a two goal lead at any point, and the same team scored two consecutive goals only four times. Similar to the other quarter-final games, both goalies were excellent, but Nick Damude was outstanding. He faced 18 more shots than Chris Origlieri (63 vs. 45), and still had a higher save percentage (85.7% vs. 82.2%). But the number of goals allowed is the only stat that really mattered in this case, and the look on Damude’s face when Dane Dobbie scored in overtime was heartbreaking.

But of course it was Dane Dobbie who scored. Dobbie is second in league history in playoff points with 169 (John Tavares is first with 200), second in goals with 80 (JT has 84), and fourth in assists with 89 (Dhane Smith is next with 104, then Dan Dawson with 106, and you’ll never guess who’s first with 116) (Yes it’s JT). Dobbie is also top five in games played, power play goals, shorthanded goals, shots, and turnovers. And who has the most overtime goals in playoff games since game details became available in 2005? Dane Dobbie. If you’re in a win-or-go-home game in overtime, there’s nobody you’d rather have with the ball.

Doug Jamieson

Jamieson played an incredible game on Sunday afternoon. He only allowed three goals (the second fewest in the history of the league), made 52 saves, and had a 94.5% save percentage. The 94.5% save percentage is the best single-game percentage this season, and second-best since stats became available in 2005. Only Matt Vinc’s 95.1% (2 goals allowed on 41 shots) in 2015 beat it.

Not Awesome

FireWolves over Thunderbirds

OK, I did not expect that. It’s not the Albany win I’m talking about (I predicted a Halifax win, but Albany winning doesn’t shock me), it was the performance of the Thunderbirds that I did not expect. Doug Jamieson is an excellent goalie and had a great game (see above), but for that Halifax offense – the second-highest scoring team in the league this year – to only manage three goals is a bit shocking. Staats, Benesch, Jamieson, Theede, Terefenko, Bowhunter, and Woods combined for no goals and four assists. Warren Hill had allowed seven goals and had an incredible 87.3% save percentage; as they said numerous times on the broadcast, he did his job, and the defense did their job. The offense did not.

Apologies to Albany but I have to put this game in the Not Awesome category – not only for the Halifax stuff listed above, but for the next item as well.

David Brock

I have been a fan of David Brock for a number of years. Not flashy, a pretty decent scoring touch in transition (in previous years, anyway), and a solid, tough defender who does his job very well. But on Sunday afternoon, something must have been said to him while he was in the penalty box and he attempted to climb into the stands to get to a fan. Arena security had to physically stop him from climbing out of the box. That’s unacceptable, and the league needs to make it clear that it’s unacceptable. Brock was given a game misconduct at the time but that’s nowhere near sufficient, especially considering there was less than a minute left in the game at the time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a suspension tacked on sometime this week. And given that Brock is 37 and came out of retirement to play this season, that may be the last we see of David Brock in the NLL.

No reseeding

The playoff bracket was set at the beginning of the playoffs – the Rock host Rochester and Buffalo hosts Georgia, and the winners of those two series face each other. Similarly, San Diego hosts Panther City and Albany hosts Halifax, and the winners of those series face each other. I would have thought that Toronto, being the highest-seeded team, would have earned the privilege of playing the lowest-seeded team in each round, but that’s not how it works.

Perhaps this is to make scheduling easier, since there are fewer possibilities of who’s playing who. We know before any playoff games are played that the Championship series will be one of Toronto, Rochester, Buffalo, and Georgia against one of San Diego, Panther City, Halifax, and Albany. All of the other possibilities (Toronto vs Buffalo, Panther City vs. Halifax, etc.) can be removed from the equations. From a logistics point of view, I imagine this makes things easier. And as it turned out, the four higher-seeded teams won their games so the Rock are playing the lowest-seeded remaining team, so it made no difference in this case. But I still don’t like it.

Interviewing members of the losing team

I know I’ve said this in the past but I’m hoping things will change this season. When a team is eliminated from the playoffs, particularly in the Championship Final, don’t interview players or coaches from the losing team immediately after the game, especially to ask inane questions like “What are you feeling right now?” They’re feeling like shit. We all know it and forcing them to articulate it is just cruel.

There’s a fine line between completely ignoring the losing team after the game and just leaving them alone. Sometimes photos and videos of them in that moment can be very poignant and powerful (eg. shots of the Bandits after losing to the Mammoth in the “Welcome to the Next Major League” video), and it’s even possible that those pictures can provide inspiration for the team in the future (eg. The Next Champion in the same video). But to the on-floor people doing live interviews on TV / streaming / in-arena PA, please err towards leaving them alone.