It’s only week three of the season and I’ve already listed Albany under “Awesome” twice, and both Vancouver and Saskatchewan have gone from Not Awesome to Awesome. If you’re a Bandits fan, everything about their game on Saturday was awesome (and most of it was pretty awesome even if you’re not a Bandits fan), Albany, Vancouver, and Saskatchewan looked really good this past weekend, and BREAKING NEWS: Lyle Thompson is a good lacrosse player.

Awesome

Albany

Last season: 3-15. This season so far: 3-0.

I had Albany in the Awesome category last week, but suggested we temper our enthusiasm a little. But after another impressive performance, it’s becoming clear that these guys might just be for real. Ethan Walker and rookie Alex Simmons are leading the team (and the league, though Albany has played 3 games and most teams haven’t) in scoring with 20 points each, and Sam Firth, Travis Longboat, and another rookie, Tye Kurtz, are not far behind at 15. Albany has already matched their entire win total from last season and outside the FireWolves dressing room, expectations weren’t much higher so basically every win from here on out is gravy. But of course, “we don’t suck as much as last year” isn’t likely to be their season’s goal, especially after such a start. Will they come crashing back to earth in the next few weeks and end up out of the playoffs? Or will they pull a 2023 Rochester Knighthawks on us and make the playoffs in a season where nobody thought they had a chance? Time will tell but kudos to Glenn Clark, the rest of the Albany coaching staff, and of course the players for this amazing start to the season.

Banditland and the Championship ring

17,200 people showed up to the Bandits game on Saturday night. Of course, they could mostly have been there to watch the exciting San Diego Seals, but I think the Championship banner raising before the game might have been a bigger influence. I haven’t been to a game in Buffalo for a few years now, but I always enjoy watching games there. The fans are passionate, loud, and knowledgeable about the game, and other than a couple of friendly chirps when the Rock lost, I’ve never gotten any grief about wearing a Rock jersey there.

The Bandits also received their Championship rings on Saturday, and the team tweeted out a few pictures of the ring and all the symbolism within it. The attention to detail was incredible: the number of diamonds representing the players and staff, one orange stone for each regular season win, one black stone for each goal scored in the finals, the date and final score of Game 3, and even the Tucker Out Lymphoma logo, “representing the life and legacy of Tucker Williams”. The Bandits have continued the Tucker out Lymphoma night tradition even after Shawn Williams retired and left the Bandits organization (to started coaching for the Mammoth, and of course is now head coach of the Desert Dogs). They didn’t have to do that; they could have quietly phased it out on the (correct) assumption that the Desert Dogs would take up the reins, and I don’t think anyone would have thought badly of them for doing that. The fact that they didn’t phase it out is fantastic, but including the logo on their Championship ring is beyond awesome. As a Rock fan for over 20 years, I’m supposed to hate the Bandits but damn, they make it hard to do that.

Oh, and the Bandits came from behind to beat a strong Seals team, so for the Bandits fans who made it to the game, that’s also pretty awesome.

Vancouver

Big things were expected from the Warriors this season. Thanks to new GM and head coach Curt Malawsky, there were lots of back-end changes and Kevin Crowley was brought in to anchor the offense. The first week into the season, it was “meet the new Warriors, same as the old Warriors”. But in week two, that changed. Keegan Bal (3+4), Kevin Crowley (3+4), and Kyle Killen (1+2) combined for seven goals and ten assists as the Warriors lay a pretty good beating on the Georgia Swarm, 15-7. Those three players combined for three assists in week one. Adam Charalambides matched Bal and Crowley’s 3+4, Ryan Martel had the best game of his career at 4+5, Riley Loewen had four assists, and James Rahe had his first goal since February 1, 2020, so the offense was more than solid.

Ryan Martel

At the other end of the floor, Aaron Bold stopped 83.3% of the shots he faced and only allowed seven goals, while I heard the names Laity and Grant quite a bit on the broadcast; this isn’t always good for defenders but in most of these cases it was “Oh, what a great play by Laity to grab that loose ball” or “…to strip Jackson of the ball” or things like that. Just like Albany, it’s early and it’s only one game but it was a great game by the Warriors.

Lyle Thompson

Of course we all know he can score and set up plays and is one of the most dynamic and exciting players in the league. But he also plays defense really well, and on Saturday night when Adam Charalambides (I think) got a clear breakaway, Lyle chased him down, caught up with him, and then knocked the stick out of his hand before he could get a shot away. Is there anything he can’t do on a lacrosse floor? He hasn’t taken any faceoffs in the last few seasons but over his first four seasons, he took about 100 and won half of them. The answer seems to be no, there isn’t anything he can’t do, and whatever he does, he does it really well.

Saskatchewan

They didn’t have a great opening to the season, with losses to both Halifax and Rochester. But in game three, the Rush were back to the Rush we kind of expected. Their offense seems to be by committee so far this season, as Manns, Church, and Keenan are all tied with 17 points. But Patrick Dodds and Clark Walter are contributing up front, Jake Boudreau and Mike Messenger are doing well on the transition, and rookie Nathaniel Kozevnikov (already on the Pronunciation Guide page for the Rush) scored three goals in the fourth quarter on Friday night. As is frequently the case with goalies, as Frankie goes, so go the Rush. He didn’t have great outings in the first two games (both losses) but was very good in the third one (win).

The Rush have gotten better in each of their three games, though game two to game three was quite a big jump. If the trend continues, they’ll win their next game 35-2. Then again, their next game is against the Albany Firewolves on New Year’s Eve. It’s a battle of two teams who missed the playoffs last season but are looking a lot better this year. Should be a heckuva game.

Not Awesome

Philly injuries

It was announced earlier this week that both Blaze Riorden and Holden Cattoni have been placed on the IR by the Philadelphia Wings. This is a pretty big blow to the Wings. A number of people predicted big things from Philly this year, and someone (I think it was Brad Challoner, who has an excellent new podcast called Coaches Calls) even predicted that they could have five 30-goal scorers on the team, something that’s only been done twice before (2022 Bandits, 2002 Attack) in the history of the league. Of course, if Riorden and Cattoni are only out a week or even two, that’s still possible. Remember they still have Mitch Jones, Joe Resetarits, Ben McIntosh, and Taite Cattoni so they are still a bunch of guys who can score, though they’ll have to adjust their offensive strategies a bit.

So it’s not like the Wings are done for the season, even if these guys are out for an extended period of time. But I stand by my statement that it’s a blow to the team. Any time a team loses its captain, that’s significant. There may be lots of leaders on a team, but the captain is the guy explicitly chosen to be THE leader. Losing him means the alternates and other “informal” leaders need to step up. The only thing that prevents this from being a huge blow to the team is that Riorden has only been the captain of the Wings for one game. Last year, their captain was Kiel Matisz, who was dealt to the Riptide in the off-season. So losing their captain will affect the team but maybe not as much as if he’d been captain for years. It’s also likely that Blaze will be around the team a lot anyway, so they will still have the benefits of his leadership, just not on the floor.