Another busy week in the NLL with seven games, though not much really changed. The Bandits are still perfect, the Rock, Knighthawks, and Thunderbirds continue their climb back into the playoff race, the Swarm and Rush continue their strong seasons, and the Black Bears are still having trouble scoring.

Awesome

Facts, Axe, or Relax

This is a new segment that appeared on TSN at halftime during the Halifax game. I think someone said it was the second “episode” so I must have missed the first one. It was a fun segment, with both Pat Gregoire and Maki Jenner answering some fairly tough questions, or more accurately, agreeing or disagreeing with some “controversial” statements. For example, “Jeff Teat will finish outside the top 10 in scoring this year” – Facts (I agree), Axe (I disagree), or Relax (let’s wait and see)? In all of these cases, there were certainly arguments to be made either way, but it was interesting to hear Pat and Maki’s insights on each issue.

However, I have to say the “Relax” option is kind of an easy out. You can use that if you don’t want to answer the question or just don’t know. I might take that out and leave it as “Facts or Axe?” forcing you to choose one side or the other. Hey, If you want to be on TSN, you’ve gotta answer the tough questions.

Connor Farrell’s penalty shot

When the FireWolves were down two men late in the fourth quarter, Mike Byrne dropped his stick in anticipation of a fight between him and Ian MacKay. MacKay had no interest and so Byrne was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The game was effectively over at this point, and the fans started chanting “Farrell! Farrell!” so why not give Connor Farrell the shot? Farrell is not known for his shooting ability, though I’ve seen him score right off of the face-off in the PLL. Why not in the NLL, especially when there are no pesky defenders in your way? He jogged slowly, taking about ten minutes to get from centre floor to the net before taking the shot, but Andrew Kidd made the stop. Nobody cared that he didn’t actually score though, he was happy, his teammates were happy, and the crowd was happy.

Connor Farrell, after fans chant his name demanding he get to take it, has his penalty shot saved. But he is grinning ear to ear anyway. Fans were loving it. pic.twitter.com/gi9NsmogVX

— Dan Arestia (@danarestia) February 2, 2025

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Dillon Ward

Both goalies in the Toronto/Colorado game made a bunch of great saves. Nick Rose had a strong game and continues to return to his normal form after an uncharacteristically bad start to the season, but this was vintage Dillon Ward. He faced 66 shots and had an 86.4% save percentage. The defence in front of him was strong but Ward certainly kept the Mammoth in the game. A number of times Ward made the initial save but gave up a rebound and then made an even better save on the second shot.

He was just as good in overtime but Josh Dawick just placed a perfect shot between Ward and the post. Another example of a goalie playing an outstanding game but losing anyway.

Referees explaining subtle calls

In the Georgia/Las Vegas game, a goal was scored but two of the refs had conflicting calls so they went to an automatic review. On the replays, we saw that a Georgia defender cross-checked a Vegas forward into the Swarm crease just as the ball went into the net. It looked like a crease violation which would invalidate the goal. But because the player was pushed illegally into the crease, it doesn’t count as a crease violation so the goal counts (Rule 67.9). Obviously it’s great that they got the call right, but the ref came out and explained all of this in great detail on the PA. He could have just come out and said “After review, we got a good goal” but going the extra mile to explain the details is awesome.

Quickies

• Calgary’s Cam MacLeod allowed only eight goals and had a 81.8% save percentage, while Ottawa’s Zach Higgins allowed ten and had a 76.7% save percentage. Kudos to MacLeod for outplaying one of the early leading candidates for Goalie of the Year. Of course, the fact that Ottawa can’t seem to find the net at all helped. See below for more on Ottawa’s offensive struggles.
• After one assist in his first game and one goal in his second, Georgia rookie Toron Eccleston decided he’d figured this NLL thing out, and went off for four goals and four assists to lead the Swarm to a 16–14 win over Las Vegas.
• TD Ierlan won 19 of the 20 face-offs in Toronto’s win over Colorado. He was facing Tim Edwards, who is definitely no slouch when it comes to face-offs. After winning 60.9% in his first game and only 50% in his second, Ierlan was completely dominant in his third game of the season. Safe to say he’s 100% recovered from his pre-season ankle injury.

Not Awesome

Ottawa offense

Problems in Ottawa:

• They’ve played eight games but have only reached double digits in three of them.
• They are dead last in goals scored and are behind three teams that have played fewer games. They’re behind one team that’s played two fewer games.
• Their goals per game average (8.8) is just over half of that of the Bandits (16.0).
• Jeff Teat is looking like a very good offensive player.

The problem with that last one is that he’s generally an outstanding offensive player, one of the best in NLL history despite his relatively short career, so looking just “very good” is quite a drop. Yes, he’s leading the team in scoring but is 24th in the league and is on pace for 29 goals and 87 points, a 29 goal and 43 point drop from last year. They are missing veteran Reilly O’Connor but surely he can’t be the sole cause of this lack of offense, can he? Jacob Dunbar has been a great addition to the offense but they need two or three more of him.

Buffalo Bandits

Of course, putting them in the Not Awesome category is an exaggeration, Buffalo is still awesome. But they may be showing a couple of small cracks in the armour. First they almost lost to the Rock (winless at the time) a few weeks ago, and only some last-minute heroics from Nick Weiss and Dhane Smith got them the win. Then the next week, they had a couple of nine-goal leads on the Wings but allowed them to score six straight and get back within three. This past weekend they had a seven-goal lead on the FireWolves (2–6 at the time) but allowed them to score four straight and get back within three, and also went 14+ minutes without scoring themselves.

They still won all three games. You can certainly argue that great teams find ways to win in games where they’re not completely dominant, and I would absolutely agree. But after their first three games, it appeared that not only could nobody compete with the Bandits, nobody could stay within 5 goals of the Bandits. They’ve come back down to Earth a little bit. Make no mistake, they’re still the best team in the league and a pretty good bet to make the Finals again, but they’re not quite the juggernaut they looked like earlier in the year.

Long goal reviews

There was a goal review last weekend (Week 9) that took well over six full minutes, and someone sent me a comment saying he was surprised I didn’t include that as a Not Awesome. I definitely should have. There was another review in the Vancouver/Halifax game in Week 10 that took quite a while, and that was particularly not awesome because it was clear from at least two of the camera angles that the ball never entered the net at all. But the review lasted at least another minute after they showed those very definitive replays, so I’m not sure what the delay was. And then in the Toronto/Colorado game, another review took four or five minutes. Of course we want as many calls as possible to be correct, but these delays are getting silly.

I’m sure I’ve proposed this before, but I’m getting more and more convinced that we need a new rule: if a review cannot be decided within some fixed period of time (30 seconds seems too quick, so maybe 60 or at most 90 seconds), it shall be deemed inconclusive and play shall continue. Honestly, if you’ve been looking at these replays for four minutes and you still don’t know whether the goal should count or not, another minute or two won’t change anything. Drop it and move on.

Unsportsmanlike penalties

Jeremy Thompson cross-checked David Brock in the head, then reached down and grabbed his mask after the play. Not cool from Thompson, and then the major penalty he was given for the cross-check was inexplicably rescinded. That pissed off Brock, who was also given a penalty at the time. Then two minutes later when the ref was doing a goal review, Brock mouthed off to him and got himself a game misconduct. This is the second time in less than a year that Brock has lost control and done something dumb in a game; you may remember that in the playoffs last year, Brock, then a member of the Halifax Thunderbirds, tried to climb out of the penalty box into the stands to get to a fan who was chirping him.

Austin Staats got a seven game suspension for losing control in the playoffs last year, and then Tyson Bell got the same earlier this season for attacking a fan. Neither Brock’s nor Thompson’s penalties were anywhere near as egregious as either of those two but still, you might think that NLL players would be trying to keep their emotions in check a little bit more. Not on this night.