Happy holidays to everyone who are or were celebrating this week or last! I was doing some family stuff last weekend so I managed to watch the Rock/Desert Dogs game replay on Sunday afternoon and then Bandits/Roughnecks on Sunday evening, but nothing else. Then we’re going away for New Years so I may not be able to watch much next weekend either.

Awesome

Las Vegas

The Desert Dogs newly-retooled offense has started to click, as Toronto Rock fans found out on Saturday night. Jones, Cloutier, Fraser, Donville, Webster, and Westley all had 4+ points, they got a few transition goals as well (guys like LaFontaine, Malcom, Belgrave, and Kells combined for seven points), they had nine different goal-scorers, and they ended up chasing both Rock goaltenders. What we saw on Saturday was the offense the Dogs were hoping for when they made all of those free agent deals a couple of months ago.

Now if they could only get their defense and goaltending working. Oh wait, that was pretty good on Saturday as well. Landon Kells was not flashy but very solid. I don’t think there were any stops that are going to make the SportsCentre highlight reel, but there were some very impressive saves. There was one play in the first quarter where he made a good stop but gave up a big rebound which allowed a Rock player to get an open look at a mostly empty cage. Somehow, Kells managed to stop that second shot as well. If the Desert Dogs get that kind of offense with that kind of defense going forward, they will have a very successful season.

Awesome picture of Jamie Dawick, photo credit Ryan McCullough

CJ Kirst’s smile

He just looks so happy when he (or a teammate) scores. He might give Colorado’s Jordan Gilles some serious competition in the race for the NLL player who smiles the most.

Penalty reviews

The NLL made a rule change for the 2024 season that I thought was a good idea, but didn’t think it would be super-impactful. It’s turned out to be a very big change for the better.

The change was that all major, game misconduct, and match penalties would be reviewed by the crew chief immediately, and calls can be confirmed, reduced, or rescinded entirely. The rule does not apply to fighting or roughing calls, so I didn’t think it would really change much since major penalties other than those two aren’t really called that often. But the refs have discovered a bit of a loophole which they are using quite a bit.

When a penalty is called, sometimes officials will intentionally call it a major penalty even if they may not think it was worth a major. This allows them to review it and get a better look. Sometimes the major penalty is upheld but we’ve seen many such penalties reduced to a minor; I’d say well over half of such majors are reduced to minors. We’ve also seen penalties get rescinded entirely, as happened during the Las Vegas @ Toronto game on Saturday. The fans of the penalized team may lose their minds for a little while (“That wasn’t a major, are you kidding?”) but it allows the refs to get the call right.

Brett Dobson

I didn’t watch the Georgia/Colorado game, so I’m not entirely sure whether the Mammoth offense was that bad or Dobson was that good, or (more likely) some combination of both. So I will list them both under the appropriate categories.

Saturday night’s game in Colorado was only the seventh game since 2005 where a goalie played at least 55 minutes and had a save percentage of at least 93%. One of those was only three weeks ago when Warren Hill kept the FireWolves to only two goals on 51 shots. The other goalies who have done this are Doug Jamieson, Bob Watson, and Matt Vinc (3 times). That’s some pretty elite company for Dobson to be keeping, which is especially impressive when you consider that this is only his fourth full season in the NLL.

Sask/Halifax game

I didn’t see this game either, but just looking over the boxscore, it looks like a banger. The Rush had a 2-goal lead for a minute and otherwise, no team led by more than one at any point. The game was tied at 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The last goal was scored with a minute left in regulation. I really need to find the time to check this one out.

Not Awesome

Colorado offense

The Swarm/Mammoth game on Saturday started off with a couple of Colorado goals and no Swarm offense for over ten minutes. But then the game did a complete one-eighty; the Swarm tied it up 11½ minutes into the first quarter and after that point, the Mammoth scored a single goal and allowed ten.

It turns out that no Andrew Kew means no Mammoth offense. They won their first game with him in the lineup, though they only scored ten goals. In the two games since, Kew hasn’t played and the Mammoth have scored ten goals combined. They could only muster up three goals on Saturday, with none from Ryan Lee or Will Malcom, and none in the second half at all. Clearly Dobson had a great night (see above) but the Mammoth just couldn’t manage to put anything together at all.

Head coach and GM Pat Coyle wasn’t too pleased with their performance and less than 24 hours after that game, the Mammoth announced the trade to acquire Jack Hannah from Las Vegas. Of course, the deal was rumoured and very likely completed before the game was played – it’s not as if Coyle called Shawn Williams after that game and asked about him. Hannah is one of the most dynamic and exciting players in the NLL, so his return is great for the fans and should make a difference to the Mammoth offense as well, especially if Kew can return from injury at the same time. It might take a couple of games before they all get comfortable with one another (see the Desert Dogs above), and nobody’s saying Colorado’s problems are over, but things should at least be better.