A couple more playoff decisions have been made, as Calgary and Oshawa are now out. Nobody else clinched so right now, we’re at three in and three out. We have a 10–5 team (Georgia) and a 6–9 team (Halifax) and with only three weeks left in the season, it’s still possible for Halifax to finish ahead of Georgia*.

After I scheduled this article but before it got published, we got the worst kind of news about the future of the Philadelphia Wings. Unfortunately, long-time NLL fans are used to it. I’ve added a second entry under Not Awesome.

* Update: No it’s not. It’s still possible for both to miss the playoffs, or for both to make the playoffs, but no matter what happens, Georgia can’t have more than eight losses while Halifax already has nine. Halifax cannot finish ahead of Georgia. My apologies for the confusion.

Awesome

Bandits comeback again

Buffalo scored one goal in the first 20:31 of Saturday’s game against the Rush while Saskatchewan put four behind Matt Vinc in the same timeframe. They only managed three more goals in the next 30 minutes, but they also managed to keep the Rush to only three in that time as well, so with about nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Bandits were only down 7–4. But the way Frank Scigliano and the Rush defense were playing, getting back into the game was going to be some serious work. But despite how the game had gone to that point, the Bandits had a lot more confidence from their last few games than earlier in the year. Matt Vinc played like he wasn’t considering retiring after last season and the defense tightened up.

The Bandits didn’t really dominate the fourth quarter but did prevent the Rush from scoring, which aided in the comeback attempt, and got a couple of goals in the middle of the quarter to get them back within one. It took another five minutes before Josh Byrne tied it, and Joe Resetarits scored the game winner with 46 seconds left after an amazing pass by Dhane Smith. I mentioned last week that the league needs to watch out for the Rock, and that’s still true (despite Sunday’s result), but I doubt anyone wants to face the Bandits in the first round either.

One interesting quirk was the Rush asking for a stick check on Paul Dawson with about 30 seconds left in the 4th quarter. After measuring the stick a couple of times, the officials found that it was indeed illegal. Dawson sat but the Rush were unable to tie the game on the resulting power play. A couple of Bandits fans on X were unhappy with the timing of the call (“they waited until NOW to call that?”), as if they were unaware of such gamesmanship which happens all the time. If the Bandits were unhappy with the call, maybe they could try using only legal equipment? Just a thought.

Joe Resetarits

Calgary comeback

This one sounds a bit like the Buffalo one I just described. Calgary had three goals in the first 47 minutes of the game, and was down 7–2 in the middle of the third. They didn’t look terrible, but Las Vegas was really looking good. Their defense was solid, Alexis Buque was playing really well, the offense was clicking, it was just an all-around great performance by the Desert Dogs. Aden Walsh had a pretty good start as well, but of course he can’t do much for the offense if they are struggling. But the offense came alive in the late stages of the fourth quarter. Like the Bandits, they didn’t dominate the fourth quarter, and in fact they waited until even later to start their comeback; they were down 9–5 with only 2½ minutes left, but they scored four goals in under a minute and a half to tie the game with less than a minute left.

Overtime took a lot longer than most overtime periods in the NLL (on average, the OT goal is scored at 3:01 of OT, and 25.4% of OT games are solved in under a minute), and both goaltenders were excellent. But after almost nine minutes, Jonathan Donville fired a shot underneath Aden Walsh and the Desert Dogs won the game they had been expecting to win for most of the night. Meanwhile the Roughnecks had the Thunderbird-like feeling of coming back to tie a game it looked like they were out of, only to lose it anyway. Kudos to the Roughnecks for making a game of it.

Rochester

Rochester has been the most inconsistent team in the NLL this season (though not always!). They have the highest team GAA and lowest team save percentage in the league, and have given up 16+ goals five times this season. But they’re also one of the top offensive teams and have managed to score their way out of trouble a couple of times. Saturday’s game in Oshawa was no exception. The game was tied nine times in the first three quarters before the Knighthawks pulled away, scoring four straight in the third, five straight in four minutes in the fourth, and then the last two of the game once it was out of hand. They turned a 9–7 deficit in the middle of the third into a decisive 18–11 victory. It might look like a dominant performance and it was, but only in the last 20 minutes or so.

Rochester started the season 4–1 and everyone had high expectations. But goaltending inconsistency frequently overpowered their potent offense. They don’t need Matt Vinc-like performances but if they can get some more consistent goaltending, like they had on Saturday, they still have a shot at the playoffs.

Philadelphia on Sunday

This was a recipe for a very disappointing game for the Philly fans. The team was out of the playoffs, on a 3-game losing streak, and was 3–12 on the season. They traded away three of their top offensive players and another was injured. Meanwhile, Toronto had won three straight, including beating the Warriors and Rush, and were ten spots higher in the standings than Philly. But we’ve seen this in the past too – the team with nothing to lose, playing only for their fans and each other, comes up with a great performance and beats the team who likely went into the game expecting to win.

Nick Damude was simply amazing, and the Philly defense in front of him was stifling. The Rock had their good looks here and there, but couldn’t get much momentum and even when they did get through the defense, Damude slammed the door in their faces.

Kudos to Kyle Jackson, who at the end of the game, managed to kill off almost an entire 30-second shot clock basically by himself, despite Latrell Harris and Elijah Gash both pinning him against the boards and trying and failing to get the ball from him. Jackson is listed as 5’9“ and 166 pounds, while former Defender of the Year Harris is 6’0”/215 and Gash is 6’4″/210. Either of them could eat Jackson for lunch and still be hungry. But once that scrum against the boards was over, Jackson still had the ball in his stick.

The Marvel partnership with the NLL continues, and I really liked the Black Panther jerseys that the Wings were wearing. They were a little more subtle than most but had the Black Panther “necklace” sort of design which was very cool.

Toronto PK

The Rock didn’t play badly on Sunday but as I said, Philadelphia played really well. But one highlight of their afternoon was managing to kill off an 5-on–3 that lasted almost two full minutes in the second quarter. The Wings had some very nice ball movement but couldn’t get good looks through the defense and then Holowchuk shut the door. Great penalty kill by the Rock.

Not Awesome

Philadelphia Wings overall in 2026

Note: This entry was written on Sunday, before the news about the Wings was made public. I haven’t changed any of it. The second Not Awesome entry was written after the news came out.

As great as the Wings played on Sunday, let’s face it, they’ve had a terrible season.

• They’re 4–12, out of the playoffs, and currently in dead last.
• They’ve played 16 games and scored 10+ goals in only six of them.
• They had 5,019 fans at the game on Friday night, the third-lowest in team history, and lower than all 190 home games the old Philadelphia Wings played. Their average is 5,982, the lowest in team history and just over half of what they got in 2019, their inaugural season.
• They were sellers at the deadline, losing Joe Resetarits, captain Blaze Riorden, and Phil Caputo, basically decimating their offense.
• Michael Sowers and Brennan O’Neill looked really good when playing together earlier this season, but Sowers got injured and missed half the season. O’Neill is a great player but can’t do it all himself.
• Goaltending was pretty good all season but the D gave up too many shots. They have given up 898 shots on goal, 101 more than any other team. Their 56.3 average shots on goal allowed per game is last in the league and the 10th worst EVER, though the 2025, 2024, and 2023 Wings were worse.

There are rumours that the team will fold or relocate after this season. They might blame it on low attendance, and they might be right, but honestly it’s hard to blame the fans for staying away when the team has played seven seasons, finished above .500 once (the shortened 2020 season), and played one playoff game (in 2022) and lost it.

On the upside,

• They’ve only won four games this season but who have they beaten? The Swarm (#3 overall), the Mammoth (#4), the Bandits (#5), and the Rock (#6). They got demolished by the Rush and don’t play the Warriors until week 21 but worst case, they beat four of the top six teams. That’s something they can build on.
• They got Travis Longboat and Lukas Nielsen back in the deadline trades, as well as two second-round picks and a third.
• As I said, Sowers and O’Neill looked great together, and Kyle Jackson also played well in his limited time with the Wings. A healthy Sowers will be critical for an improved Wings offense next season.

Philadelphia Wings are done

The league and the team both announced early Monday morning that Comcast are trying to sell the Wings franchise. However, the messages have been mixed – the league says that Comcast will no longer own the Wings and they are “engaging with prospective ownership groups”, hoping that “this transition will lead to an exciting new chapter for the franchise and its players”. This is similar to what they said about the Rochester Knighthawks when the Pegulas decided not to run that team anymore. Luckily a new owner (the Seneca Nation) was found quickly and operations continued.

But the Wings posted that they will “cease operations of the Philadelphia Wings franchise” and will “root for our players as they pursue new opportunities throughout the league”. This strongly implies that the franchise is just done and we’ll soon have a dispersal draft. If there’s new ownership taking over the franchise, whether they move it or not, the players wouldn’t have to pursue new opportunities. It’s unfortunate that we’re getting conflicting messaging from the league and the team.

The article you’re reading was published at 12:30pm EDT on Monday, so only a couple of hours after this announcement. It will likely be out-of-date quickly, as clarifications and updates are announced. Keep watching social media for updates.