Author Archives: Graeme

The NLL Hall of Fame: Why is "not yet" an option?

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Pat O’Toole, the former goaltender for the Rochester Knighthawks, Buffalo Bandits and New York Saints (!!) was elected last month to the NLL Hall of Fame. He was unquestionably deserving – 16 seasons in the league, second overall in total saves, two Championships, one Goaltender of the Year award, and he leads the Knighthawks in every goaltending category there is. He’s the third straight person to be elected into the Hall by himself, and also the third straight goaltender, after Bob Watson and Steve Dietrich.

What was even more interesting about the announcement was who was not going in. Four other players were nominated: Pat McCready and Kaleb Toth both received 48% of the vote, well short of the 75% required, and Chris Driscoll and Regy Thorpe both received 21%. The 1993 Buffalo Bandits were nominated as a team and received 42%. The omission of Toth, in particular, had some heads shaking throughout the IL Indoor forums and Twitter. Many were saying he should have been a shoo-in, while others said that he was good but not quite worthy of the Hall of Fame.

This begs the question: what would make a player worthy? Obviously there’s no criteria that guarantees you entry into the Hall, though being good enough for long enough to pick up 1000 career points (only 6 players have ever done it) would probably be the equivalent to 300 wins for a pitcher in baseball. But there will be lots of players that don’t get 1000 points that deserve to be in the Hall – Paul Gait, Tom Marechek, Darris Kilgour, and Dan Stroup are already in the Hall with fewer. And that number’s only useful for scorers – what about transition guys, defenders, and goalies? Finally, there’s more to Hall of Fame worthiness than just numbers.

Kaleb TothBut I’m going to start with the numbers because, you know, that’s what I do. Kaleb Toth finished his 13-year career with 713 points (14th all-time) in 186 games (24th), for a career average of 3.83 (46th). He had 9 seasons (in ten years) with 50+ points (14th), and 6 seasons with 60+ points (13th). Only Andrew McBride has played more games as a Roughneck. He’s the team leader in goals, assists, and points; the next closest current Roughneck is Scott Ranger, 241 points back.

So he’s 14th all-time in points. You might think well, he didn’t make the top 10. But consider this: 1243 players have played at least one game in the NLL. Only 13 have more points than Toth, putting him in the top 1.2%. Was he as dominant as guys like Grant or Tavares? No. Was he the best player on his team his entire career? No, he played with guys like Tracey Kelusky, Lewis Ratcliff, and Josh Sanderson. But it’s safe to say that he was one of the top 2 or 3 guys on the Roughnecks for eight straight years from 2002 until 2009.

You also have to consider the non-stats factors. He was the face of the Roughnecks for much of his career, being a hometown Calgary boy, and Calgary is now one of the cornerstone franchises in the league. Toth spent a lot of time in the community and attempting to grow lacrosse in Alberta and from what I understand, this has been very successful. And you can’t forget his two years in Toronto, scoring one of the most famous goals in Toronto Rock history, if not league history.

So I think I’ve made my case for why Kaleb Toth deserves to be in the NLL Hall of Fame. Personally, I think Pat McCready should be in there as well. It would be harder to make a similar argument for McCready, but only because he was a defender and so comparing numbers is much harder. And I’d be OK with the ’93 Bandits going in as a team. But that’s not what this article was supposed to be about. It was supposed to be looking at the question of how we decide whether or not a player deserves Hall of Fame inclusion. But other than maybe the 1000 point plateau, there’s no definite criteria for Hall of Fame candidates, so each has to be examined individually.

Because the NLL Hall hasn’t been around all that long (there are only 21 people in it, 8 of which were not players), it’s a little more difficult than other sports to say “so-and-so is in the Hall, and this guy’s career was similar (or better), so he should be in as well”. But if we want to go down that road, we can. Dan Stroup is in the Hall of Fame. Toth played 4 more games than Stroup but had 184 more points. They were both forwards so logic says that if Stroup’s in, Toth should be in.

What’s probably happening here is the same idiocy that happens in other Halls of Fame: the concept of a “first-ballot Hall of Famer”. The idea is that there are those players who were so good, they deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as soon as they are eligible (on their first ballot). Meanwhile there are other players who are good enough to be in the Hall, but not as good as the “first-ballot” players, so they should not be inducted as soon as they’re eligible, they should be made to wait a year or two (or nine, right Andre Dawson?). This makes no sense to me, and I wrote about it (in the baseball world) four years ago. From that article (and this part applies to the NLL Hall of Fame as well):

The Hall of Fame is not an ordered list of players. If someone deserves to be there, vote for him. If he gets 100% of the vote, well good for him, but it doesn’t mean that he’s better than Ruth or Cobb [or Gait or Veltman].

If you think Toth is worthy of the Hall of Fame, vote for him. If you don’t think he’s good enough, that’s fine. But don’t give me this “not yet” crap.

I’m not sure which I hope for more: (1) that the NLL Hall of Fame voters do not think this way (good) and they just believe that Toth isn’t good enough (bad). Or (2) that the voters do think this way (bad) and that Toth will get in next year (good). We’ll have to wait for the results of next year’s voting to see which it is.

The end of the Blaine Manning era

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I remember it like it was twelve years ago.

Young lacrosse star Kaleb Toth, who scored the last-second goal to give the Toronto Rock the 2000 NLL Championship, was traded to the brand-new Calgary Roughnecks for a player with no NLL experience and a draft pick. As a Rock fan, was I outraged? Did I feel ripped off? Not really. First off, I knew that Toth was an Alberta boy and being the first home-town player for this brand new team was likely a huge deal for him as well as for the Roughnecks. Secondly, the player we got back was the second overall pick in the previous draft, a strong forward named Blaine Manning. A second overall pick plus a first rounder should be enough of a return for Toth, shouldn’t it? Still, we’ve all seen first round draft picks that just didn’t work out; would Manning turn into one of those?

Blaine ManningObviously he didn’t, and the rest is history. Manning scored 71 points (21+50) in his first season plus another 12 (4+8) in the playoffs (including the double-overtime winner in the semi-finals against the Washington Power) as the Rock won their third Championship. He was named Rookie of the Week five times, Rookie of the Month for March, and finally Rookie of the Year. Toth, for his part, racked up 79 points in his first of eight straight 50+ point seasons, became the face of the Roughnecks for a decade, and on his retirement became the first inductee into the “Forever A Roughneck” program. If there was ever a trade that worked out better for both teams, I’m not sure what it was.

Manning scored 60+ points in ten straight seasons, and 70+ in all but one of those. His best season was 2005 when he scored 105 points, tied with John Grant for second in the league after Colin Doyle’s 111. Josh Sanderson was third with 102, making 2005 the only season in NLL history that three teammates scored over 100 points. At their prime, Doyle, Manning, and Sanderson formed what might be the most potent top three on any team in NLL history.

Manning was not just a strong scorer who could pick corners as well as anyone. He could shoot from outside, could drive to the net through as many defenders as necessary and liked to dive through the crease as well. But there are two specific things about Manning’s play that I will remember: first, he would frequently switch hands. If there was no room to shoot right-handed or he was on the wrong side of the net, he’d flip his stick around and shoot as a lefty. I honestly don’t know how effective this was and I assume it was less accurate than his right-handed shot, but he scored numerous goals this way, catching the goalie off-guard, and I’ve rarely seen other players do it. Second, he was almost untouchable on the penalty kill. If you needed to kill some time on the shot clock, give the ball to Manning and he’d simply hold it for 20-30 seconds, regardless of the number of people pounding (or sometimes piling) on him. Mark Steenhuis is also very skilled at this but for many years, Manning was the best.

Manning played in every Rock game for ten full seasons – 2002 to 2011 – but two games into the 2012 season, his consecutive game streak was halted at 162 (177 including playoff games) when he broke his collarbone. That streak was good for third place all-time after Doyle and Steve Toll, though all three have since been eclipsed by Shawn Williams. He returned in April, having missed ten games, but only recorded 9 points in his 6 games that year. Last season Manning was given a different role and was more of a “grinder”, the guy that gets in the defender’s way and thereby gives better looks to guys like Doyle, Billings, and Leblanc. But there were times where he tried to be the Manning of old and wasn’t able to. The frustration on his face was obvious, which is why this announcement was surprising to me but not shocking. Evidently the toll on his body over the last couple of years was too much, and he decided that this was the end for his playing days.

Over the years of his career (2002-2013), only eight people have more points than Blaine Manning. Only one player (Bob Watson) has played more games in a Rock uniform, though Doyle will pass him this coming season. He is second in Rock history after Doyle in goals, assists, and points (both regular season and playoffs), and second after Jim Veltman in loose balls. He led the team in scoring twice and won four Championships with the Rock. Manning is certainly one of the greats in Rock and league history and should get serious consideration for the NLL Hall of Fame once he is eligible. He is one of my all-time favourite players and I wish him well in the next phase of his lacrosse career.

Two of the best

The Benesch trade: could both teams lose?

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As you’ve heard by now, the Buffalo Bandits have acquired sniper Ryan Benesch and transition man Andrew Watt from the Swarm for two first round draft picks (2015, 2016) and a third round pick in 2017. This looks to be a great deal for the Bandits, who lose nobody from their roster while picking up two solid players including Benesch, a former rookie of the year and league scoring leader. It could also be great for the Swarm, who just love their first round draft picks. But it could also be a disaster for both.

The Swarm had four first round draft picks in 2012, and they have four more in 2013, including one of Buffalo’s (from the Cosmo deal). Now they have Buffalo’s first round picks for 2014 (Cosmo again), 2015, and 2016 as well as their own. This, plus Philadelphia’s 2015 pick from the Kevin Ross trade, gives them at least eleven first round picks over the next four drafts.

This is a bit of a strange deal for the Swarm, on the assumption that Benesch didn’t ask for a trade. As I said, they certainly love acquiring first round picks, but I’m not sure it makes sense to give up someone who’s a star now for draft picks. I get that first round picks are important and can change a franchise entirely (right Edmonton Rush and Pittsburgh Penguins? Or the 2013 Swarm for that matter), but the best-case scenario for the Swarm is that they are able to draft someone as good as Benesch. If Benny was 34 and one of those “still pretty good but on the downside of his career” players, it might make sense, but he’s only 28 and could easily be at or near the top of the league in scoring for the next five years or more. Even if the first of the draft picks they got results in the next Mark Matthews, they still have 2 full seasons of no Benesch and no Watt before then.

Ryan BeneschThey do have four first-round picks this year, and if they want to get them all on the roster, then four players from last year have to go. They’ll likely want Andrew Suitor back in the lineup, so that’s one more. But I don’t think Benesch and Watt were at the top of John Arlotta’s “list of players who can be dumped in favour of rookies”. In addition, this trade has made the Bandits better, so it’s unlikely that the Bandits’ first round picks will be all that high anyway.

Meanwhile the Bandits have no first round picks for the next four years. It’s now safe to say that the Cosmo deal was a bust, in that Cosmo has only shown glimpses of the former Goaltender of the Year the Bandits hoped they were getting. Indeed, 2012 and 2013 were the worst seasons of Cosmo’s career in terms of both GAA and save percentage. The Bandits have not yet given up anything for Cosmo – this year’s draft will be the first of the two first-round picks they gave up. But unless Cosmo recovers in a big way next season, the next two drafts might be tough to swallow for Bandits fans.

If the Benesch deal doesn’t work out for whatever reason, the two drafts after those might be just as tough. There would be nothing worse for Bandits fans to head into a draft knowing you have no first round pick this year or next because of a trade for a player that hasn’t played for you for two years, but if Benesch is traded again, that could be the case. But Steve Dietrich knows this. With this trade, the Bandits are going all in with Benesch as their offensive leader for the next half-decade. Obviously losing John Tavares will hurt, whether he retires now or after another season, but with Benesch as the new offensive go-to guy, the Bandits can handle it. That’s something they’ve never really been able to say before. Not saying Benesch is on a par with Tavares, arguably the best NLL player ever, but if you’re looking to replace a strong lefty scoring threat, you could do far worse.

I have no reason to believe that Benesch won’t be successful in Buffalo. If he does take over John Tavares’ spot as the offensive leader of the team, the trade may work out very well for the Bandits. And if the Swarm’s 2013 draft picks work out as well as their 2012 ones did (Matisz, Jackson, Sorensen, Crepinsek), they may be able to survive the loss of Benesch and Watt pretty well.

All trades take time to determine who the real winners were, in some cases a few years. If it takes that long to decide the winner of this deal, it’s likely the Bandits came out on top. But if Dietrich’s bet on Benesch doesn’t work out, things could be pretty bleak in Buffalo for a long time.

The Pros and Cons of Parity

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One of the biggest stories of the 2013 NLL season was the parity in the league. The best regular season record was only 4 games better than the worst and as was stated many times during the year, any team can beat any other team on any given night. But is that really what we want?

Certainly there are advantages to this level of parity. The bit about any team can beat any other team ensures that the majority of games are meaningful and exciting. If you look at the IL Indoor staff picks every week, there were a few times where every person chose the same winner in a game, but that was pretty rare. But how many games were there last season where you were truly shocked by the outcome? I’m not talking about lopsided wins or high- or low-scoring games here, just being shocked by who won the game.

In 2004, the Rochester Knighthawks (coming off three straight 10-win seasons – one of them in only 14 games) travelled west to meet the Anaheim Storm, who were in their inaugural season. The Storm defeated the Knighthawks 13-10 for their only win that season. The fact that the Storm pulled off that win was a complete shock to everyone – to the point where I remember it happening nine years later. Were there any games last year that are that memorable strictly because of who won?

One of the advantages of parity is that every team has a chance to win the Championship. But one of the disadvantages is that every team has a chance to win the Championship. Were the Knighthawks the best team in the NLL in 2013? No. In 2012? No. But they have two Championships in two years. In both years they made the playoffs and then won three straight games, so you could argue that they deserved both titles and I wouldn’t argue against you. But the league Champion is supposed to represent the best team in the league that year, not the best in the final three games. If winning the Championship doesn’t mean you’re the best team, what does it mean? Doesn’t it kind of lose some significance if you have two teams with 11+ wins but the Champion is a team that’s only a single game over .500 including the playoffs, as the Knighthawks were in 2012?

Another disadvantage of parity is the legacy. People look back and remember the years when one team was dominant. Remember the Rock of the early 2000’s? What about the 1993-1994 Bandits? Or the 2007 Knighthawks? In other sports we have the Canadiens of the 70’s. The Islanders and Oilers of the 80’s. The Yankees of the 90’s and 2000’s. The Bulls of the 90’s. The Lakers of the 2000’s. Those teams were all dominant, and we all remember those years and those Championships.

Quick – who won the NLL Championship in 2006? Mammoth fans probably answered right away, but I had to look it up. Not the Mammoth didn’t deserve their championship, but they weren’t part of a dynasty and didn’t have nearly as dominant a season as the Knighthawks the next year (with their 12 game win streak to end the regular season) so it’s a little tougher to remember. In ten years, who’s going to look back on the 2012-2013 Knighthawks and say “remember when those mediocre Knighthawks won two straight Championships”? If they finish around .500 in 2014 but win their third straight Championship, would anyone consider them a dynasty, or even close to one?

But these arguments against parity are mainly from a purist point of view. For fans in general, parity is great. To answer my opening question: yes, this is really what we as fans want. The disadvantages I listed above are real, but are greatly outweighed by these advantages:

  • You (generally) don’t have to watch your team struggle through a 3-13 season.
  • You don’t have to go to a game and think “we have almost no chance of winning this”.
  • When you watch a game, you know it’ll be a hard-fought game on both sides. You know that the players aren’t going to be mailing it in because “it’s only the Edmonton Rush and we can beat them easily”. Not anymore, you can’t. Not easily.
  • Even if your team is below .500 with only a few games to play in the regular season, the games are likely still important.

There might be some lacrosse fans who consider the Knighthawks’ recent championships as less meaningful than previous years, but Knighthawks fans don’t.

The same rule that applies to goals applies to Championships as well: the ugly ones count just as much as the pretty ones.

Stephen Stamp: From boats in BC to the ‘Boro and the Borrelli

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Stephen Stamp is a busy guy. During the last NLL season, he recorded 19 episodes of his radio show Boxla Beat, in which he interviewed more than forty NLL players, coaches, writers, and announcers. He also broadcasted the NLL entry draft for NLL.com and was one of the most prolific writers at ILIndoor.com, covering not only the NLL but CLax and MSL as well.

Last week, Stamp was rewarded by the National Lacrosse League for his dedication to his craft by being named the 2013 winner of the Tom Borrelli award for Media Person of the Year.

Over the past eight years, Stamp has interviewed hundreds of lacrosse people, done in-game play-by-play and commentary for countless games, and written thousands of articles. I thought it would be fun to put him on the other side of the table, making him the interviewee rather than the interviewer. Many thanks to Stephen for talking to me.

Stephen StampStamp was born and raised in the lacrosse hotbed of Peterborough, Ontario. He played both house league box lacrosse and high school field lacrosse, and grew up watching the Peterborough Lakers of the MSL. An accomplished rower, Stamp moved to Victoria, BC when he was 22 to take part in Olympic rowing trials. Though he just missed making several Olympic teams, he won a silver medal representing Canada at the World Rowing Championships in the Under-23 division.

After earning a Bachelor’s degree in writing from the University of Victoria, Stamp moved back east, living in Durham, New Hampshire for a year and a half while earning a Masters degree in writing from the University of New Hampshire. He then moved back to BC and stayed there for well over a decade, managing and coaching at a rowing club in North Vancouver, and also coaching regional, provincial, and national junior rowing teams. To keep his broadcasting chops fresh, he also did freelance writing, editing, and announcing.

But in 2006, Stamp decided he needed a change. “It was fantastic for a while, but I just felt like I was ready to do something else. I was going through some personal issues and feeling really burnt out on what I was doing,” he said. “I’ve suffered from depression for a long time and it kind of came to a head for me, so I really just needed some change in my life.” He decided to move back east once again, returning to his home town. “Peterborough is where my family is, so I decided to come back here for a while. When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to get out of Peterborough, but when I came back I realized that it’s a great city and great place to live.”

After continuing his broadcasting education at Loyalist College in Belleville, Stamp combined his education with his lifelong interest in lacrosse and started doing colour for MSL games on TV Cogeco. In 2010, he began writing about the NLL and MSL for IL Indoor, and was named co-editor a year later. In the fall of 2011, he started Boxla Beat, a popular internet radio show focusing on box lacrosse.

Interviewing two or three people a week for his show as well as for IL Indoor articles has meant that Stamp has talked to many different players over the years. “Colin Doyle is always an excellent interview,” Stamp explains, “because he’s very open and honest and well-spoken, a great ambassador for the game.” Another favourite of his is Washington Stealth star Athan Iannucci. “I think we have sort of similar personalities and views on a lot of things. I like the way he really thinks about stuff and looks deeply into them and isn’t afraid to think outside the box, doesn’t worry if people think he’s odd.”

If Iannucci’s Stealth teammate Kyle Sorensen needs a job after his lacrosse career ends, he may consider a co-hosting gig on Boxla Beat. “The first time I had him on, I was doing the show on my computer from the Montreal House here in Peterborough. When he was done, he just struck around while I interviewed my other guests,” recalls Stamp. “While I was talking to one of them, he motioned to me to ask if it was okay if he asked a question. I was like, absolutely, go ahead. Kyle asked some really good interviews and the rest of the show he was like a really good co-host with me. He’s smart and very insightful into the game and he’s just a nice and funny guy.”

Sorensen’s name came up again later in the interview when I asked Stephen about “unsung” players. He mentioned defenders in general, since “there simply aren’t the statistics that make it easy to compare players and understand how effective they are at what they do”, but two specific current players he mentioned were Sorensen (“He’s one of the great leaders in the game”) and Scott Self (“he really is one of the steadiest guys playing”). One retired player he mentioned is Pat Coyle, who he believes should be in the NLL Hall of Fame. “I don’t know if he’s unsung, because I think people get how great he was, but I’d like to see that happen.”

We Ontarians are lucky to have three different pro box lacrosse leagues represented here, two of which are entirely based in Ontario, and not surprisingly, Stamp is a big fan of all three. “I enjoy the speed and athleticism of the NLL, especially now that the talent level is so deep on every team,” he said. “CLax is good quality lacrosse with players who are really hungry to play the game. It’s also really fast and high-scoring. I appreciate good defensive play, but end-to-end lacrosse is pretty darned exciting, too.” But Stamp grew up watching Major Series Lacrosse and it holds a special place in his heart.

“I remember seeing the Peterborough Lakers and New Westminster Salmonbellies playing in the Mann Cup and going down to New West’s locker room after the last game to ask Kevin Alexander for a pair of his socks. My friend and I each got a pair and we wore them for our own practices with immense pride. Probably seems weird asking someone for his socks, but they were really cool socks and Kevin was one of my favourite players. If he’s reading this, he’s probably thinking wow, Stamp was one of those weird kids that wanted my sweaty socks back in the day.

I love the heightened pressure and intensity of the one-and-done playoff format in the NLL, but I don’t think there is anything better than a best-of-seven series for the MSL title or the Mann Cup.”

The NLL’s playoff format has been the topic of some discussion recently, so I asked Stephen his thoughts. He likes the CFL-style crossover that allowed the Swarm to play in the East playoffs in 2013, but admits the system could use some tweaking. He’s an advocate of rearranging the teams into a single division with only four teams making the playoffs, which would include a best-of-three final. But it only makes sense to do that if the league were to stay at 9 teams, he explains. “There’s no point switching to a system like that if the league is going to grow, which I believe it will do soon.”

It does seem like expansion has been on the league’s mind recently, and assuming a new CBA is done and a willing owner is available, Stamp agrees with many who see Vancouver as the likely first choice. “Whether a team eventually goes to Langley or if there’s a way to work out a deal that could put a team in the Pacific Coliseum, I just hope it can happen soon because as everyone can see it’s just so obvious that there should be a team in Vancouver.” Montreal is another place Stamp would like to see the NLL return to, and despite the fact that New York and New Jersey have each failed twice, he thinks the New York area might still work in the NLL. “With the new development happening around the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, maybe that could work out, he says. I think it’s important to keep an open mind.”

We wrapped up with a few “quickie” questions and one tougher one:

GP: If you were NLL Commissioner, what’s the first rule change you would make?
SS: I would probably go with not having the shot clock run when a team is shorthanded and has possession of the ball. Again, it’s something that I grew up with. I really enjoy the strategy and skill involved in killing a penalty.

GP: What is your most memorable moment from a lacrosse game you were watching or covering?
SS: One thing that leaps to mind is the goal that Paul Rabil scored in the 2010 NLL championship game in Toronto. I was live blogging the game for IL Indoor and Rabil hit Bob Watson with a shot that actually knocked Whipper back into the net and sent one of his gloves flying off. It was unbelievable.

GP: Do you follow field lacrosse at all?
SS: I follow some field lacrosse. I can’t really watch any MLL because it’s very difficult to get in Canada and the only Canadian team is about a three and a half hour drive away. Most of the field lacrosse I see is at tournaments, particularly ones that I’m recording for my video production business, Sports and More Video. I actually like watching recruiting tournaments quite a bit because the focus isn’t so much on coaching everything down to the finest detail, but rather just letting the players play and the game flow. Some folks say it’s basically box lacrosse on a big outdoor field, which I suppose is why I like it so much. I suspect I would really enjoy MLL if I got a chance to see it more, because of the shot clock and the sheer talent level of the players. 

GP: Troy Cordingley was fired as Toronto Rock coach after the Rock finished first overall and he won the Les Bartley Award. What do you think of this move?
SS: That really caught me by surprise. It seems surprising that Terry Sanderson would remove Troy from his position. On the other hand, Terry is a consummate pro and would do what he felt was best for the team. Keep in mind that Terry also fired himself as the team’s defensive coach. Someone pointed out to me that Troy has young children and a full-time teaching job and perhaps he was getting a little overextended. He may even have felt like he needed a change or a break himself. Of course, now the speculation is that Buffalo will hire him to replace Darris Kilgour. I’ll believe that when I see it, though.

Coach of the Year? Sorry, not good enough.

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Earlier this year the NLL had a GM trading for himself, in what was likely a first in pro sports. In what might be another first, we now have the reigning Coach of the Year being fired by his team. Make no mistake: Troy Cordingley did not retire from coaching, he did not leave to take a different job or pursue other interests, it didn’t even sound like “a mutual decision for the benefit of the club”. He was fired.

Although this is the first time in league history that the Les Bartley Award winner was fired, it will be the fourth time the Coach of the Year does not begin the next season with the same team. The first time was in 2001, the first year the award was presented. The inaugural winner was Philadelphia Wings head coach Tony Resch. Resch had just coached the Wings to their 6th Championship, and the retired from coaching a couple of months after receiving the award, and was replaced by Adam Mueller.

Seven years later, Mueller won the award (which had been renamed the Les Bartley Award in 2004) with the New York Titans, and then he retired from coaching. The next time it happened, it was none other than Troy Cordingley at the other end of his Toronto Rock career. Cordingley won the Bartley award with the Calgary Roughnecks after leading them to the NLL Championship in 2009, and then left the Roughnecks in the offseason to join the Toronto Rock.

John LovellSo this is the first time this has happened in the NLL. But has it happened anywhere else? The only other similar situation I could find was in 2010, when the University of Maryland fired their football coach Ralph Friedgen after he won the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coach of the Year award. As far as I could see, it has never happened in the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB.

Update: It has happened before in a pro sport. Ted Nolan was fired as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres after winning the Jack Adams trophy for the 1996-1997 season. Thanks to @GlenMcDole for the correction.

Anyway, enough history, back to the Rock. I have been called a Rock apologist and fanboy, and have been told that this blog focuses too much on the Rock, and perhaps that’s somewhat true. (Of course I’ve also been told that I’m not a real Rock fan because I said something negative about them, or picked them to lose a game, or something like that. I can’t win.) Well, I have no explanation for this particular move. Cordingley took the Rock to the Championship game in 2010, won it all in 2011, finished first in the division in 2012, and finished first overall in 2013. That sounds like four pretty successful seasons to me. Yes, the goal of every team is to win the Championship and they did that only once in that time. But they were a legitimate contender for the Championship in each of those seasons. Maybe that’s the problem – they were contenders every year but only won it all once.

Perhaps I’m enough of a Toronto sports fan that I consider simply not sucking as a successful season, since that’s been true for the Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays for the last 20 years. But for Jamie Dawick and the rest of the Rock management, winning the Championship is the only measure of success – anything less is failure. Perhaps they looked at the last few years in a slightly different way – 2011: Championship. 2012: Lost in second round. 2013: Lost in first round. It’s obviously a small sample size, but they got booted from the playoffs earlier in each of the last two seasons. Something similar happened to Dave Pym (now a Rock scout) a couple of years ago. He coached the Roughnecks to three straight seasons of 10+ wins, finishing first overall in two of them, but because of their lack of post-season success (did not reach the finals in any of those years), Pym was fired. Pym’s regular season record as Roughnecks coach was 33-15, but the record that got him fired was the 1-3 in the post-season. Perhaps the Rock thought the same way – finishing first overall is great and all, but if you don’t win in the playoffs, it doesn’t matter.

Personally, I am unconvinced that the two most recent post-season losses were enough to fire Cordingley. I’ve seen people calling it a stupid move and the dumbest move the Rock have made in years. That may be a bit strong, but if the entire decision rested on the loss to the Knighthawks in the 2nd round last year and the loss to the Swarm this year, I don’t think that’s enough. I’m not as angry as some others, but I am confused. Perhaps there’s more to this than has been announced. Interestingly, Terry Sanderson also “fired” himself as defensive coach.

Is John Lovell as good a head coach as Troy Cordingley? Maybe, there’s no way to know yet. He has tons of lacrosse coaching experience, though none as a head coach at the NLL level. But he’s won Championships as an assistant coach, the players know him, and he’s well respected in the lacrosse community. But the team is replacing a man who’s won two Championships as a head coach and is one of only two men to win multiple Les Bartley Awards. And if a guy like that can’t keep his job after getting to the finals twice, winning once, and finishing first the other two years, Lovell’s got some awfully big shoes to fill.

Help the Iroquois get back in the blue

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This is not an issue affecting the National Lacrosse League, which is what I usually write about. But this is an important issue for lacrosse in general and your help is needed.

In 2010, the World Lacrosse Championships (field lacrosse) were held in England. A controversy erupted when the UK refused to allow the Iroquois Nationals team into the country. The Iroquois team is entirely separate from the Canadian and US teams and is one of the top teams in the world. The team uses passports issued by the sovereign Haudenosaunee nation*. Citizens of the Haudenosaunee consider themselves neither American nor Canadian, and have their own passports which, I believe, are accepted in Canada and the US and recognized by the UN.

* – Haudenosaunee is the native word for the Iroquois people, which consists of six Native American tribes (known as the “six nations”) banded together in New York and southern Ontario.

Iroquois players

Originally, the UK refused to grant visas to the players because there was no guarantee that the US would allow the players back into the country. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got personally involved and offered to grant US passports to everyone on the team but they were determined to travel using their own passports. Clinton then granted the team a waiver that effectively constituted the guarantee the UK was looking for, but they refused to change their minds. As a result, the team missed the entire tournament.

The tournament is held every four years, and the next one will be held in Denver in July of 2014. While travelling to the tournament will not be a problem this time around, the FIL (Federation of International Lacrosse) has decided that since the Iroquois did not compete in the last tournament, they will be seeded 30th. This puts them well out of the Blue division, which traditionally represents the top six teams from the previous tournament. Many lacrosse people, Iroquois and otherwise, are protesting this decision. There is only one reason why the Iroquois team was not in the top six, and that reason had nothing to do with lacrosse – it was entirely political. Punishing the team for decisions that were not only unfair but beyond their control only serves to legitimize the UK’s decision.

It’s not just the Iroquois team that would be affected by this decision. Lacrosse is hundreds of years old in North America, but it’s quite new in a number of countries that are participating for the first time. Consider the countries that are just good enough to make it to this competition (think the German or Latvian Olympic hockey teams in 2010) and then find out that they are in the same group as the Iroquois team. If your position in the next tournament depends on how you do in this one, do you want to be disadvantaged by having one of the strongest teams in the entire tournament in your division when they really should be a few levels up?

The game of lacrosse was invented by Native American people many hundreds of years ago in eastern North America. The Iroquois people are directly descended from those people – in a nutshell, this is their game. Should the Iroquois team automatically be put into the top division just because of that? Honestly, no. But it does earn them some respect from the lacrosse community. That in addition to their play in other competitions should earn them some flexibility on the part of the FIL.

The Iroquois have earned their place among the best lacrosse teams in the world. They should not be punished because of a purely political incident.

Iroquois_thumb1

An online petition has been created to attempt to convince the FIL to reverse this decision and allow the Iroquois team to play in the top division, where they belong. I am asking my readers to please sign this petition and help restore the Nationals’ rightful standing as one of the top lacrosse teams in the world.

Update: The FIL has voted and decided that the Iroquois will be in the Blue division in 2014. I don’t know whether or not the petition had anything to do with the decision, but it’s not unlikely that the outcry from the lacrosse community was a factor. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition!

2013 NLL season wrap-up

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Well, that’s it for one of the most exciting and entertaining NLL seasons ever, thanks in part to the parity in the league. Almost every game was unpredictable, and there wasn’t a single game all year where anyone would have been honestly shocked if the losing team had won. Incidentally, that’s my excuse for finishing below .500 in my predictions.

A lot of interesting things happened in the 2013 season, some of which were expected, some of which were not. Let’s take a look at a few of each.

Five things we expected

  1. Parity. As I mentioned above, the parity in the league is unprecedented. The Bandits only won 6 games, but four of them came against the Champions, the Championship runners-up, and the Rock, who had the best record. The team with the best record was ahead of the team with the worst record by only 4 wins (10-6 vs. 6-10), the smallest that number has been since Detroit finished 6-2 and four teams were 3-5 back in 1992.
  2. The Stealth didn’t suck. Nobody expected their 2012 season to be as bad as it was, but I’m pretty sure that nobody realistically expected it to happen again.
  3. Garrett Billings cemented himself as one of the top offensive players in the NLL with his second-straight 100-point season.
  4. After one of the best offensive seasons ever, John Grant returned to earth with a pedestrian (for him) 91 points. Matt Vinc
  5. Matt Vinc won his third Goaltender of the Year award. Another few years of this type of performance, and the “best of all time” argument between Watson and Eliuk will become a three-way conversation. In fact, it’s almost there now.

Five things we didn’t expect

  1. Sophomore slump? Never heard of it. If you look at the top rookies of 2012 – Kevin Crowley, Adam Jones, Jordan MacIntosh, Tyler Carlson, Evan Kirk, Johnny Powless – only Kirk dropped off significantly from his rookie performance. Powless dropped from 50 points to 40, but he had to start sharing the ball with the likes of Dan Dawson and Casey Powell. The rest all stayed about the same or got better.
  2. Getting rid of Casey Powell won’t hurt your offense. The Knighthawks averaged 11.1 goals per game before the trade, 11.3 after. Cody Jamieson and Dan Dawson both saw their points/game averages go up to make up for the loss of Powell, Dawson from 4.2 to 5.1, and Jamieson from 5 to 6.3.
  3. Mike Poulin had a distinctly un-Poulin-esque season. His 12.70 GAA was the highest of his career, almost 2.5 points higher than 2012. The only starters who finished with higher GAAs were Evan Kirk and Anthony Cosmo. But his performance in the Roughnecks’ 12-11 OT victory over Edmonton at the end of the season was outstanding, and he played well against both the Mammoth and the Stealth in the playoffs. Shawn Evans
  4. Shawn Evans has been a very good player for years, and taking his game to the next level wasn’t wholly unexpected. But this year, Evans jumped the next level and went to the one after that. He bested his career high in points by 33 and won the scoring title by 12. His 112 points is tied for the 5th best season ever, putting Evans among the Gaits, Grants, and Tavares’.
  5. The Knighthawks started the year 0-3, were never above .500 at any point, and only two teams scored fewer goals. But they are the Champions. Actually, we should have expected it, since it’s almost what they did last year.

So there’ll be no more NLL games until at least December when training camps open. Don’t worry folks, it’s only… um… seven months. (sigh) Until then, we still have the MLL for outdoorsy types, and the MSL and WLA for people who like sweating in arenas in July. There may or may not be other American indoor leagues as well, such as NALL, PLL, MILA, and possibly others; so many of them started up so fast I kind of lost track of which ones still exist.

So enjoy your summer and fall, whether it’s filled with lacrosse or not! NLL Chatter will be more or less quiet over the summer, but we’ll publish the odd story as things unfold: the new CBA, trades, the entry draft, rule changes, the 2014 schedule, things like that. And we’ll be back next season with the usual mix of relevance and irreverence. See you then!

Championship game pick

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I went .500 during both the first and second weeks of the playoffs, and all I know about the third week is that I won’t go .500.

Regular season record: 33-39 (.458)
Playoff record: 3-3 (.500)

Game

Comments

Pick
ROC @ WAS Neither team had their best regular season, but the regular season means zilch at this point. There are great coaches at both ends. Given the breakdown below and adding in the home-ish floor advantage, I have to go with the Stealth. Stealth4

Goaltending: Richards vs. Vinc is one of the best goaltending matchups in a Championship game in recent years. I’d call that a draw but if I had to pick one, I’d probably give Vinc a slight edge.

Offense: We have Duch, Ratcliff, Nooch, Bucktooth, Hill, and Smith on one side and Jamieson, Dawson, Powless, Vitarelli, Point, and Accursi on the other. Powerful on both sides, but I’m giving the Stealth the edge there, especially if Jamieson and Vitarelli are not at 100%.

Defense/Transition: Rochester has the Selfs, Dawson, Smith, Kirk, and McCready but the Stealth has Sorensen, Grimes, Moleski, Garrison, Snider, Henderson, and Beers. Again, both are strong, but Washington wins there.

How do we avoid moving the Championship game? And should we avoid it?

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Yesterday, we talked about the 2013 NLL Championship game being held in Langley, BC because of scheduling issues at Comcast Arena. But could this have been avoided? Yes. How?

Money.

It would have been relatively easy to avoid, actually, though pricey. When the regular season schedule was being made, the NLL would have figured out when the final week of the season was going to be. Each team would then book the Saturday night of the next weekend for the Division Semi-Finals, the Saturday night of the following weekend for the Division Finals, and the Saturday night of the next weekend for the Finals. If they wanted to be really thorough, they would have booked Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday of all three weekends. Then there’s no chance that the arena would be booked for the playoffs, and everything’s good. Right?

Well, yes, except that for most teams, booking their arena for three entire weekends in a row during the NHL playoffs is completely impossible. Every NLL team except Washington and Rochester has an NHL team playing in the same arena. In every one of those cases (even the ones where the NHL team doesn’t own the building), I’ll give you one guess which team would get priority during those weekends. Hint: the answer rhymes with NOT LACROSSE.

So let’s say we decide that some playoff games are going to be Friday night, some Saturday night, and some Sunday afternoon, and the building owners all agree with the dates. Now the team owners have to pay for those dates, and I don’t imagine that paying to rent the ACC or Rexall Place is overly cheap. In fact, since there are only 8 home games (for now) and you just added three more, you’ve increased your arena costs by 37.5%. Sure, most teams will be able to cancel one or all of those dates eventually and presumably get some of their money back, but (a) you might not be able to cancel the dates until a week before, and b) there will very likely be a steep financial penalty (even more so because of the late notice). The non-hockey-team NLL owners (Toronto, Washington, Edmonton, Philadelphia, Rochester) are used to putting down their own money knowing they’re unlikely to get it all back, but they’re only so altruistic, and frankly I think it’s unfair to expect the owners to pay that out of their own pockets. The franchises or the league would have to foot the bill, and I’m pretty sure there just isn’t that much money floating around the NLL’s bank accounts.

Is every ticket-buying fan in the league interested in bumping ticket prices across the board to avoid the exceptionally slim possibility of both (a) their team making it to the finals and (b) the arena not being available? Some might, others won’t. It wasn’t the case this year with the parity we currently have, but some years it’s obvious from the start that one or more teams are just not good enough to make the finals. Would fans of those teams want an increase in ticket prices so they could book their arena for a Championship game that they have almost no chance of hosting?

I would think that if such a decision had to be made, pissing off a few fans in one city by moving the Championship game is the lesser of two evils when compared with pissing off more fans in all the NLL cities.

So yes, it could have been avoided. But the only real way to do it is by spending money that the league doesn’t have. Maybe when negotiating the TV deal for next season, the league could try and squeeze a few more bucks out of it, and then use that extra to book the arenas. But with all due respect to Stealth fans, in my opinion it really isn’t a big enough or frequent enough problem to warrant spending bucketloads of money on solving.