A holiday spectacular on tap in pro lacrosse. It's the NLL Week 5 Primer.

It’s the season of giving. Or maybe also taking a little bit. Whether that’s assists, goals, big hits, or maybe those grinchy goalies stealing all the cheer from the offense, it’s the holidays in the NLL. There are five games on the slate, no Friday night this week but a stacked Saturday and then a fun game on Sunday night. 

SATURDAY

Who: Saskatchewan Rush (2-1) vs Halifax Thunderbirds (2-0)

Where: Scotiabank Centre, Halifax

When: 6:00pm, EST

The Spread: Halifax favored by 1.5 (+105), game total set at 22.5

Who: Philadelphia Wings (1-1) vs Ottawa Black Bears (1-2)

Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa

When: 7:00pm, EST

The Spread: Ottawa favored by 1.5 (+114), game total set at 21.5

Who: Las Vegas Desert Dogs (1-1) vs Toronto Rock (1-1)

Where: TD Coliseum, Toronto

When: 7:00pm EST

The Spread: Toronto favored by 1.5 (-125), game total set at 22.5

Who: Georgia Swarm (1-2) vs Colorado Mammoth (1-1)

Where: Ball Arena, Colorado

When: 9:00pm EST

The Spread: Colorado favored by 1.5 (+120), game total set at 21.5

SUNDAY

Who: Buffalo Bandits (2-1) vs Calgary Roughnecks (0-2)

Where: Westjet Field at Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary

When: 8:00pm EST

The Spread: Buffalo favored by 1.5 (-160), game total set at 22.5

STORIES TO WATCH

Will the dam break?

Scoring in the NLL is way down through the season’s first month. Oshawa has played four games and scored 21 goals. Georgia has played three and scored 24. Lyle Thompson has been as cold as we’ve ever seen him. This week, Georgia heads west to Colorado. The Mammoth have given up 15 goals in two games and Dillon Ward is saving it at 83%. Georgia, plain and simple, needs the Lyle we’re all used to, the one who averages north of five points per regular season game for his career. Lyle has just one goal in three games, and just six points. Jeff Teat, despite being third in the league in points, is also shooting just 13.5% on the year, well below career average. Ryan Lee is down around 11%. Brennan O’Neill is in single digits, shooting 9.5%. The goalies deserve credit, there have been truly incredible performances between the pipes every weekend. Maybe, in the spirit of the season of giving, we’ll see a whole lot more goals given up this weekend. 

Heavyweights in Halifax

The Rush entered the year as a popular pick to get back to the NLL finals. Halifax came into the season with relatively little fanfare. Not that anyone expected them to be bad, but the Thunderbirds name was not often coming up in the conversations about teams that had a great shot at the title. No one in Halifax got that script though. It’s still early, but there’s no denying that the Birds are a very impressive 2-0. They opened with Warren Hill turning in an all time great performance in front of 10,000 fans and holding Oshawa to two goals. It continued with Clarke Petterson hitting an OT game winner in Banditland. It’s tough to find a spot where the Halifax roster looks deficient, or even just average right now. This is the first game of a home and home with the rush. This weekend it’s at the Nest, and on January 2nd it’ll be played in Saskatchewan. This weekend's contest is nearly sold out. If we wake up on January 3rd to a 4-0 Thunderbird team, we know just how legit they are. If we wake up to a 2-2 squad, we’ll see we just got too excited too soon. 

Do we already start burying Calgary?

The Roughnecks are 0-2 after visits to the Rush and the Rock. They were off last week, and this week they host Buffalo. Flipping the calendar over to 2024 without getting into the win column would be a sizable lump of a coal for the Riggers. Calgary went to the 4th quarter with a lead over Toronto, but couldn’t hold it. They mounted an impressive fourth quarter comeback to tie Saskatchewan late, but couldn’t complete it. The two efforts combined add up to one, solid complete game. They’ll need that, and then some, to handle Buffalo. 

Vegas needs more clocks

There are famously no clocks in Vegas casinos, or any casinos, in order to keep the guests from realizing how long they’ve been giving their money away. Maybe the lack of clocks confused the Desert Dogs last week, who went up 9-1 on Ottawa and then gave up an 8-0 run and nearly lost the game. Maybe Vegas didn’t realize how much time had passed or was left and there was some clock confusion. Regardless, like Calgary, Vegas needs to put together a complete game. They bounced back admirably from week one, and they deserve credit for the play and execution that got them to up 9-1 on Ottawa. But neither Vegas not any NLL team is good enough to take their foot off the gas against anyone. The talent level is too high. On the road against a young talented Toronto team, Vegas will want an equally fast start to try and rattle the Rock rookies. From there, Vegas needs to show some killer instinct that was lacking last week and close the game out.