Buffalo returns to earth, Brett Dobson for MVP, Vegas is a hot bed, candid talk about big hits, and it's Colorado's title to lose. NLL Week 10 Overreactions.

Welcome back to earth, Buffalo

The Bandits got smacked by Colorado on Saturday, 20-9. Not a typo. They gave up 20 goals. It’s their third straight loss. The three time defending champions have just one other three game losing streak in that span. Since 2022, they lost three straight once in 2024, and now their current losing streak. Sustained success in pro sports, any sport, is hard to achieve. Just making it to back to back NLL Finals would have been an impressive measure of lasting success, let alone winning three straight cups. But as the saying goes, Father Time is undefeated. It’s almost jarring to see Buffalo return to the herd. And to be clear, it’s not like they’re suddenly a bad team. The score differential is currently a -4, and that’s coming off a game they lost by 11 goals. Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne are still having very good seasons, just maybe not quite MVP seasons we are used to. Matt Vinc is looking like a mortal man in goal. Nowhere to me does Buffalo look bad, but it’s been so long since they looked, frankly, kinda like everyone else in a given week. They’re returned to being…beatable. They haven’t had a four game losing streak since 2018, and they host Philadelphia next week.

Vegas is a lacrosse town

The Desert Dogs sold the building out on Saturday. They did it against a team that wasn’t Buffalo (still an important qualifier because Bandits fans travel so well). They had special events attached. First and foremost, it was a Tucker Out Lymphoma Cup game, one of the more inspiring stories to follow during the year. The Bandits, Desert Dogs, and FireWolves are all connected to the Williams family, and have their own cup each year to compete for in Tucker’s honor and to raise money to fight cancer. It was also Wayne Gretzky Night and as good as Wayne is at hockey, he is by all accounts a worse lacrosse player than all members of the Williams family. The crowd was energized all night, they were engaged, they were loud. Vegas nearly sold out a game against Ottawa back in December, and had another great home crowd against Saskatchewan a few weeks ago. The Vegas offense has been red hot (although the injury to Chase Fraser may cool them a bit). They’re fun to watch, the firmly competitive and in the playoff picture, and the fans in the desert have taken notice.

Brett Dobson is the MVP front runner

It’s not just a Goalie of the Year convo any more for him. The numbers are just too good. The last goalie to win MVP was Christian Del Bianco in 2023. In that season, he made 746 saves, posted a 9.28 GAA, and a 81% save percentage. He also posted 19 assists. Dobson currently owns a GAA that more than two goals better (6.91), a save percentage that’s nearly six points better (86.8%), and he’s on pace to make 780 saves this year. Georgia gave up 15 in the opener at Buffalo, and they haven’t given up double digits since. Georgia’s offense has been up and down to say the least, but they have a chance to win every game that #45 steps into the goal. There are eight teams in the NLL that have played one fewer games than Georgia has, but surrendered as many or more goals than Georgia has. That’s how far Dobson has been ahead of the pack. 

It’s Colorado’s title to lose

The flipside of the coin from above, Colorado looks outstanding. Hosting Buffalo and putting up a 20 burger with five minutes left in the game turns heads. Andrew Kew scored 30 seconds into the game and Colorado held the lead from there. The moves this team made to get this point deserve a lot of love. Kew was acquired in a trade and, despite the fact that he’s missed time with injury, is second on the team in points and putting up more than eight per game. Jack Hannah made his debut on January 3rd and has posted six points per game since. Matt Paolatto was added for help at the faceoff spot, he’s over 60% and has a few points to his name as icing on the cake. All the right strings were pulled, adding high end talent to a locker room that has quality leadership with winning experience. That locker room has made it easier for rookies like Ari Stevens, Connor Nock, Dylan Hess, and Braedon Haris to contribute and impress. The Mammoth look ready to play whatever type of game you want. Rock fight that needs to be ground out? They’ve got a 7-5 win over Georgia. Run up and down in a shootout? They’ve got an 18-13 win over Rochester. Only the Rush have a longer winner streak right as Colorado made their 5th in a row a statement. The Mammoth’s dominance this weekend pushes their score differential to +20 and they look like they can do no wrong.

Big hits make me uncomfortable

There were a lot of places to start this week, but Rylan Hartley’s gigantic (and now viral) hit on Steph Charbonneu in the Rochester/Vancouver game is what’s been on my mind the most. While I tend to be very tongue in cheek and try to have some fun with these - and last week I very much missed the mark - for this topic, I want to be candid. If you somehow haven’t seen, Charbonneau was streaking up the floor and the intended target of a long Chrstian Del Bianco outlet pass; the type of pass that CDB excels at and makes him one of the best in the world. As Charbonneau caught the pass, he turned up floor, and was immediately leveled by a charging Hartley. It was a punishing hit, the kind that to see live makes you almost look away when you see it happening. It immediately sparked multiple fights on the floor. It’s the type of hit that would get player ejected from a football game, and it fairness it got Hartley ejected from this game, but it’s also the type of hit that we all know will catch fire on social media. That’s where the discomfort comes in.

I never set out to post things or create content and think to myself “I’ll do this because it’ll get a lot of likes”. I set out to post or create things I think are in service of bringing the sport to people, and sharing the biggest stories or events in the game on a particular day. To that end, as soon as the hit happened it was clear that it would be a talking point. It conjured images of Alex Buque delivering a similar hit to Karsen Leung, a hit that effectively ended Leung’s career. We all know what the comment section is going to look like. But I try and be deliberate in how I frame these things. My caption was “Total mayhem in Rochester. Rylan Hartley absolutely blasts Charbonneau and it starts multiple fights. Hartley would be ejected.”  I felt I was keeping to just what happened in the clip. Big hit, chaos, fights, Hartley kicked out. I deliberately don’t take a position on the hit being a good or bad for the sport, celebrating an injury or a scary moment, any of that. I have had my issues with the posting of big scary hits in the past because I feel like, if done wrong, it becomes just cheering for bloodspot. That’s not what I’m about. 

Another media member who I seriously respect suggested I delete the post, and I still haven’t. I stand by posting it as a person who, while still new the NLL world, considers it part of the gig that when things like this happen, you share them without taking a position. For the record, I was not a fan of the hit. In chats with some other lacrosse folks, my position has been that if the hit immediately reminds people of the time someone had their career ended, the hit shouldn’t be part of the game. And in fairness to the NLL, it isn’t. This felt like a textbook violation of this rule: 

Rule 70.4 – Contact on a fast breaking opponent

A goalie or player must give a fast-breaking opponent the

opportunity to gain composure after receiving the ball,

provided the player being checked is not in a vulnerable

and or defenseless position, which may include a player’s

head being down or unaware of an impending hit, or

significant distance travelled by the player making the hit.

An appropriate penalty for illegal body checking shall be

assessed based on the severity of the illegal contact.

I’d be in support of league discipline for Hartley. I don’t love the fact that I already know the lacrosse clips that do best on social media are big hits and fights. American fans in particular love that stuff and want to see it. Both those things are still part of lacrosse, and part of covering it. Personally, I make a concerted effort to make sure when I share it or talk about it, I don’t lead with it. I don’t want to give a new fan the impression “come to a fight, see a lacrosse game”. I prefer the reverse and will continue to approach things that way.