Getting old all at once, Toronto loving the Calgary season, Keegan Bal is crushing it, and the right way to fight. NLL Week 11 Overreactions.

The Bandits need to come back to Earth but in a different way

Look, nothing lasts forever. What goes up must come down. All that good stuff. But I thought the Bandits had come back to Earth after their three year run LAST week. THIS week, the losing streak stretched to four in a row. They lost on their home floor in front of a sold out crowd to a Wings team that came in with a 1-6 record. The Bandits haven’t lost four in a row since 2018 (that might sound recently but folks it’s eight years ago). They have had a losing streak of 4+ games just six times this CENTURY. And one of those times is now. Father Time is undefeated. And as I have gotten older, I have noticed that getting old tends to happen all at once. One day Michael Jordan is winning 70 with the Bulls, then the next day you wake up and he’s on the Wizards. While you’re in the middle of one, a dynasty feels like it will never end. Or at least like things might be a bit more gradual. But the three time defending champs now have a 3-5 record, they look very vulnerable on the defensive end, and they have reached double digit goals just once in their last four games. It ain’t getting any easier, as their next two games are on the road against Halifax and Vancouver, and then they host the Rush. The good news, this team is experienced, has an outstanding coach behind the bench, and a locker room culture that can withstand a whole lot more than losing a few games. Buffalo will remain dangerous and a threat to win the title if they make the playoffs. If they make the playoffs. Wild to even say it.

Toronto is loving this Calgary season

I think I’m ready to call it. The Roughnecks now sit at 1-7, squarely at the bottom of the standings. We all had the feeling this could be a rough year for the Riggers. Curtis Dickson and Jesse King departed in free agency, they spent some capital renting Nick Rose last year for a possible title run, and now it’s rebuild time. There are some rookies can Calgary can feel really good about, Noam Manning and Kyle Pepper have been particularly impressive, and there’s the makings of a good young core out there. The tricky thing is, even though Calgary is a solid pick to finish at the bottom of the standings and get the first pic in the 2026 draft, they don’t actually own that pick. That Nick Rose rental? That cost Calgary their 2026 first round pick. Toronto, already stacked with young talent, might have the first bite at the apple on draft day. The draft is loaded with offensive talent, including Silas Richmond, Finn Thomson, Matt Collison, and Joey Spallina. Calgary makes a pick near the end of the first round, and with that draft depth will surely get a high level player.

San Diego will be back to their winning ways in no time

The Seals had their three game winning streak snapped by the the neon green juggernaut named Saskatchewan. The Seals started the game the way they needed. It was 4-0 San Diego after the first. Saskatchewan was coming off a bye week and started slow, San Diego jumped on them. It was 2-0 in the first 1:19 of the game. But as things went on and the Rush got warmed up, they took over the game. The Seals hung tough but the Rush got a lead at the end of Q3, and stayed hot in Q4. San Diego took three 4th quarter penalties, they didn’t get Origlieri’s best game, but they had every chance to win this game. They out shot the Rush, they had more loose balls, they crushed the faceoff spot with Baptiste. But penalties kept the door open. Half of the Rush’s 12 goals in the game came on the power play. Right now, to beat the Rush, you need to play clean and not give them easy opportunities. It was the Seals' downfall in this one. The Seals visit Oshawa next, and the focus should be on staying out of the box and playing cleaner.

Keegan Bal needs more shine

There are four players in the league averaging more than seven points per game. Andrew Kew leads the league at 8.3 (in four games played), then Connor Fields at 7.5. Jeff Teat is at 7.3 Sandwiched between Fields and Teat is Bal, at 7.4 points per game. He is one of two players in the league to crack the 40 assist mark; the other is Jeff Teat who has played two more games. Bal is shooting 25.4%. He’s 4th in the league in points. He’s doing all this damage and scoring despite taking way fewer shots than the league’s top three scorers. . Teat has taken 143 shots, Alex Simmons 120, Connor Fields 111, and then Bal at 71. The ball gets shared with Dickson, King, Charalambides, Klarich, and lots of other mouths to feed on the offensive end. Sometimes when an offense runs deep with weapons, as Vancouver’s does, it can be difficult or even counterintuitive to single out a player who really is doing a ton to make it all go. Bal deserves some shine for the season he’s having.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do fights

We had a few instances of the gloves getting dropped this weekend. The first was in the Rochester/Vancouver game. Well, to be accurate, it was BEFORE the Rochester/Vancouver game. Given the events of last week, the buzz around Rylan Hartley’s hit on Steph Charbonneau, and one game suspension of Hartley that followed, it was safe to assume this game would get physical. If the prediction markets had let people wager on “will there be a fight in the this game”, all the money would be coming in on YES. But I don’t even know if that would pay out, because the fight came in pregame warm ups. Jackson Suboch and Tyler Biles traded punches in front of the benches, both got match penalties and were ejected from a game that hadn’t started yet. Meanwhile, in a game between Toronto and Oshawa, Elijah Gash and Emerson Clark had a tilt of their own. It happened about three minutes into the game, and by all accounts had been brewing since pregame and the early goings. Let’s start with the Gash/Clark fight. Clark clearly asking Gash if he wants to go, both players remove helmets, gloves, and gear. They make their way towards center, everyone clears out some space, they trade their punches, go the ground, refs break it up, it’s over. In the Suboch/Biles fight, yes the gear was shed, but this was pregame, in front of benches, with a ton of kids on the floor nearby. I am not firmly anti-fighting. I like that in the NLL there’s a bit of a warrior code to it. If you have a problem with someone else on the floor, you perceive someone else to be taking it too far with physicality or going after a teammate, there’s a method for players to handle it themselves. And I prefer it to look like the Gash/Clark fight. They agree it’s time to chuck knucks, drop their gear, sort it out, and it’s over. Respect between both combatants, teams pull for their guy, and the fighters head out to cool off for a while. In the other case, it was by benches. To watch it on social (it wasn’t on TV because, again, the game had not started yet) made it look like referees were nowhere to be found. Players on both teams had to step in to put a stop to it. A team of kids stood just behind the line of players watching the fight. This felt more like bloodsport than part of the game to me. I like it when players have a method to police themselves and there’s a code to it, spoken or not.