Ice cold FireWolves, new markets with small crowds, Rochester winning with goaltending, and it's the Thunderbirds title to lose. NLL Week 3 Overreactions.

Everyone loves attendance talk

Lacrosse fans, media, players, pundits, everyone wants the same thing. Bigger TV ratings, more tickets sold, more fans engaging with the sport. The barometer for that is obvious because it’s measured. Nielsen ratings and attendance numbers. When it comes to the NLL, TV ratings are tougher to come by because streaming figures aren’t part of Nielsen and leagues rarely release the raw data. But attendance is published by the NLL every game (please do this PLL). With that info we get the good and the bad. The good, the NLL has multiple clear attendance strongholds. Buffalo of course leads the pack, they’ll sell our Keybank this season a few times without a doubt. But Halifax, Vancouver, and Colorado have great crowds, regularly in the ballpark of 10,000 fans. Oshawa is out to a good start in their new home, but that also is a segue to the not so good. Ottawa is in year two in their new market after relocating from New York. They had 6,995 fans in the opener last year, and have yet to even crack 6,000 again. There were about 4,300 on hand for their opener, and just 3,652 this week .Empty buildings are bad news, and empty buildings in markets that are brand new are even worse. Ottawa put a hell of an effort on the floor this week, led by another virtuoso nine point performance from potential MVP Jeff Teat. Bigger crowds should be turning up in Ottawa. Philadelphia, however, has been marred by relocation rumors over the last year. But their fans showed up and were energized for this year’s opener. The number wasn’t the biggest ever, but they were engaged and passionate. Philly put over 8,000 fans in the building last year, they’ll need to live up around that number to convince leadership that they’re worth bringing along into a new arena. 

Oshawa can’t score goals

The FireWolves are ice cold. They have played three games and scored just 15 goals. Every other NLL team who has played TWO games has more goals than them. They’re shooting just 10%. The eight goal effort in the opener is largest output of the season, and they matched an NLL record for futility with just two goals in week two. The lack of output doesn’t really compute. This roster has produced prolifically in the past. The lack of goals is a team effort. In the NLL, teams might be able to handle a slumping shooter, maybe two, at a time with production from other players. But the entire Oshawa offense is struggling. Dyson Williams has one goal from 24 shots on goal. Williams, Alex Simmons, Tye Kurtz, and Ethan Walker, the go to weapons for the Wolves, have combined for 12 goals on 102 shots on goal. The Wolves can draw hope from the fact that they’ve seen three great goalies. Nick Rose week one, Warren Hill turned him one of the best efforts of his career in week two, and Brett Dobson shut the door on them this week. Bad news though, it doesn’t get any easier. They host Christian Del Bianco next week .

That’s more like it, Vancouver

Dropping the opener against Colorado raised my eyebrows a bit. The Warriors are not just a stacked roster, they’re a trendy title pick. Adding Curtis Dickson and Jesse King in the offseason meant that the Warriors scoring just seven in week one was shocking. This week, it looked a lot more like what we expected. Not just from Dickson and King, but from a deep offense that attacks with one wave after another. They had six players registered at least three points, including eight point nights from Keegan Bal and Adam Charalambides. Reid Bowering had three points and didn’t even take a shot. They absolutely blitzed the Desert Dogs, up 7-2 at halftime and chasing Landon Kells early in the 3rd quarter. It was 14-5 heading to the 4th, and this game wasn’t even as close as the final score. A Curt Malawsky coached team, with the locker room leaders on the roster, clearly was going to rebound from week one. They did it in a fashion that put the league on notice. 

The Knighthawks win with goaltending

Rochester headed west to San Diego for their opener. The Knighthawks offense last year was a force, and they brought back almost the entire roster. They notably added Zed Williams, who returned this week from an injury that caused him to miss several months. With Williams, reigning MVP Connor Fields, Ryan Lanchbury, Thomas McConvey, Ryan Smith, the Knighthawks have the makings of a team ready to win some shootouts. They were not expected to be a team that won with defense. And yet, that’s what we saw. Rylan Hartley was on another plane of existence against the Seals, registering a whopping 58 saves. The Seals managed just four goals in the first half, never had more than three in a quarter, and had just one in the opening and final frames. San Diego outshot the Hawks 65-48, Trevor Baptiste won nearly every faceoff, and the Seals lost by eight goals. Hartley made a SportsCenter worthy play late, as an errant outlet pass was picked up by the Seals in front of their bench. Hartley sprinted from the boards back to his crease, dove across the front of the net, and kept the long shot out. Any other night it was such a high percentage look that it was borderline automatic. That was the story of the Seals, and Hartley’s, night.

It was, for the second straight week, the Thunderbird’s title to lose

The Thunderbirds played a gem of a game at home to open the season. This week’s test was about as tough as it gets. Go into Banditland, without Thomas Hoggarth, and beat the three time defending champs. By the way, you’ll have to do it in front of about 17,000 fans. The game was a slugfest, but Halifax went toe to toe with the champ. And won. Buffalo had a two goal lead in the 4th quarter, but goals from Petterson and Knox tied the game up. The Birds even took a 4th quarter lead. The Bandits answered to send it to OT, where Petterson hit the game winner about 30 second in. The knock on Halifax for me remains the same, they foul to much. They had 12 penalty minutes (there was some loud criticism of the officiating on lax twitter), and the Bandits had three power play goals. It can be tough to overcome that. But Hill was at 84% in goal, staying hot. They got the win without a goal from Randy Staats, and Hoggarth still out. Dawson Theede is a brutally difficult matchup to cover, he had five points and can play any kind of game you want. Graeme Hossack deletes people, and the Birds still look like a team that can beat anyone.