Oshawa is the NLL's hottest new market, a bad start can bury you, and it's Colorado's title to lose. Week 1 NLL Overreactions.

It’s Colorado’s title to lose

Vancouver was the talk of the offseason. Big free agent signings, a full year of Christian Del Bianco ahead, bright young stars returning all over the floor. The Warriors were a trendy pick to make their way all the way to the NLL final this year. Colorado, on the other hand, was tough to get a read on. Connor Kelly and Zed Williams were traded away, as was Connor Robinson. Kelly and Robinson were 60 point players, Zed almost surely would have been if not for injury. A few key players remain, but the Mammoth were a tough team to read. And yet, on opening night, the Mammoth went into Vancouver and came out with a 10-7 win in front of 9,200 fans. Colorado trailed for exactly 24 seconds in the game. Will Malcom had six goals, Ryan Lee and Andrew Kew had seven points each. Kew, in particular, was outstanding in the preseason and carried his hot streak into the opener. Matt Paolatto, a new faceoff specialist out of D3 Union and Rutgers, went 80% from the spot with 11 loose balls.Dillon Ward notched 37 saves, good for 84% in net. Colorado played exactly to what they needed to in order to be successful. The Vancouver big guns were all held in check; nobody had a hat trick. The Mammoth may have lost a lot in the offseason, but there is enough of the core remaining for them to give even the best team serious problems.

Oshawa is a top two market in the NLL

Hard to imagine a better start, in a number of ways. Can’t have had a better start for the FireWolves in their new home in Oshawa, and can’t have had a better start for the NLL season. It was a packed house, so much so that color commentator Pat Gregoire noted the arena had to add more space for all the local media who were on hand to cover the game. Teddy Jenner, while talking with Commissioner Brett Frood, said the game was sold out. Officially announced attendance actually showed there to be a few seats left, but lacrosse journalist Anna Taylor noted that there were secondary market tickets listed for literally thousands of dollars, which would account for some empty seats. The building was loud, raucous, engaged, and intelligent. Frood noted at half time that the league “expected this”, acknowledging just how much Oshawa fans show up for lacrosse and love the sport. The geographic rivalry between Oshawa and Toronto is in place, the competitive rivalry is still growing. Though Alex Simmons and Challen Rogers both got in some nice barbs directed at the other team in media availability. The game itself was electric, with Oshawa coming away with an 8-7 win. The game had big hits, gritty plays, unbelievable saves, stars of the present like Rogers and Mark Matthews playing well, and stars of the future like CJ Kirst, Owen Hiltz, Sam English, and Dyson Williams making huge plays. The challenge now is sustaining this. It’s easier to pack the building for a team’s debut in the market against a geographic rival in the season opener for the NLL. The task now is to keep the building full on a weekly basis; keep those fans coming back with more games like that one. If Oshawa supports every week like they did in the opener, the FireWolves will be an elite market in no time.

Ottawa had a nightmare start and it cost them a game

Pro lacrosse is just too competitive for anyone, in my opinion, to definitively declare a team bad, good, contender, or anything in between. One that can be definitively said, a bad start in the NLL will bury you. Ottawa had about as bad a start as you can imagine against the Seals. They didn’t score until midway into the second quarter. On the defensive end, basic communication breakdowns led to San Diego goals, allowed the Seals to get out to a 6-0 lead. At that point, Luc Magnan tried to spark his team, getting in to a fight with Patrick Shoemay to get some juice going, and to an extent it worked. The Black Bears scored three goals in less than 90 seconds. There was a ton of fight in the Black Bears. In fact, after being down 6-0, they won the rest of the game 13-10. But when you start slow, you have to push a boulder uphill the rest of the night; a particularly difficult task against a goalie like Chris Origlieri. Ottawa came close, even getting back with one goal at 14-13 late in the 4th. Had they played a full 60 minutes like they did the last 40 or so, they’d have won. But that’s the margin of error in the NLL.

Georgia is better than you think

Another opening weekend result to file under “maybe we are wrong about these guys.” The Swarm are a popular pick to finish near the bottom of the league standings. Andrew Kew was dealt to Colorado for Connor Kelly, and Kelly is now on the Holdout List. Brendan Bomberry joined Halifax, while Jeremy and Miles Thompson were both not brought back this year. That’s a ton of lost points, and some veteran leadership to boot. Going into Buffalo, in the opener, on banner raising night? Surely the Swarm had no shot. But nobody told the Swarm that. They were tied with Buffalo at the half. In the second half, the wheels came off a bit, in part as Buffalo found a rhythm and because netminder Brett Dobson went to the box to serve a five minute major for a hit on Ian MacKay. But basically all of the new young faces for Georgia performed well. Mike Grace had four assists, six loose balls, and two caused turnovers. Nolan Byrne and Ben Trumble each had two points. Kaleb Benedict looked very. Buffalo clearly was keying on Lyle Thompson and held him to just one point, daring the Swarm’s other plays to do the damage. For a half, the Swarm were up to the challenge. With this many rookies, it might be a bumpy ride, but the talent is good enough to pick some people off.