The opening weekend of the NLL season is in the books. Five games were played in the last three days. Rookies like Brennan O’Neill and Dyson Williams debuted, Ottawa opened up their new home, we had an OT thriller, it was a tremendous week one. With five games played and it only being December 2nd, it’s time for some severe overreactions.
It’s Ottawa’s Title to Lose
Ottawa had the best performance of the weekend. Not only did they notch their first ever home win as the Black Bears, but they did it in dominating fashion against one of the league’s top teams. They didn’t give up a goal in the first half. They never trailed. At the start of the 4th quarter they were up 10-3. Their trade acquisitions in the offseason were outstanding. Jacob Dunbar scored the game’s first goal, and finished with six points to lead all scorers. Dunbar also had nine looseballs and was the game leader in the category. Zach Higgins made 38 saves and stopped 88.4% of shots he saw, some in spectacular fashion. Ottawa had more loose balls and more shots. They had three short handed goals. They won the faceoff battle. It was team excellence from top to bottom.
Colorado is going undefeated at home
The Mammoth finished last in the league last year. In the early goings against Vancouver, the Mammoth did not look good. The Warriors were out to a 3-0 lead, and the Mammoth didn’t score until there was about a minute left in the opening quarter. It was their only goal of the first half, and the Warriors held a 6-1 lead at half time. In the second half, we saw the power of the Loud House. The crowd, 10,000 strong, will Colorado back into this game. The Mammoth outscored the Warriors 10-1 in the second half, including scoring the game’s last eight goals and shutting out Vancouver in the 4th quarter. Connor Kelly scored short handed early in the third, that lit the fuse and it was all it took. The atmosphere in Ball Arena was overwhelming, and Vancouver was on their heels the rest of the night.
Nobody can outplay injuries
The Toronto Rock, for the second year in a row, are dealing with injuries to key players. TD Ierlan is on the IR and will miss extended time. Challen Rogers is on the IR. Brad Kri is on PUP. Tom Schreiber is in the lineup but coming off a shoulder injury sustained at the end of the PLL season. Latrell Harris is back after missing an entire year with a knee injury; he was taken out of the game once it was clear the outcome was decided. The Rock still are a very good team. Despite all those injuries, Mitch de Snoo played well on defense and in transition, Chris Boushy was impactful on offense, and rookie Brian Cameron notched his first career goal. But the result is what it is. The Rock got outplayed on loose balls, couldn’t score on Zach Higgins, and gave up a few uncharacteristic goals to Ottawa. The injuries impacted them.
Connor Fields, MVP
Connor Fields had 10 points against Las Vegas, making him the league scoring leader through week one. He also had 10 loose balls. Per Adam Levi, Fields posted just the 24th 10-10 game in the NLL since 2005. Fields also had a caused turnover, making him the sixth player in NLL history to have 10-10 and a CTO. Last year Fields had 120 points and led Rochester to a borderline miraculous 2-0 final regular season weekend and a spot in the playoffs. He also had 159 loose balls last year. Fields was the only player in the league last year in the top 20 for loose balls who also had over 30 points; he had 120.
Ryan Benesch will never be old
I’m 40 years old. If I “get out of bed wrong” I have back pain for days and might consider calling out from work. Ryan Benesch turns 40 in about two months. He had nine points in an NLL game on Sunday night. Five goals, four assists, shot 50%, and had six loose balls. Science cannot explain this.
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