Power plays win games, Brett Dobson as Gaylord Perry, the best rookies ever, and it's the Desert Dogs' title to lose. NLL Week 5 Overreactions

Power plays with games

If you wanted to really get nit picky, you could knock the Rush schedule a bit. They were 2-1 through their first three games, but the opponents were Calgary, Ottawa, and Georgia. Not exactly murderer’s row. No easy games in the NLL, but that’s a trio of games the Rush would be expected to win. This week, things got considerably tougher. They made the trip to Halifax to play a Thunderbirds team that had just notched an OT win in Banditland and looked the part of title contender. This was a statement opportunity for all involved, and the game did not disappoint. There were 19 goals scored in this game. Eight of them tied the game. The game winner came off the stick of Austin Shanks with about minute left on the clock. The Rush dug this game out in dirty areas, and punished Thunderbirds errors. The Halifax bugaboo this year has been penalties. They’re putting up about 15 minutes of penalties a night, a difficult pace to overcome consistently. The Rush have also struggled with PIM, with 65 minutes across four games. On Saturday though, the Rush played cleaner. They committed just five penalties to Halifax’s eight. Four Rush goals came on the power play, while Halifax only converted twice. When it comes to games between contenders, it can come down to who wins in the margins. More efficient power plays, better loose ball play, that type of thing. Both squads have stars and all world players on both ends who will do their thing, but the gritty team execution stuff makes the difference. 

Colorado needed Jack Hannah to be on an earlier flight

The Mammoth hosted Georgia this week, and it was a down showing by the offense. Colorado didn’t score a goal in the second half. Andrew Kew wasn’t in the lineup again, and that hurts. He hasn’t played since his seven point opening game effort. Ryan Lee and Will Malcom tried to pick up the slack with five assists, but they didn’t register a goal. The offense has plenty of talent, and this week’s acquisition of Hannah only makes it better. Hannah, a Denver U grad who lives in Denver and launched a lacrosse training company and facility based in Denver, gets to further build his relationship in that community by joining the Mammoth. The trade came after a ton of buzz about Colorado signing Hannah to an offer sheet, which Vegas then matched, and then the trade was made. Without getting into the weeds on RFAs and compensation and all that, the deal was the expected outcome. From what I have heard, the actual deal was agreed to in principle mid week, and there was a legit chance if it all got processed in time that Hannah could have played for Colorado against Georgia. Alas that didn’t happen, even though the Mammoth needed his goal scoring services. 

Brett Dobson is lacrosse Gaylord Perry

A quick history lesson. Gaylord Perry is one of the best baseball pitchers of all time. He’s in the Hall of Fame, he threw a no hitter in his career, multiple Cy Young wins. Perry also has the dubious honor of posting on ERA of 2.04 in a year where he registered 16 losses. That means that despite the fact that he gave up barely any runs, frequently less than two per start, his team lost games because they couldn’t score.  Brett Dobson has given up 14 goals over his past three starts. And yet, the Swarm have posted a 2-2 record. Respectable, but with the door slammed that tight you have to think it could be better. Dobson surrendered six goals to Saskatchewan last week, and lost. Georgia scored just one goal through the game’s first three quarters. Lyle Thompson, Shayne Jackson, and Bryan Cole shot a combined 0-16 in the game. Sooner or later, the Swarm will right the ship. That trio alone is just too talented on offense to stay this cold all season. Things got better this weekend. Thompson had four points including a goal, Jackson five points with a goal, Cole three points with a goal. Young weapons like Nolan Byrne, Kaleb Benedict, and in particular transition weapon Michael Grace look better every week. 

This is the best rookie class ever

Grace provides a nice segue into this reaction. He is certainly smack in the middle of the Rookie of the Year race. Through four games he has seven points, and is averaging a little over six loose balls per contest. He defends and runs the floor like a seasoned pro, and has been outstanding both in on ball coverage and as a help defender. CJ Kirst registered his first hat trick this week, finishing with four goals and five points for Toronto. Teammate Owen Hiltz is third on the Rock in scoring, while Sam English is filling every column in the book. Dalton Young is up to 10 assists, the only rookie with double digits. Pat Kavanagh had an excellent game against Rochester, registering six points. The aforementioned Byrne has provided highlight goals and has nine points. Kyle Pepper has been excellent in transition for Calgary. Noah Armitage has provided bright spots for San Diego. Colorado found themselves a faceoff star in Matt Paolatto. The list just goes on an on. Scoring may be down but this class is off to a special start. 

It’s the Desert Dogs title to lose

The new faces in the desert flexed their muscles against Toronto. Mitch Jones led all scorers with eight points, including a game eight six assists. The snowman from Jones, plus seven points from Chris Cloutier and six points from both Chase Fraser and Jon Donville was a glimpse of how these big free agent signings have elevated this offense. If weapons like Adam Poitras and Sean Westley became secondary offensive options, the offense is clearly loaded. What jumps out that, is that Vegas scored 17 goals in this game and nobody on team had more than three. Fraser and Jackson Webster had hat tricks, and goals were spread out all over the roster. What’s more, Vegas clearly focused on closing. Last week, they were up 9-1 and led Ottawa come all the way back to tie it before the Dogs escaped with a win. This week, the Dogs best quarter was the the last one. They stretched a three goal lead to a five goal lead in the early going, and then rolled off three goals in 1:04 to open up a seven goal lead. Vegas played clean, they shot well, they got 40 saves from Landon Kells, it was all working.