The return of goals, Vegas has no quit, special teams lose games, and it's Colorado's title to lose. NLL Week 7 Overreactions.

Goals are back

Goals scored in the NLL:

Week 6 - 123 (24.6 per game)

Week 5 - 110 (22 per game)

Week 4 - 70 (17.5 per game)

Week 3 - 132 (18.8 per game)

Week 2 - 42 (21 per game)

Week 1 - 87 (21.7 per game)

We had quite the dip there! We had some games with goals in the low-mid teens, some that barely broke double digits, but this week the big scoring was back. Two games in Week Six broke the 30 goal barrier, including Ottawa/Oshawa which oddsmakers picked to be the lowest scoring game of the weekend. Multiple teams found their groove when it came to scoring goals. Oshawa scored 14, which is one more than they scored in their last three games COMBINED. Calgary had a new season high with 15 thanks to a massive game from Brayden Mayea. Ottawa scored 16 for the second week in a row following a 10 point effort from Jeff Teat, who now leads the league in points. And of course, Colorado put up an 18 spot, more on that later. It felt inevitable. It makes me happy that one of the league’s best attended weekends so far is also the weekend that saw the most goals per game of the year. Fans love to see scoring, that kind of excitement keeps people coming back, so all in all good news. Except for goalies. 

Ain’t no quit in Vegas

I had high hopes for the Desert Dogs this week following their impressive win against Toronto. Going into Banditland is a tall task for anyone. I knew it would take a full 60 minutes, no lulls, no slow starts, just clean execution for Vegas to actually pull the win off. And they didn’t do that. They were down 3-0 in the game’s first three minutes and chasing it the rest of the way. The deficit balloon all the way to seven early in the 4th quarter. But the impressive part from Vegas was the fight to the close. They outscored Buffalo 6-1 over the game’s final 10 minutes. Partially because Buffalo started to slow the pace, but Vegas also just looked better for a lot of the stretch. They were got back within two goals thanks to an eight goal 4th quarter. The Vegas acquisitions on offense did their thing. Mitch Jones had eight points, Chris Cloutier had four goals and Chase Fraser had four points against their former team. Jon Donville had another five point outing. They shot decently well; Matt Vinc was just 71% in goal. It just took them too long to get going. I’m a Vegas believer. When they’re revved up and at their best, they have no problem putting the ball in the net. They just aren’t a team that can afford to have lapses at either end. 

It’s not just penalty minutes, it’s special teams and game situations

Halifax’s penalty woes are well covered this season. Stephen Stamp of IL called it a “proclivity to transgress” which is wordsmithing at its finest. It’s not always an issue of if you commit X number of penalties, you’ll concede Y goals. Halifax averages 15.5 minutes of penalties per game this year. It’s a lot. Saskatchewan averages 15. San Diego 18 (inflated a bit by this week’s melee). Vancouver 14.6. Philly 13.7. Colorado 12.5. A lot of teams are spending a lot of time in the sin bin. Let’s look at what happens when teams go on the penalty kills.. Halifax has conceded 12 goals and 20 assists on the power play, 32 points. The next highest is Colorado at 31. Then Ottawa at 30. Then San Diego at 27. After that it’s Oshawa at 25. But consider that Vancouver, with their 14.6 PIM per game, has conceded just 10 points against while on the penalty kill. Saskatchewan has conceded 18. In the first matchup with Saskatchewan, the Rush scored a game tying goal on the power play twice, and a go ahead goal on the power play twice. The Rush scored five second half goals against Halifax this past weekend, three of them were on the power play. The issue with Halifax is penalties yes, but the struggles of the penalty kill unit are part of this too. And of course, spend more time on the penalty kill, you’ll concede more goals. But the timeliness and importance of those goals, particularly over the past two weeks, have been a major story. 

It’s Colorado’s title to lose

A week after they scored just three goals, Colorado hung an 18 spot on Rochester. It took them about ten minutes to score as many goals as they had in the whole game a week earlier. They chased Rylan Hartley, who has been electric so far this season, before half time. Rochester held a 5-4 lead after the first, then the Mammoth ran off seven straight goals, including a pair of shorthanded tallies. The total may be a bit inflated, I will concede that. The Mammoth had three empty netters (including one assisted from Dillon Ward), but the Loud House was rocking and this team was on fire. I guess acquiring Jack Hannah can do that. The newly minted member of the Mammoth finished with eight points on two goals and six assists. He didn’t waste much time getting involved, scoring both his goals in the first quarter. The offense clearly enjoyed something of a jump start from the home crowd and the addition of Hannah. Meanwhile, rookie Matt Paolatto is now facing off at 63% on the year, which can feed that offensive momentum. Rookie Dylan Hess has impressed on defense and in transition, as has fellow rookie Ari Stevens. The rookie class in Colorado looks to be one hit after another. They take a trip to Georgia this week to face another great goalie in Brett Dobson.