BSC NLL Monthly Roundup for December 2023
Welcome to the Buffalo Sports Collective’s first NLL Monthly Roundup! As we here at the BSC continue to grow we’re aiming to bring more content to our readers and listeners. And what better time to do that with a new year and at the beginning of the NLL season? On the first Wednesday of each month during the NLL season you’ll find a new article. The topics may change slightly month to month, but the main goal will to be give a summary of the Bandits, a little taste of what’s going on around the NLL over the previous month, and possibly a few other fun things sprinkled in. If you’d like to read a more in-depth analysis of each Bandits game, check out Phil’s post-game breakdown which comes out every Tuesday after a Bandits game.
Bandits Game Summary
One month in after week 5 the Bandits are sitting at 1-2 with a win against the San Diego Seals (9-12) and loses against the Albany Firewolves (13-17) and to the Georgia Swarm (9-8). This isn’t the start that Banditland wanted for the current NLL champions, but we’re still early in the season with plenty of time for them to work their way up the standings.
Most probably didn’t expect much from the Albany Firewolves in game one. And who could blame you? Albany finished in last place in the 2022-2023 season without winning any home games, finished last season with a 3-15 record, and are in the middle of a rebuild. While they beat the Las Vegas Dessert Dogs in week one we had them at 13 in our BSC Power Rankings. The Firewolves ended up surprising everyone with a younger team that was led by rookie forward Alex Simmons who had 5 goals and 3 assists for a total of 8 points. While the Bandits had 13 goals, which can be enough to secure a win against many teams, the defense and Vinc underperformed. As Phil stated in our recap, the defense hadn’t had a lot of time playing together, especially with the Bandits missing Adam Bomberry and Bryce Sweeting resulting in poor cohesion and plenty of miscommunications. While this was a disappointing loss, keep in mind that the Bandits lost to Albany early last year and found themselves winning the championship. The offense had plenty of positives with Chris Cloutier having 4 goals, 1 assist, Josh Byrne having 2 goals and 7 assists, and Dhane Smith with 1 goal and 5 assists. Despite having a good offensive performance, Albany was always there to stop the momentum by never letting the Bandits get more than a 2-goal streak.
This brings us to game 2 in week 3 at home in Banditland against the San Diego Seals. This was a special night for Bandits fans as we got to see the championship banner raised to the rafters which last happened in 2008. San Diego is one of the best teams in the league and lead the western division last year. The Bandits last saw San Diego in March of 2023 with a 7-6 overtime win by the Bandits. The first half was a constant back and forth battle with San Diego holding the lead at 6-5 at halftime. Their lead quickly diminished with the Bandits having an explosive 3rd quarter outscoring San Diego 5-2 going on a 5-goal run with 4 goals being scored within two minutes. The Bandits defeated the Seals in a 12-9 victory. As expected, Vinc rebounded after the poor Albany performance and looked more like his usual self only letting in a single outside goal and had a total of 37 saves. We also saw the defense have more cohesion compared to game 1, and Brandon Robinson was moved back to defense while Justin Robinson is out due to an injury. The offense had a similar performance as their previous game. Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith lead the team in points with 4 goals 3 assist for Byrne and 7 assists for Smith.
After taking a week off, the Bandits faced the Georgia Swarm who just had a 15-8 win over Colorado. Coming into week 5 we had Georgia ranked 6th in our BSC Power Rankings and knew a win wouldn’t come easy for either team. This game held a constant back and forth battle between both teams with Georgia eventually went on a 4-goal streak in the fourth quarter to put them a head 9-7. The Bandits held the ball with 30 seconds left resulting in Tehoka Nanticoke scoring with 22 seconds left. The Bandits were able to win the faceoff, but despite their best efforts were unable to score in the waning seconds to tie it up resulting in a 9-8 loss for the Bandits. We saw the Bandits able to kill off 3 of 4 Swarm power plays including a dangerous 5 on 3. Despite the lower score, this was one of the Bandits’ better offensive performances totaling 54 shots getting a healthy mix of inside and outside shots.
| Team | W | L | PCT | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albany | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | 55 | 43 |
| Toronto | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | 38 | 25 |
| Georgia | 3 | 1 | 0.750 | 47 | 41 |
| Rochester | 3 | 1 | 0.750 | 57 | 55 |
| Halifax | 2 | 1 | 0.667 | 46 | 34 |
| San Diego | 2 | 1 | 0.667 | 38 | 35 |
| Philadelphia | 2 | 2 | 0.500 | 46 | 51 |
| Calgary | 1 | 2 | 0.333 | 39 | 37 |
| Panther City | 1 | 2 | 0.333 | 31 | 31 |
| Buffalo | 1 | 2 | 0.333 | 33 | 35 |
| Colorado | 1 | 2 | 0.333 | 30 | 42 |
| Saskatchewan | 1 | 3 | 0.250 | 53 | 49 |
| Vancouver | 1 | 3 | 0.250 | 44 | 44 |
| Las Vegas | 1 | 3 | 0.250 | 37 | 56 |
| New York | 0 | 3 | 0.000 | 24 | 41 |
Stats and Standings
Below are the standings at the conclusion of week 5. Albany currently sits at the top with an impressive 4-0 start to the season. Toronto remains as the only other undefeated team but doesn’t play again until week 7 against Halifax. Rochester currently has the most goals with 2 of the top 5 players in goals scored, points, and shots on goal in Connor Fields (13 goals 27 points 64 shots) and Ryan Smith (12 goals 24 points 39). Fields is tied for first in goals and points with Firewolves rookie Alex Simmons who is also in second place in shots on goal with 57. Dhane Smith currently leads the league in assists with 19 followed by Jesse King of Calgary with 18 and Mitch Jones of Philadelphia with 17.
While this is the first year the NLL has used unified standings, it is interesting to note that the top half of the standings is overwhelmingly controlled by teams that were previously in the eastern division. We’re still a long way from the playoffs, but this could lead to some interesting matchups once the regular season ends.