PK’s NLL Power Rankings - Week 7

*Reminder these are Power Rankings. To see the Standings please head to NLL.com

I was out sick last week and unable to do my power rankings write up like planned. We still ranked the teams after their week 5 matchups and these week 7 rankings reflect the games played in week 5 and week 6.

1.       Buffalo Bandits – 3-0 (Last Week: #1)

Entering week 7, the Bandits are tied with Vancouver and Calgary for the fewest games played through 6 weeks. However, the three teams are a combined 7-2. In fact, through week 11, Buffalo will play just six games with five bye weeks mixed in. Which means the final 10 weeks of the season, we will see the Bandits play 12 games. But for Buffalo, the wins have come against Ottawa and Rochester twice. Moreover, the defending champions have dominated all three games. While both the Black Bears and the Knighthawks are in the bottom half of these rankings, the wins showed that the Bandits are just as well constructed, if not better, than their four previous teams that have made the finals. We have already known this team is a dynasty based on the run they have been on, but if the 42-year-old GOAT in Matt Vinc can continue to play anywhere close to where he has been through three games, there is no telling how long this run can go. They are back home Friday night vs the winless Toronto Rock.

2.       Colorado Mammoth – 3-2 (Last Week: #3)

I will be the first one to admit, I may be too high on the Mammoth. However, I feel like I have been the highest on them across the entire NLL this year and that might include those in Denver. Sitting 3-2 you may be thinking why is Colorado ahead of the likes of Georgia, Vancouver, Saskatchewan who all only have 1 loss. And it is a simple one. Besides Buffalo, Colorado is the only Offense in the league I can say I have confidence in week in and week out. They are 4th in the league in scoring at 13.6 per game. They are the only team that has six players averaging four or more points per game on the same team. In fact, only two other teams (Calgary and Philadelphia) have four players. If you do the math, don’t worry, I did, all six of those players are on place for a 72 point or more season. Now yes you need more than just scoring to win in the league. The team has an 11.4 goal against average, which is tied for 7th in the league. They are one of five teams to have a GF and GA average inside the top seven of the league. They get Albany for a home and home the next 2 weeks and have a chance to further establish themselves as one of the threats in the league.

3.       San Diego Seals – 3-2 (Last Week: #4)

The Seals move up one spot in the rankings this week after their 6-5 win over Ottawa on Saturday night. Yes, your eyes did not lie to you. The lowest winning score in the history of the NLL. The Black Bears led 5-4 at half. Wes Berg would net two in the first 1:38 of the 3rd to give the Seals the lead which they’d go on to hold the reminder of the game. As expected, not many players contributed to the scoring as Berg and Rob Hellyer led the way with 3-point nights. Ryan Benesch chipped in two assists in the victory. In net Chris Origlieri made 33/38 saves including shutting Ottawa out for the final 37:02 of the game. On defense, a combined 22 CTO occurred in the game. Eli Gobrecht collected 4, Kyle Rubisch, Zach Currier and Danny Logan each with 3 and Matthew Wright with 2. 12 players in total collected at least 1 CTO in the game showing it was a collective effort to keep the Bears off the board in the 2nd half of the game. Sitting 3-2 is likely not the start to the season the Seals envisioned. However, they also had one of the toughest starts to the season a team could have. Between Georgia twice, Colorado, Ottawa and Philly, it’s a combined record of 12-6. The road does not get any easier as they head to Vancouver to face the 2-1 Warriors Friday night. 

4.       Georgia Swarm 4-1 (Last Week: #2)

Their first loss was going to come at some point in the season. I just don’t think many, if any, expected it to be against the struggling Knighthawks let alone in the way it was done. Georgia dropped their first of the year 16-9 vs Rochester on Saturday night. The Hawks led 7-4 at half before scoring the first six in the 3rd to blow the game open. Andrew Kew led the team with a 2/3/5 night while Lyle Thompson and Bryan Cole went 2-1-3. Nevertheless, as has been the case with this team for a few years now, if you don’t have a player or 2 that can drop 6-7-8 point nights, you need depth scoring and the team continues to struggle with that. It was also the worst game of the year for 3rd year net minder Brett Dobson who made just 26/36 saves before being removed in the 3rd. With the sweep of San Diego and a win over Colorado, 2 teams I have high in my power rankings each week, Georgia is still a threat each week. Some might argue they should be ahead of both in the rankings and they might be right. However, the inconsistency from the forward group gives me serious pause on if this team can be a serious contender to win the title. Dobson can and has stolen games in the past but like his offense, the consistency has lacked in his young career. If the team can find what they have been lacking in that department, they have the pieces to win in the playoffs. But it’s about finding and keeping that momentum each week. Sitting at 4-1 this early while still having those struggles is impressive. They host the 2-2 Black Bears Friday night.

5.       Philadelphia Wings – 3-1 (Last Week: #5)

I will be the first to admit, I may have been wrong on where I had this team slotted to start the season. Last year I was one of the very few that did not believe the hype in Philly. I felt they were not a serious playoff threat. That proved to be correct. This year I had them pegged to finish outside of the playoffs down in 11th in the league. Through 6 weeks, the prediction has looked bad. Now we might need to take a deeper look at their 3-1 record a bit closer. While it is true, they don’t ask how but how many at the end of the season when determining playoffs, it is important to see how they got to where they currently are sitting. Opening week they jumped out early on the Seals leading 5-1 and 8-4 in the 1st quarter. However, the team would be outscored 7-1 in the 2nd and 14-7 from the 2nd to the fourth. They would then go on to sweep the season series vs Vegas 19-10 and 15-9 in dominating fashion. Before the New Year’s bye week, they beat the then 3-0 Rush 12-11 in OT. A big reason for that has been the offense behind top 8 scorers in Joe Resetarits (10/24/34), Mitch Jones (9/23/32) and Holden Cattoni (13/14/27). Add in early rookie of the year leader Brennan O’Neil (9/12/21) and you have an offense that is capable of hanging with anyone in the league averaging 15.25 goals a game. The other season for this 3 game winning streak is the performance of one Nick Damude. While his 12.10 GAA and 78sv% might not be where you expected them to be, in the last 3 games those numbers are 10 GAA and a 81sv%. Both of which are what youd have expected when he was selected 3rd in the dispersal draft. While I am still hesitant to put my full belief behind the Wings until I see they play other contenders, what I have seen early on gives me promise. They get their next test home vs Calgary on a rare Saturday afternoon game. 

6.       Saskatchewan Rush – 3-1 (Last Week: #6)

The Rush had dropped their first game of the year before the New Year’s break 12-11 in OT over Philly, but I was impressed they were even able to take it to OT considering who was missing from their offense. Robert Church had missed his 2nd straight game but they were also without Austin Shanks in the loss. Zach Manns has been the Man of that team through 4 games going 14/7/21 while rookie Brock Haley has been everything you could have hoped for early on scoring 6 to go with his 15 points. In addition, while not having Church in the lineup has been noticeable; through 2 games he had only assisted on 4 goals and had not been playing like the Robert Church we had been used too. However, to me, the major issue is something I have brought up on many power rankings now. The disappearance of Ryan Keenan in this offense. We now have a four game sample and he is a quiet 1/4/5 to pair with 14 LBs and 13 TOs while shooting a mere 5% on net. For reference, his past 2 years he was shooting 22.7% and 19.4%. The rookies for the Rush have stepped up to replace his production so far, but if the Rush want to be a serious playoff contender, they need to get Keenan going and in a hurry. Otherwise, they could be a team fighting for a spot in the dance at years end. Their next chance is Saturday when the Desert Dogs come to town.

7.       Vancouver Warriors – 2-1 (Last Week: #7)

In Week 5’s power rankings, I said that Vancouver was in a must win game vs Calgary if they wanted to be a serious playoff contender to me. Well they got that job done with a 14-10 win. 11 of the 14 goals came from the forward group and that was something I needed to see from this team. Calgary had struggled to keep the ball out of their own net and Vancouver was able to capitalize on that. While I am still not very impressed with their collection of forward talent, with the defense they have and the way Aden Walsh has played early on, they won’t need to score a ton of goals to win games in this league. But similar to what I said about Ryan Keenan and the Rush, I need to bring up Adam Charalambides (1/5/6) and Ryan Martel (1/6/7) for the Warriors. Both are currently shooting under 5% from the field on the year. Charalambides in 23/24 netted 37 shooting 24.8% while in 22/23 scored 21 shooting 17.5%. For Martel last year he scored 34 shooting 29.3% and the year before scored 17 shooting 25.4%. Both are far better players than what we have seen through three games. I expect both to turn their games around and if they are able to be top-level players for the Warriors on top of what we have seen on the back end, Vancouver has a chance to make noise as the season progresses. They get San Diego home Friday night.

8.       Ottawa Black Bears – 2-2 (Last Week: #8)

You have to feel for the tendy bear Zach Higgins after what we saw Saturday night in San Diego. The guy could not have played much better than he did making 47/53 saves in a loss. He had allowed just four goals through the first half of the game shutting the Seals out for the final 11:05 of the 2nd as well as the final 28:38 of the game and still came up short. It was the fewest goals allowed in a 60-minute game and not come out of it with the W. And a big reason is the offense was nonexistent. Which is insane considering you have one of the best players on the planet on your team. No player of offense finished with more than a point. Jeff Teat went 1/0/1 on 13 shots. Jacob Dunbar was very quiet netting 1 on just 3 shots. Having Connor Kearnan and Reilly O’Connor out did not help, but there should be no excuse for scoring just five when you get the type of goaltending you did in this one. The team is averaging just 8.75 goals a game, which is 13th in the league while having a 10 GAA, which is 3rd in the league. This feels like a team that needs to add another offensive piece or find ways to get the likes of Taggart Clark (3/4/7), Kiel Matisz (2/5/7), and Larson Sundown (1/2/3) going. They travel to the 4-1 Georgia Swarm Friday night.

9.       Calgary Roughnecks – 2-1 (Last Week: #10)

10.   Rochester Knighthawks – 2-4 (Last Week: #12)

11.   Albany Firewolves – 1-4 (Last Week: #9)

12.   Halifax Thunderbirds – 1-3 (Last Week: #11)

13.   Las Vegas Desert Dogs – 1-4 (Last Week: #14)

14.   Toronto Rock – 0-4 (Last Week: #13)