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Pre-season game report: Colorado 12 @ Toronto 13

Sorry Mammoth fans, I've now seen your team twice this weekend, while you won't get to see them until the 28th. The Mammoth played their second pre-season game in as many nights at the TRAC, a 13-12 loss to the Toronto Rock. Similar to Friday night's game against the Swarm, the Mammoth dressed a whole bunch of players, some of whom only played one half. The Rock did the same, though despite the Rock tweeting before the game that goalies Nick Rose and Zak Boychuk would play a half each, Boychuk played the whole game. After falling behind 4-1 in the first, the Rock stormed back with a bunch of transition goals to pull ahead, and then it was a tight game after that. In the end, the Rock prevailed 13-12.

If you were looking for hot rookie-on-rookie action, this was the weekend for it as most of the Rock veterans and a couple of Colorado's were on the sidelines (or not in the building at all). For the Mammoth, Gavin Prout and Casey Powell were both MIA, as they were Friday night. John Grant played the first half only. For the Rock, all kinds of regulars were out, including Colin Doyle, Josh Sanderson, Kasey Beirnes, Sandy Chapman, Chris White, Scott Evans, Bill Greer, and Stephen Hoar. The Rock were looking at the kids and borderline players, checking out who might be included on the newly-reduced-in-size roster, who would end up on the practice roster, and who would be looking for a new team. For example, there was this Billings guy, could he finally get over the hump and realize the potential he's shown for the past few years? You heard it here first: I think he'll make it.

Credit where credit is due. I've ripped on Scott Johnston in this blog (and on twitter) a few times over the last couple of years for boneheaded plays he's made. But I thought he played a hell of a game on Saturday. Not only did he score two goals, but he played strong defensively as well. Last year, I thought he looked too much like one of those fighters who happens to own a lacrosse stick, but if he can change his game the way Billy Dee Smith and Rory Smith both have (not that I'd put Johnston in the same category as those guys quite yet), I'd be happy to have him on my team.

Even though I said before that you can't really do much team analysis in these pre-season games, you could certainly say that the Rock played a great transition game. At least 5 of their goals were directly on transition, and three of those occurred within about a minute and a half in the second quarter. As I mentioned, Zak Boychuk played the entire game, and did a great job. He made the majority of the saves he was expected to make, forcing the Mammoth to work hard for their goals, and made a few spectacular saves as well. He even managed to prevent a goal from behind the net, something Nick Rose hasn't quite figured out how to do. That said, Drew Westervelt scored Colorado's first goal of the game on a behind-the-net Air Gait-style shot. But when you have arms that are eight feet long, you can score goals from places most players cannot.

Once again, I have to apologize to the Mammoth fans. I was paying more attention to the Rock in this game and less to the Mammoth, so I can't really tell you how the Mammoth players did. I couldn't even pick who the best Mammoth player was. John Grant is usually a good choice, and he did have a goal and a few assists, but he only played half the game. I don't remember a particular name jumping out at me like "Man, that guy's everywhere tonight!" like Johnston did for the Rock. I'm going to semi-randomly pick someone as my Colorado player of the game: Cameron Mann, only because Mann is the perfect name for a Canadian box lacrosse player.

Game notes:

• As I said in my game report, Friday night's game had no music, no PA, no national anthems, no cheerleaders, and no replay. Saturday night's game had all of these except the replay – the only one of that list that I really wanted (though the PA announcing of goals and penalties was a welcome addition). Maybe when MLSE decides to buy a new Jumbotron for the ACC (to rival the amazing new scoreboard in Denver), Jamie Dawick can grab the old one and put it up in the TRAC.
• In the 4th quarter, Tye Belanger made an outstanding save while falling. The rebound went right to Stephen Leblanc, who deposited it over Belanger into the wide open net. I almost felt bad that Belanger got scored on immediately after (and as a result of) making such a great save. Almost.
• It looked to me like Jesse Gamble might somehow have gotten faster during the off-season. I'm pretty sure that due to relativity, he actually aged less during the game than the other players. That's science. Look it up.
• Not trying to get anyone in trouble here, but Mammoth defender Ben McCullogh was wearing Nike shoes and Reebok pads.
• At one point, someone got a penalty which was announced as "unnecessary roughness". They moved the ball 15 yards, but nobody could figure out what do to about the first down. 
• You know what that game needed? Less cowbell. Much, much less.
• First person in the handshake lineup for the Rock? Nick Rose, who didn't play.

Preseason game report: Minnesota 14 @ Colorado 10

Lacrosse season is back! The 2014 NLL pre-season began on Friday night, with the first inter-team scrimmage. The Minnesota Swarm took on the Colorado Mammoth at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville, Ontario. Being the lucky bastard fellow I am, I live about 30 km from the TRAC, so I attended this game with my son and several hundred other lacrosse fans. For an exhibition game in the Toronto area with no Toronto team involved, there was a pretty good turnout; the facility holds about 800 people in the stands, and it was mostly full. Of course, I imagine if they announced "everyone who is a relative or close personal friend of one of the players, please leave", the place would empty out pretty quickly.

While this was an exhibition game and the final result really didn't mean anything, most of the players knew they were being evaluated and so they were playing pretty hard. There were hits and penalties but no fights. It did look like a preseason game in some respects, in that we saw more dropped passes, passes made to nobody, passes missed because the receiver wasn't expecting them, things like that. I even saw John Grant attempt an over-the-shoulder shot from in close and miss the net. (That was during the pre-game warmup; Grant did not play in the game.)

I don't have a problem with music at lacrosse games, in fact I've been a supporter of it through the years. But the more games I see without it, the more I think I prefer the game without the music. As with all games at the TRAC, this was even more bare-bones than that – no music, no PA announcements of goals or penalties, no national anthems, no cheerleaders, no instant replay. Just pure lacrosse. It was great.

The Swarm decided to go with the 18-man lineup, as they will have to in the regular season, while the Mammoth seemingly had bucketloads of people dressed, some of whom only played one half or the other. Both teams swapped goalies – Tyler Carlson and Tye Belanger started and played the first half, and Zach Higgins and Dan Lewis played the second half. A few players on the Mammoth were notably absent: as I said Grant did not play though he was there, while neither Casey Powell nor Gavin Prout were anywhere to be seen. I was specifically looking for Prout, after the rumours of his release by the club. I also don't remember seeing Jarrett Park or Mat MacLeod, though it's possible I simply missed them. But just about everyone else on the Mammoth roster (listed here) played.

For the Swarm, it was harder to tell. Not only did they not have names on their (ugly gold practice) jerseys, but at least some of them were wearing the wrong number. I specifically tweeted the Swarm asking about a big impressive-looking guy wearing #19, who I figured was probably a rookie since nobody on the Swarm wore #19 last year. I thought this kid was looking pretty comfortable – was it maybe Logan Schuss? But he's not that big, is he? Turns out it was Kiel Matisz, just wearing a different number. (Matisz is 6'5", Schuss is 6'0".) I didn't see #98 or #20 out there – did Callum Crawford and Andrew Suitor actually play? I have no idea. Obviously since the Swarm only dressed 18, there were a few people left out, and it's not like Crawford or Suitor will have trouble making the team. I imagine they'll be playing tonight in their game against Rochester while others sit out.

It's hard to talk about how the teams looked as a whole since it was pre-season. Were the Swarm the better team? How did the Mammoth defense look? Who's going to take over for Ryan Benesch on the Swarm's left side? Each team was trying out different players and different line pairings and different offensive and defensive strategies, so such an analysis would be meaningless. Both teams were missing some top players (I think that's true for the Swarm, anyway), so a crippled Swarm team defeated a crippled Mammoth team.

Some other game notes:

• Mammoth forward (and former Bandit) Carter Bender was wearing a black helmet with orange on it. I imagine they'll get him a new one if he makes the team.
• Bob Snider had a few of the signature Snider face-off wins (simply grab the ball with the back of your stick as if the other guy isn't there), but Jordan MacIntosh certainly gave him some trouble on most of them.
• Drew Westervelt looked pretty good for the Mammoth, though he only played the first half. It was amusing to see the 6'5" Westervelt next to the 5'8" Cody McMahon.
• Joey Cupido looked pretty quick on transition – he had at least one breakaway chance, and a couple of other times sped up the floor, leaving the Swarm people covering him in the dust.
• Dan Lewis looks too skinny to play pro lacrosse, let alone be a goalie. But he was pretty effective last night, looking to make the team ahead of draft pick Dillon Ward.
• All four goalies played very well. Each one of them made some pretty impressive saves, though it was hard to tell if they were close to mid-season form or if the shooters were just not.
• When there's no music and the ball hits the goalie in the chest, you can really hear how hard it hits. Props.

Gavin Prout - the Knighthawk?

Gavin Prout spent two seasons in New York and then six in Colorado, the last five as captain of the Mammoth, averaging 84 points per season. So it was a bit of a shock in Colorado, and throughout the NLL world, when he was traded in 2009 to the Edmonton Rush. He played with the Rush for the 2010 season and about half of 2011 before being traded back to the Mammoth. But something that many people, myself included until recently, don't remember about Prout being traded from the Mammoth to the Rush was that it never happened.

Prout, along with Andrew Potter, was traded from the Mammoth to the Rochester Knighthawks in 2009 for Ilija Gajic (some draft picks were involved as well). Potter had been sent to the Mammoth from the Knighthawks the previous year in the deal that brought Gary Gait out of retirement. Interesting that a guy that played all of five games in his NLL career was involved in two such significant trades. Anyway, two weeks later, the Knighthawks sent Prout and Dean Hill to the Rush for a first round draft pick. But the fact that Prout was a Knighthawk for a couple of off-season weeks is usually forgotten.

A number of other players also spend time on teams for which they never played. Here are just a few:

After the Boston Blazers folded, Anthony Cosmo and Josh Sanderson were both selected in the dispersal draft by the Minnesota Swarm. Before the first round of the draft had even ended, Sanderson had been traded to the Rock, while Cosmo sat out half of the next season before being traded to the Bandits.

Shawn Williams is another player who, like Sanderson, can measure the amount of time he spent on the Minnesota roster with a stopwatch. In July 2012, Williams was traded from the Rush to the Swarm for two second-round draft picks. The same day, he was sent off with Brendan Doran as well as the #5 overall pick in the 2012 draft and two other 2012 draft picks to Buffalo for the #3 overall pick. That seems to me like an expensive way to move up two positions – and in fact, it really only moved the Swarm up one position since they went from having picks #2, 4, and 5 to having picks #2, 3, and 4.

Paul Rabil might be the only player to have joined two separate organizations consecutively and never play for either of them. But this story begins six months before Rabil got involved. In the summer of 2011, the Wings traded Athan Iannucci, Alex Turner, Brodie MacDonald, and three first round draft picks to the Rush for Brodie Merrill, Dean Hill, Mike McLellan, and a couple of later draft picks. Nooch never signed with the Rush, and a month into the 2012 season, he was traded to the Stealth for Paul Rabil. Rabil also refused to sign with the Rush and sat out the rest of the 2012 season.

Almost a year after the original Iannucci trade, the Rush sent Rabil to the Knighthawks for Jarrett Davis, but Rabil never reported to Rochester either. Only a couple of weeks before the 2013 season began, he was sent to Philadelphia along with Jordan Hall, Joel White, and Robbie Campbell in exchange for Dan Dawson, Paul Dawson, and a first round draft pick. Rabil is now happy in Philadelphia, and I'm pretty sure the Knighthawks were OK with what they got out of the deal.

But not every player was traded to a team they never played for. Here are some players who were drafted by teams they never played for:

• Ilija Gajic, Rochester, 2009
• Joel Dalgarno, Toronto, 2009
• Craig Point, Boston, 2007
• Ryan Benesch, San Jose, 2006
• Blaine Manning, Calgary, 2001
• Geoff Snider, Vancouver, 2001 (he opted to return to university and was drafted again by the Wings in 2006)
• Tom Marechek, Buffalo, 1992
• John Tavares, Detroit, 1991 (and not until the third round!)

I'm sure there are plenty of others. Leave a comment if I missed any!

Let the trash-talking begin

I love me some trash talk. But it's even better when it's this early in the pre-season since I'm getting pumped about the upcoming season, so it's good to see the players are too. Usually when you see trash talk, it's game-related, but since the players are all friends off the floor, it doesn't have to be. We even see some between teammates.

Here's one twitter exchange between Buffalo Bandits David Brock and Kurtis Wagar:

And another that began with Shawn Evans wishing his former Knighthawks teammate John Grant a happy birthday. Grant's response was funny, but Curtis Dickson's was even better:

The secret clauses of the new CBA

As we all know by now, the NLL and PLPA have reached an agreement on a new CBA. A number of parts of the agreement have been released by the league, but not all.

The document itself is not available to the public (I asked), but I managed to get my hands on a copy. Here are some of the parts of the document that were not included in the NLL's press release.

• Rosters are cut from 23 to 20 players. Teams will dress 18 players instead of 20 per game. In addition, pizzas ordered for the team will contain no more than three toppings, or two toppings plus extra cheese. The equipment manager will go and pick up the pizzas to avoid delivery charges.
• The requirement for each team to have at least five players from their home state or province has been dropped, at the request of the Minnesota Swarm and Colorado Mammoth.
• League expansion will be considered, but prospective owners are warned that the league will not consider expanding to a city that has more than six or seven previous failed NLL teams.
• Conference finals and Champions Cup finals will be decided by a two-game series with a 10-minute "mini-game" if the games are split. Wait, that's not a joke, that's actually in there.
• Ontario-based players who want to finish their career with the Toronto Rock must fill out a form available from the Commissioner explaining in 500 words or less why they would be a good fit for the Rock. They must then apply in person at the TRAC where they will meet with both Jamie Dawick and Terry Sanderson for interviews. Wristband policy is in effect.
• GMs who make trades that include nothing but draft picks where all of the picks are third round or later will be assessed a two-minute Waste of Freaking Time penalty.
• Players over 30 (down from 32) with enough NLL experience can opt for free-agency. Except if a team designates them a Franchise Player, in which case they can't. Except if they are over 34 and reject the Franchise Player designation, in which case they can. Except if the team designates them a Special Franchise Player, in which case they can't. The next CBA will contain the ability for the player to reject the Special Franchise Player designation.
• The regular season is extended by two games, and the playoffs will consist of as many as five games for the Championship winner, up from three. This should have the desired effect of extending the NLL season a little further into the MLL season. [This entry has a handwritten note next to it which says "make sure that last sentence is removed before this document is released to anyone"]

The top 10 one-team NLL players

Last week, Down Goes Brown did a post (actually on Grantland.com) called The 10 Greatest One-Team NHL Players. Since DGB is unlikely to cover lacrosse anytime soon, I decided to do it myself. Given that there are fewer teams in the NLL, the history is much shorter, and there has been far more team movement than the NHL, there really aren't all that many such players. If we restrict ourselves to players with more than 50 games in their NLL careers, all with a single team, we find that there are only 54 of them. But there are still some pretty good names on this list.

Incidentally, DGB is one of the funniest sports blogs anywhere. If you're a hockey fan, I strongly recommend it.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 players who spent their entire NLL careers with one team. The number of games listed includes playoff games. I'm restricting the number of games played to 100 or more, since it's not quite fair to put people like Cody Jamieson (54 games) or Garrett Billings (72 games) on this list so early in their careers.

10. Jeremy Hollenbeck, Rochester Knighthawks (127 games)

Hollenbeck played ten seasons with the Knighthawks, winning a Championship in 1997. In 2011, he was inducted into the Rochester Knighthawks Hall of Fame.

9. Dan Ladouceur, Toronto Rock (150 games)

In the early 2000's, Laddy was one of the anchors of the best defense in the NLL, along with guys like Jim Veltman, Glenn Clark, Terry Bullen, and Pat Coyle. He even scored a goal or two here and there (I distinctly remember a breakaway where he ran up the floor frantically looking around for someone to pass to, then buried it himself), including one in the 2002 Championship game. At about 6'6" he was an imposing figure and a good fighter too (see above, having a chat with Shawn Evans), though I did once see him dropped with one punch. In a 2002 fight in Toronto, Matt Green hit him with a shot to the jaw that knocked him unconscious.

I have heard rumours that the Rock were not allowed to trade Ladouceur because of his job as a Durham Regional police officer (I believe he's on the SWAT team), but I confirmed with Laddy himself that it's not true. He said they could have traded him at any time but they were a classy organization and worked with him.

8. Peter Jacobs, Philadelphia Wings (158 games)

As good a face-off guy as Geoff Snider is, he's only matched Peter Jacobs' high of 318 face-off wins in a season once. (The all-time record is 319 by Bob Snider in 2012.) Jacobs is also the only person not named Snider to ever have a face-off percentage above 70% for a season. Jacobs played 12 seasons for the Wings, winning just shy of 60% of almost 3,000 face-offs. He didn't finish a single one of those seasons with a percentage below 50%.

7. Jake Bergey, Philadelphia Wings (142 games)

Bergey played ten seasons in Philly and won two Championships. He scored 50+ points six times, including 86 in 14 games in 2001. He's currently second all-time in Wings goals, assists, and points.

In the 2007 expansion draft, he was chosen by the Boston Blazers, but was traded back to Philly before the season started. Then the Blazers sat out the 2008 season so there was another expansion draft. Bergey was chosen by Boston again, and again was traded back to the Wings. He has to be one of the few players who played for a single team his entire career and yet was traded twice.

6. Andrew McBride, Calgary Roughnecks (185 games)

McBride has played 11 seasons in Calgary, and has been the captain since Tracey Kelusky was traded after the 2010 season. He's a defender, transition player, a fighter, an outstanding team leader, and you'll never hear a more well-spoken guy during an interview. And when is Movember time of year, he is look like Borat.

5. Rich Kilgour, Buffalo Bandits (225 games)

Darris' big brother was captain of the Bandits for 12 years, won four championships, had his number retired by the Bandits and is in the NLL Hall of Fame. Only one player personifies the Bandits better than Richie Kilgour and, well, we'll get to him later.

4. Regy Thorpe, Rochester Knighthawks (217 games)

Regy Thorpe was a big tough defender who played an amazing fifteen seasons with the Knighthawks, beginning in 1995, the team's first season in the league. He won two Championships and was captain of the 2007 Championship team. But most interestingly, he was the first player-GM in NLL history when he took the reins of the team and played in the 2009 season. His tenure as a GM only lasted one season before owner Curt Styres took over, but much to the chagrin of NLL scorers, Thorpe played one more season before retiring in 2010.

3. Blaine Manning, Toronto Rock (199 games)

Blaine Manning had a pretty successful start to his NLL career, winning championships in 3 of his first 4 seasons (2002, 2003, 2005) with the Toronto Rock. It kind of went downhill after that for a couple of years, but after The Rock GM Who Must Not Be Named was fired and Terry Sanderson was brought back, Manning was a big part of the rebuilding process that resulted in the 2011 NLL Championship. Long before Dan Dawson arrived in Boston, Manning was one of the original Big Three along with Colin Doyle and Josh Sanderson in Toronto. They peaked in 2005 when Doyle finished first overall in scoring, Manning tied with John Grant for second, and Sanderson tied with John Tavares for third – and all five of them finished with over 100 points.

I went on and on about Manning in an article right after he retired, so I won't rehash all his stats here. Suffice it to say that Manning should be a lock for the NLL Hall of Fame once he is eligible.

2. Tom Marechek, Philadelphia Wings (161 games)

Tom "Hollywood" Marechek won four championships in 12 NLL seasons and was inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2007. Marechek is the all-time Wings leader in both goals and assists, and is 8th all-time in the league in goals. But of the top goal-scorers in league history, only one player in the top 10 (and two in the top 25) have played fewer games than Marechek. The only players who averaged more goals per game than Marechek are Gary Gait, Paul Gait, John Grant, and John Tavares. Not bad company.

Hard to believe he's only the third-best lacrosse player from Victoria, BC.

1. John Tavares, Buffalo Bandits (313 games)

No-brainer. Tavares is one of the best players ever to play in the NLL (many argue he is the best), and after 22 seasons with the Buffalo Bandits, there's no argument who's at the top of this list. Or most lists, for that matter.

Tavares owns pretty much every offensive NLL record, most of them by a mile. As of the end of the 2013 season, he has 778 career goals, ahead of second-place Gary Gait by 130 and ahead of third-place (and the closest still active player) John Grant by over 200. He has 887 assists, 108 more than Colin Doyle. He has 1665 points; if he retired today, second place Doyle couldn't catch him even with four more 100 point seasons. He's scored an amazing 5.95 points per game over his career, second only to John Grant's 6.37. (Technically he's also behind a guy named Gary Edmands with a career average of 6 – he scored 6 points in his only NLL game with the Bandits in 1996.)

Since Tavares is still active, the amazing numbers will just continue to climb.

Honourable mentions

• Billy Dee Smith, Buffalo Bandits, 149 games
• Pat McCabe, New York Saints, 119 games
• Mike Carnegie, Calgary Roughnecks, 105 games
• Kyle Sorensen, San Jose / Washington Stealth, 105 games (I know, two different teams but they're the same franchise so it counts.)

Just under the radar

These guys didn't quite make the 100 game limit, but I wanted to acknowledge them anyway.

• Devan Wray, Calgary Roughnecks, 99 games
• Jeff Zywicki, San Jose / Washington Stealth, 99 games
• Sal LoCascio, New York Saints, 95 games

In the NLL, nobody is overpaid

News flash: Lacrosse is different from other pro sports. Why? Lots of reasons. It's the handshakes after every game, not just after a playoff series. It's the post-game parties, where players hang out with fans. It's the goalie sitting in the penalty box after a major penalty. But one of the most-often mentioned differences is that lacrosse players aren't paid nearly as much as NHL, NBA, NFL, or MLB players. One quick example: if longtime Bandit John Tavares had made the current league maximum salary for a franchise player (about $34,000) for each of his 22 seasons, that would come to a little less than $750,000 over his entire career. Since the max salary hasn't been that high the entire time, and Tavares hasn't made the maximum every year, his actual career total would be much less. His nephew John Tavares, the captain of the New York Islanders, made $900,000 last year alone. And a number of hockey players make ten times that. Alex Rodriguez makes almost thirty times that.

The salary thing is brought up a lot, as proof that lacrosse players play for the love of the game and not for the money. I'm not going to argue with that statement (at least not right now, though I have before), but there is an important corollary that often goes unnoticed. With all the talk in Toronto this past week about Phil Kessel signing an eight-year $64-million extension with the Maple Leafs, it hit me.

Lacrosse fans don't care about player's salaries.

Lacrosse fans compare players like fans of every other sport. This guy has more goals / loose balls / saves than that guy. This guy has more Championships than that guy. This guy gets more playing time than that guy. There are lots of metrics that people use for comparing players, some more useful than others. But salary is never one of them.

When Kessel signed his deal, there were a lot of people talking about whether he was worth it. Who else in the league is making an average of $8 million a year, and how does Kessel compare with them? Did the Leafs overpay? These are questions never asked about lacrosse players. Obviously, it's because the salaries are so low. But because the salaries are so low, the range of salaries is also low.

The league minimum salary for rookies is a little over $9,000, while the highest-paid player in the league makes less than 4 times that (the aforementioned $34,000). By contrast, the minimum NHL salary in 2013 is $525,000 while the highest-paid player, Shea Weber, makes $14 million, or over 26 times the minimum. Weber could use one year of his salary and cover the entire NLL player payroll several times.

It's not that salary is never an issue. Just ask the Minnesota Swarm, who traded away Ryan Benesch this past summer and Aaron Wilson and Ryan Cousins a couple of years ago, in deals that very likely reduced their payroll significantly. Were these salary dumps? Maybe, but since we don't have any details on what players make, we don't really know. Fans generally know that NLL owners don't make bucketloads of money from their NLL investment, and so if they have to trim back payroll, that's just how it is.

The NLL doesn't generally release salary information, but I'm sure that's partially because fans aren't asking for it. It's interesting to talk about a player's salary when he makes more in one year than you would in a century. It's interesting when you figure out that Alex Rodriguez makes $40,000 per at-bat, and that's if he's healthy and plays a full season; if he only has 300 at-bats instead of 600, he makes $80,000 per. But if a player makes less than you do, it's not quite as interesting a conversation. Who's going to do the math and figure out how much Shawn Evans makes for every minute he's on the floor? (Answer: No idea, since I don't know Evans' salary.) If you hear that one player makes $18,000 while another player who isn't as good makes $21,000, who's going to be outraged over the perceived injustice? It's just not enough of a difference to get anyone angry, except perhaps the player himself.

But of course the player wouldn't get angry, since he's playing for the love of the game and not the money. Right?

The NLL schedule: A balancing act

The 2014 NLL regular season schedule was released a couple of weeks ago. It's two games longer than previous years, and Minnesota is in the East now so they play Eastern teams a lot more than the past few seasons when they were in the west. Apart from that, it's not a lot different from previous years. And that has a lot of fans unhappy.

Some of the problems are just scheduling weirdnesses:

• Six of the Bandits' last eight games are on the road.
• The Mammoth play on January 10th and 11th, and then January 17th and 18th. That's four games in 9 days.
• Four teams play their 5th game on February 1. That night Colorado plays their 8th.
• Edmonton's first three games are against Colorado (2) and Calgary. Then four of their last five games are against Colorado (2) and Calgary (2).
• Vancouver plays on February 14th in Colorado and the 15th in Calgary. Then they have a weekend off before playing in Edmonton on March 8. Then they have another weekend off before hosting the Roughnecks on March 21. Between February 15 and March 21, a day shy of five weeks, they play one game. Between January 25 and March 21, almost two full months, they have one game at home.

But we have to remember that the NLL teams are almost never the primary tenant in their arena. The Rock get dates only if the Leafs and Raptors don't want them. Similarly, the Wings get dates if the Flyers and Sixers are on the road or idle. It's the same for everyone else, though it's not the NHL with Vancouver or Rochester. Is it ideal that the Stealth have two weekends out of three with no games? Obviously not but if the arena isn't available, that's what has to happen.

Also, the NLL players don't make the money that the NHL and NBA players do. It might be easy for the Calgary Flames to move a Saturday game to Tuesday if a conflict comes up, but the Roughnecks can't do that because most of the players work during the week. So the NLL teams are forced to stick to weekend games, thus limiting the number of available dates for them. And the league can't afford to be flying teams across the country all the time – it's not unlikely that one scheduling possibility is to fly the Stealth to Buffalo one weekend, Rochester the next, and Philadelphia the one after that. That's three cross-country trips in three weeks. Nobody wants that. This season, the Stealth travel to play Toronto and Philly one weekend, and then Rochester two months later, and they skip Buffalo altogether. Considering the alternatives for east cost trips, that's not bad.

The bigger issue people are having is that the schedule is so unbalanced. Each team plays every other team in its division either three or four times but it's not consistent. Most pairs of teams in different divisions face each other only once while some play twice. And once again, Toronto and Colorado don't face each other at all. The Rock and Mammoth have only played each other 6 times ever, despite the fact that they've both been in the league for more than ten years. The first game in Mammoth history was in Colorado against the Rock on January 3, 2003, but the Rock have played in Colorado only once since.

Why is this so inconsistent? Why do the Bandits play Toronto, Minnesota, and Philly three times each but Rochester four times? Why do the Rock play Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver twice each but Colorado not at all?

One option would have been to keep the schedule at 16 games and have each team play every other team exactly twice – once at home, and once on the road. That gives each team 16 games and things are nice and balanced. Once you've done this, you can do away with the divisions entirely, since they are no longer meaningful. I actually don't mind this idea.

But say you want to keep the idea of divisions to keep travel costs down, which is a very realistic goal for the NLL. The first thing you need to do in order to have a balanced schedule with divisions is to make sure each division has the same number of teams.

You could keep the schedule at 16 games and have each team play each other team in its division 3 times and each team in the other division once. That gives the Eastern division 16 games and the Western division 14. So the Western teams would have to play two teams in their own division once more. But then you have the Stealth playing, say, the Mammoth and Rush four times and the Roughnecks three times and we're almost back to where we are now.

You also have to remember the symmetry of the schedule. I tried to think of a way to balance each division, but have the balancing different. I was getting close to having a working solution, except that in such a scheme, you might have the East teams play the West teams a different number of times than the West teams play the East teams. So for example, Buffalo might play Colorado a different number of times than Colorado plays Buffalo. This is, of course, not possible.

I don't pretend to have the answer. Personally, I might go with the 16-game balanced schedule and nuke the divisions. The new 18-game schedule isn't really that bad, except for the missing Rock-Mammoth game. If we could just add the requirement that every team must play every other team at least once a season, that would improve things quite a bit. But given the requirements and limitations all the teams have to work with, sometimes it seems surprising that they end up with a workable schedule at all.

Behind the scenes at the 2013 NLL Entry Draft

Just like last year, I attended the 2013 Entry Draft in Toronto, and like last year I managed to record the draft as it really happened, not what was broadcast after the fact. Here's the transcript of what they don't want you to hear:

---

George Daniel: Good evening and welcome to the 2013 National Lacrosse League entry draft, held here at the beautiful Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville. Thanks to Jamie Dawick and the whole Toronto Rock crew for hosting this event and yesterday's combine. And thanks also for all the Toronto Rock branded swag you provided. However as the commissioner, I'm not really supposed to wear stuff with one team's logo, so I'll have to return the T-shirts and polo shirts and hats and lanyards and sweat pants and shorts and socks and jackets and toques and mitts and scarves and the parka.

Jamie Dawick: But you can keep the boxers, since nobody will know you're wearing them!

Daniel: Good point! All right, let's move on to the first pick. John, you're up.

John Arlotta: Thanks George. With the first pick, the Minnesota Swarm pick…. Mark Matthews!

Daniel: That ain't funny, man.

Derek Keenan: Well, it's a little funny.

Arlotta: OK, sorry. Couldn't resist. I think everyone knows this already, but we'll take Logan Schuss.

Daniel: Great. Once again, the Minnesota Swarm is on the clock. I have a feeling I'll be saying that a lot this evening.

Arlotta: With the second pick, we'll take Jason Noble. Hey, did you know he has a twin brother who'll be available next year? We should totally try and get him too. How cool would that be – twin brothers on the same team? That's probably an NLL first.

Daniel: I don't know… I have this vague memory of these twin brothers… Ah, never mind. I don't think they were any good anyway. Steve, you're next.

Steve Dietrich: OK. Anyone named Smith available? I have a collection.

Daniel: <looks at piece of paper in his hand> IL Indoor says no. And I meant Govett, not you. You don't have a pick until halfway through the second round.

Dietrich: Oh right. I was just askin'.

Steve Govett: We have that Belanger guy in net but we need a solid backup. We'll take Dillon Ward.

Bob Hamley: What about Dan Lewis? He didn't do too badly last year and he's young.

Govett: Who?

Daniel: The next pick belongs to the Edmonton Rush. Derek?

Arlotta: Wait, Derek! We want that pick too! We'll give you our next pick and… um… Ryan Benesch! Oh, wait. <grabs piece of paper, looks at it for a second> Nik Bilic!

Joe Sullivan: Wait, don't –

Keenan: Done!

Arlotta: Woo! Another first round pick!

Sullivan: John, we didn't gain any picks. We just moved up one position. And we lost a good player to do it.

Arlotta: But… first round!

Sullivan: Never mind. George, we'll take Cam Flint.

Daniel: Right. Derek, it's your turn, unless Mr. Arlotta…

Arlotta: <looks at Joe Sullivan>

Sullivan: <shakes head>

Arlotta: <head drooping> No.

Keenan: Well, we're pretty weak with lefty offensive players, so maybe we'll… Oh wait, no we're not because we have Mark Freakin' Matthews! So we'll take a strong righty like Robert Church. Hey George, you may as well just give us the Championship Trophy now. It'll save time.

Curt Styres: Now wait just a second there.

Daniel: Come on Derek, you know it doesn't work like that anymore. Remember those years we gave it to Calgary before the playoffs and had to take it back? Let's play the season first.

Keenan: Whatever.

Daniel: Speaking of Calgary, Mike, it's your turn.

Mike Board: Thanks for bringing that up George. You made Curt cry. It's OK Curt, he didn't mean it. How about if I get Tor Reinholdt for you? Would that make you feel better?

Curt Malawsky: <silently nods>

Board: All right then, we'll take Tor Reinholdt.

Daniel: Sorry Curt, I did promise I wouldn't bring that up again, didn't I? Let's just put that behind us and move on. Back to John.

Arlotta: Another first round pick! This is so exciting. Joe, pick someone.

Sullivan: All right, we've got offense with Schuss, defense with Noble, and transition with Flint. Back to offense, so we'll take Scott Jones.

Daniel: OK, we're over to the Vancouver Raven- sorry Doug. I keep doing that. It's the Washing- sorry again. I'll get this right. The Vancouver Stealth.

Doug Locker: No problem George, took me a few days to get over it. With the 8th pick, the Washing- um, I mean the Vancouver Stealth will take Cody Bremner. George, you can edit that out in post anyway, right?

Daniel: Yes, nobody is listening to this part. When we go live I'll fix it up. Terry, you have the last pick of the first round.

Terry Sanderson: Hey, that guy at the back there that looks kind of like a cross beween Dion Phaneuf and Paul Rabil? We'll take him. Great lacrosse player plus Toronto hockey captain? How can you go wrong?

Bruce Urban: Paul who? Never heard of him.

Derek Keenan: Yes you have, remember last year when we did that deal with Vancou- I mean Washington?

Urban: NEVER HEARD OF HIM.

Daniel: OK, what's your name, son?

Ethan O'Connor: I'm Ethan O'Connor, sir. But why is everyone getting confused on the location of the Stealth?

Daniel: Welcome to the NLL, Ethan.

---

This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. This is entirely fictional and tongue-in-cheek. I am not implying in any way that George Daniel, John Arlotta, Steve Govett, or any of the other NLL executives are anything less than intelligent professionals with far more lacrosse knowledge than I could ever hope to have. It's just funnier if we pretend they're not.

The 2013 NLL Entry Draft

For the second straight year, I had the good fortune to be able to attend the NLL Entry Draft since it took place in the Toronto area. The 2012 draft was held at a hotel in downtown Toronto, while the 2013 draft was held at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville. This year's location was even more convenient for me than last year's since the TRAC is halfway to Toronto from my place. Again this year I will post my thoughts on the draft event itself, though I'm afraid I have little to say about the players drafted. I don't follow the summer leagues or the MLL nearly as much as the NLL (and I don't follow anything below senior lacrosse at all) so I just don't know the players. If you're looking for that kind of insight, head on over to IL Indoor or In Lacrosse We Trust.

I realize the event was broadcast on the internet so many of you probably watched it happen, but since I didn't watch the broadcast, I don't know how much you could see or hear.

The event took place on the floor of the carpeted rink at the TRAC. (There are two lacrosse rinks at the TRAC – one with turf and one concrete.) A stage with a podium was on the far side of the rink (in front of the benches), and nine tables (one for each team) were set up in three rows of three in front of the stage. To the left of the stage was a long table where NLL staff sat, including Commissioner George Daniel. To the right of the team tables was a line of tables for media, and to the left was a smaller table for hosts Andy McNamara and Stephen Stamp.

The team tables were assigned in alphabetical order, starting with Buffalo at the front right, and going across and then back to Vancouver in the back row on the left. From left to right, the front row was Colorado, Calgary and Buffalo; the middle row was Philadelphia, Minnesota, Edmonton; and the back row was Vancouver, Toronto, and Rochester.

Behind those tables were several rows of chairs for draft eligible players and their families. By draft time, those chairs were entirely filled. The stands were for the fans, though I don't think there were more than about 30 people there, and I know a few of them were friends or family of the players. There were even a few people with media passes around their necks sitting in the stands. Last year, there was a combined seating area for players, family members, and fans, and I'm sure there were more people there than this year. I initially assumed there were just fewer fans this year, but maybe the players were told to try to limit the number of family members they bring since seating was limited, so that was the difference.

I talked briefly to Stephen Stamp before the draft started, and he said they were having trouble with their internet connection through the TRAC's wifi. My internet connection was working fine, but then I was connected through my smartphone. By the time the draft started, I imagine they got that all sorted out since I didn't see anyone on twitter complaining about the broadcast. One thing I did notice though: Stamp was using a Macbook at the beginning of the draft – I assumed it was to bring up stats and information on players as they were drafted. But later on I noticed that the laptop was either gone or closed, so whatever information he had came from his memory. Unfortunately for me, there was an eight foot wall of plastic (how do I know it was eight feet? Because Dan Dawson could just see over it.) between me and the PA system so I couldn't hear much. I could hear most of the player announcements, though a couple of times I had to wait 30 seconds and check twitter to see who was just picked, but as for the insight into the players, I picked up precisely none.

The first few picks seemed to go as expected, with Logan Schuss and Jason Noble going first and second to the Swarm. After Colorado picked Dillon Ward, the Rush and Swarm made the first trade of the night – the Swarm sent Nic Bilic and the #5 overall pick to the Rush for the #4 pick. The Swarm picked Cameron Flint, and the Rush took Robert Church with their pick. It seemed odd to me that the Swarm felt moving up one spot was worth Nic Bilic, but I thought maybe they really wanted Flint and didn't want to take the chance that the Rush would pick him. The Rush, however, had a jersey that already had "Church" on the back, so either (a) they had a few jerseys made up and grabbed Church's when they picked him, or (b) they knew they wanted Church and made up one just for him. Maybe they felt getting Bilic from Minnesota was worth the possibility of losing Church, or perhaps they knew the Swarm wanted Flint and decided not to mention that they weren't going to pick him.

What's even more strange about this whole thing is that Minnesota had the top two picks, but did not have a jersey for Jason Noble with his name on it. I don't know if they had one for Schuss since he wasn't there, but it's not like the Swarm didn't know who they were going to pick beforehand. They had jerseys made up for Sorensen, Matisz, and Jackson last year.

After Edmonton chose Reid Mydske in the fourth round, I tweeted that he and his brother (Brett) would be playing for the same team. I joked "Checking to see if this has ever happened before." I was surprised at the number of people who actually thought I was serious. People telling me about the Gaits, Powells, Selfs, Gajics, Dawsons, and even Squires. I'm sure I could come up with a bunch more without thinking very hard – of the top of my head: how about the Carnegies, Harnetts, and Malawskys – and that's just Calgary (Derek Malawsky never played for Calgary but he and Curt played together on Rochester). Don't forget the Sandersons (not Josh and Phil since they're cousins, but Ryan and Chris on the 1999 Baltimore Thunder) (OK, that one I had to look up), Evans's, Wrays, and Kilgours. This is not an uncommon thing in the NLL by any stretch.

Anyway, back to the draft. By the time it was over, most of the fans had gone. There were exactly five of us left, and I saw Mark Matthews chatting to three of them earlier on so I guessed they were friends of his.

I don't imagine they'll have the draft in the Toronto area again next year. Maybe if the league were based in Toronto I could see it, but the offices are in New York City. I think moving around the cities in the league would be good, especially for the western teams who've had to travel east two years straight. As I said last year, it was interesting to see the event happen live and watch "the inner workings of the league in action", though I think I might have gotten more out of it by watching the internet broadcast. At least I would have been able to hear Andy and Stephen's commentary.

But then again, Toronto Rock first round pick Ethan O'Connor was sitting right in front of me, and it was very smile-inducing to watch him and his family stand up and hug each other when his name was called. You can see that on the broadcast as well, but it's very different when you're there in person rather than watching online. That alone made the trip worth it.

The NLL Hall of Fame: Why is "not yet" an option?

Pat O'Toole, the former goaltender for the Rochester Knighthawks, Buffalo Bandits and New York Saints (!!) was elected last month to the NLL Hall of Fame. He was unquestionably deserving – 16 seasons in the league, second overall in total saves, two Championships, one Goaltender of the Year award, and he leads the Knighthawks in every goaltending category there is. He's the third straight person to be elected into the Hall by himself, and also the third straight goaltender, after Bob Watson and Steve Dietrich.

What was even more interesting about the announcement was who was not going in. Four other players were nominated: Pat McCready and Kaleb Toth both received 48% of the vote, well short of the 75% required, and Chris Driscoll and Regy Thorpe both received 21%. The 1993 Buffalo Bandits were nominated as a team and received 42%. The omission of Toth, in particular, had some heads shaking throughout the IL Indoor forums and Twitter. Many were saying he should have been a shoo-in, while others said that he was good but not quite worthy of the Hall of Fame.

This begs the question: what would make a player worthy? Obviously there's no criteria that guarantees you entry into the Hall, though being good enough for long enough to pick up 1000 career points (only 6 players have ever done it) would probably be the equivalent to 300 wins for a pitcher in baseball. But there will be lots of players that don't get 1000 points that deserve to be in the Hall – Paul Gait, Tom Marechek, Darris Kilgour, and Dan Stroup are already in the Hall with fewer. And that number's only useful for scorers – what about transition guys, defenders, and goalies? Finally, there's more to Hall of Fame worthiness than just numbers.

But I'm going to start with the numbers because, you know, that's what I do. Kaleb Toth finished his 13-year career with 713 points (14th all-time) in 186 games (24th), for a career average of 3.83 (46th). He had 9 seasons (in ten years) with 50+ points (14th), and 6 seasons with 60+ points (13th). Only Andrew McBride has played more games as a Roughneck. He's the team leader in goals, assists, and points; the next closest current Roughneck is Scott Ranger, 241 points back.

So he's 14th all-time in points. You might think well, he didn't make the top 10. But consider this: 1243 players have played at least one game in the NLL. Only 13 have more points than Toth, putting him in the top 1.2%. Was he as dominant as guys like Grant or Tavares? No. Was he the best player on his team his entire career? No, he played with guys like Tracey Kelusky, Lewis Ratcliff, and Josh Sanderson. But it's safe to say that he was one of the top 2 or 3 guys on the Roughnecks for eight straight years from 2002 until 2009.

You also have to consider the non-stats factors. He was the face of the Roughnecks for much of his career, being a hometown Calgary boy, and Calgary is now one of the cornerstone franchises in the league. Toth spent a lot of time in the community and attempting to grow lacrosse in Alberta and from what I understand, this has been very successful. And you can't forget his two years in Toronto, scoring one of the most famous goals in Toronto Rock history, if not league history.

So I think I've made my case for why Kaleb Toth deserves to be in the NLL Hall of Fame. Personally, I think Pat McCready should be in there as well. It would be harder to make a similar argument for McCready, but only because he was a defender and so comparing numbers is much harder. And I'd be OK with the '93 Bandits going in as a team. But that's not what this article was supposed to be about. It was supposed to be looking at the question of how we decide whether or not a player deserves Hall of Fame inclusion. But other than maybe the 1000 point plateau, there's no definite criteria for Hall of Fame candidates, so each has to be examined individually.

Because the NLL Hall hasn't been around all that long (there are only 21 people in it, 8 of which were not players), it's a little more difficult than other sports to say "so-and-so is in the Hall, and this guy's career was similar (or better), so he should be in as well". But if we want to go down that road, we can. Dan Stroup is in the Hall of Fame. Toth played 4 more games than Stroup but had 184 more points. They were both forwards so logic says that if Stroup's in, Toth should be in.

<begin rant>

What's probably happening here is the same idiocy that happens in other Halls of Fame: the concept of a "first-ballot Hall of Famer". The idea is that there are those players who were so good, they deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as soon as they are eligible (on their first ballot). Meanwhile there are other players who are good enough to be in the Hall, but not as good as the "first-ballot" players, so they should not be inducted as soon as they're eligible, they should be made to wait a year or two (or nine, right Andre Dawson?). This makes no sense to me, and I wrote about it (in the baseball world) four years ago. From that article (and this part applies to the NLL Hall of Fame as well):

The Hall of Fame is not an ordered list of players. If someone deserves to be there, vote for him. If he gets 100% of the vote, well good for him, but it doesn't mean that he's better than Ruth or Cobb [or Gait or Veltman].

If you think Toth is worthy of the Hall of Fame, vote for him. If you don't think he's good enough, that's fine. But don't give me this "not yet" crap.

<end rant>

I'm not sure which I hope for more: (1) that the NLL Hall of Fame voters do not think this way (good) and they just believe that Toth isn't good enough (bad). Or (2) that the voters do think this way (bad) and that Toth will get in next year (good). We'll have to wait for the results of next year's voting to see which it is.

The end of the Blaine Manning era

I remember it like it was twelve years ago.

Young lacrosse star Kaleb Toth, who scored the last-second goal to give the Toronto Rock the 2000 NLL Championship, was traded to the brand-new Calgary Roughnecks for a player with no NLL experience and a draft pick. As a Rock fan, was I outraged? Did I feel ripped off? Not really. First off, I knew that Toth was an Alberta boy and being the first home-town player for this brand new team was likely a huge deal for him as well as for the Roughnecks. Secondly, the player we got back was the second overall pick in the previous draft, a strong forward named Blaine Manning. A second overall pick plus a first rounder should be enough of a return for Toth, shouldn't it? Still, we've all seen first round draft picks that just didn't work out; would Manning turn into one of those?

Obviously he didn't, and the rest is history. Manning scored 71 points (21+50) in his first season plus another 12 (4+8) in the playoffs (including the double-overtime winner in the semi-finals against the Washington Power) as the Rock won their third Championship. He was named Rookie of the Week five times, Rookie of the Month for March, and finally Rookie of the Year. Toth, for his part, racked up 79 points in his first of eight straight 50+ point seasons, became the face of the Roughnecks for a decade, and on his retirement became the first inductee into the "Forever A Roughneck" program. If there was ever a trade that worked out better for both teams, I'm not sure what it was.

Manning scored 60+ points in ten straight seasons, and 70+ in all but one of those. His best season was 2005 when he scored 105 points, tied with John Grant for second in the league after Colin Doyle's 111. Josh Sanderson was third with 102, making 2005 the only season in NLL history that three teammates scored over 100 points. At their prime, Doyle, Manning, and Sanderson formed what might be the most potent top three on any team in NLL history.

Manning was not just a strong scorer who could pick corners as well as anyone. He could shoot from outside, could drive to the net through as many defenders as necessary and liked to dive through the crease as well. But there are two specific things about Manning's play that I will remember: first, he would frequently switch hands. If there was no room to shoot right-handed or he was on the wrong side of the net, he'd flip his stick around and shoot as a lefty. I honestly don't know how effective this was and I assume it was less accurate than his right-handed shot, but he scored numerous goals this way, catching the goalie off-guard, and I've rarely seen other players do it. Second, he was almost untouchable on the penalty kill. If you needed to kill some time on the shot clock, give the ball to Manning and he'd simply hold it for 20-30 seconds, regardless of the number of people pounding (or sometimes piling) on him. Mark Steenhuis is also very skilled at this but for many years, Manning was the best.

Manning played in every Rock game for ten full seasons – 2002 to 2011 – but two games into the 2012 season, his consecutive game streak was halted at 162 (177 including playoff games) when he broke his collarbone. That streak was good for third place all-time after Doyle and Steve Toll, though all three have since been eclipsed by Shawn Williams. He returned in April, having missed ten games, but only recorded 9 points in his 6 games that year. Last season Manning was given a different role and was more of a "grinder", the guy that gets in the defender's way and thereby gives better looks to guys like Doyle, Billings, and Leblanc. But there were times where he tried to be the Manning of old and wasn't able to. The frustration on his face was obvious, which is why this announcement was surprising to me but not shocking. Evidently the toll on his body over the last couple of years was too much, and he decided that this was the end for his playing days.

Over the years of his career (2002-2013), only eight people have more points than Blaine Manning. Only one player (Bob Watson) has played more games in a Rock uniform, though Doyle will pass him this coming season. He is second in Rock history after Doyle in goals, assists, and points (both regular season and playoffs), and second after Jim Veltman in loose balls. He led the team in scoring twice and won four Championships with the Rock. Manning is certainly one of the greats in Rock and league history and should get serious consideration for the NLL Hall of Fame once he is eligible. He is one of my all-time favourite players and I wish him well in the next phase of his lacrosse career.

The Benesch trade: could both teams lose?

As you've heard by now, the Buffalo Bandits have acquired sniper Ryan Benesch and transition man Andrew Watt from the Swarm for two first round draft picks (2015, 2016) and a third round pick in 2017. This looks to be a great deal for the Bandits, who lose nobody from their roster while picking up two solid players including Benesch, a former rookie of the year and league scoring leader. It could also be great for the Swarm, who just love their first round draft picks. But it could also be a disaster for both.

The Swarm had four first round draft picks in 2012, and they have four more in 2013, including one of Buffalo's (from the Cosmo deal). Now they have Buffalo's first round picks for 2014 (Cosmo again), 2015, and 2016 as well as their own. This, plus Philadelphia's 2015 pick from the Kevin Ross trade, gives them at least eleven first round picks over the next four drafts.

This is a bit of a strange deal for the Swarm, on the assumption that Benesch didn't ask for a trade. As I said, they certainly love acquiring first round picks, but I'm not sure it makes sense to give up someone who's a star now for draft picks. I get that first round picks are important and can change a franchise entirely (right Edmonton Rush and Pittsburgh Penguins? Or the 2013 Swarm for that matter), but the best-case scenario for the Swarm is that they are able to draft someone as good as Benesch. If Benny was 34 and one of those "still pretty good but on the downside of his career" players, it might make sense, but he's only 28 and could easily be at or near the top of the league in scoring for the next five years or more. Even if the first of the draft picks they got results in the next Mark Matthews, they still have 2 full seasons of no Benesch and no Watt before then.

They do have four first-round picks this year, and if they want to get them all on the roster, then four players from last year have to go. They'll likely want Andrew Suitor back in the lineup, so that's one more. But I don't think Benesch and Watt were at the top of John Arlotta's "list of players who can be dumped in favour of rookies". In addition, this trade has made the Bandits better, so it's unlikely that the Bandits' first round picks will be all that high anyway.

Meanwhile the Bandits have no first round picks for the next four years. It's now safe to say that the Cosmo deal was a bust, in that Cosmo has only shown glimpses of the former Goaltender of the Year the Bandits hoped they were getting. Indeed, 2012 and 2013 were the worst seasons of Cosmo's career in terms of both GAA and save percentage. The Bandits have not yet given up anything for Cosmo – this year's draft will be the first of the two first-round picks they gave up. But unless Cosmo recovers in a big way next season, the next two drafts might be tough to swallow for Bandits fans.

If the Benesch deal doesn't work out for whatever reason, the two drafts after those might be just as tough. There would be nothing worse for Bandits fans to head into a draft knowing you have no first round pick this year or next because of a trade for a player that hasn't played for you for two years, but if Benesch is traded again, that could be the case. But Steve Dietrich knows this. With this trade, the Bandits are going all in with Benesch as their offensive leader for the next half-decade. Obviously losing John Tavares will hurt, whether he retires now or after another season, but with Benesch as the new offensive go-to guy, the Bandits can handle it. That's something they've never really been able to say before. Not saying Benesch is on a par with Tavares, arguably the best NLL player ever, but if you're looking to replace a strong lefty scoring threat, you could do far worse.

I have no reason to believe that Benesch won't be successful in Buffalo. If he does take over John Tavares' spot as the offensive leader of the team, the trade may work out very well for the Bandits. And if the Swarm's 2013 draft picks work out as well as their 2012 ones did (Matisz, Jackson, Sorensen, Crepinsek), they may be able to survive the loss of Benesch and Watt pretty well.

All trades take time to determine who the real winners were, in some cases a few years. If it takes that long to decide the winner of this deal, it's likely the Bandits came out on top. But if Dietrich's bet on Benesch doesn't work out, things could be pretty bleak in Buffalo for a long time.

The Pros and Cons of Parity

One of the biggest stories of the 2013 NLL season was the parity in the league. The best regular season record was only 4 games better than the worst and as was stated many times during the year, any team can beat any other team on any given night. But is that really what we want?

Certainly there are advantages to this level of parity. The bit about any team can beat any other team ensures that the majority of games are meaningful and exciting. If you look at the IL Indoor staff picks every week, there were a few times where every person chose the same winner in a game, but that was pretty rare. But how many games were there last season where you were truly shocked by the outcome? I'm not talking about lopsided wins or high- or low-scoring games here, just being shocked by who won the game.

In 2004, the Rochester Knighthawks (coming off three straight 10-win seasons – one of them in only 14 games) travelled west to meet the Anaheim Storm, who were in their inaugural season. The Storm defeated the Knighthawks 13-10 for their only win that season. The fact that the Storm pulled off that win was a complete shock to everyone – to the point where I remember it happening nine years later. Were there any games last year that are that memorable strictly because of who won?

One of the advantages of parity is that every team has a chance to win the Championship. But one of the disadvantages is that every team has a chance to win the Championship. Were the Knighthawks the best team in the NLL in 2013? No. In 2012? No. But they have two Championships in two years. In both years they made the playoffs and then won three straight games, so you could argue that they deserved both titles and I wouldn't argue against you. But the league Champion is supposed to represent the best team in the league that year, not the best in the final three games. If winning the Championship doesn't mean you're the best team, what does it mean? Doesn't it kind of lose some significance if you have two teams with 11+ wins but the Champion is a team that's only a single game over .500 including the playoffs, as the Knighthawks were in 2012?

Another disadvantage of parity is the legacy. People look back and remember the years when one team was dominant. Remember the Rock of the early 2000's? What about the 1993-1994 Bandits? Or the 2007 Knighthawks? In other sports we have the Canadiens of the 70's. The Islanders and Oilers of the 80's. The Yankees of the 90's and 2000's. The Bulls of the 90's. The Lakers of the 2000's. Those teams were all dominant, and we all remember those years and those Championships.

Quick – who won the NLL Championship in 2006? Mammoth fans probably answered right away, but I had to look it up. Not the Mammoth didn't deserve their championship, but they weren't part of a dynasty and didn't have nearly as dominant a season as the Knighthawks the next year (with their 12 game win streak to end the regular season) so it's a little tougher to remember. In ten years, who's going to look back on the 2012-2013 Knighthawks and say "remember when those mediocre Knighthawks won two straight Championships"? If they finish around .500 in 2014 but win their third straight Championship, would anyone consider them a dynasty, or even close to one?

But these arguments against parity are mainly from a purist point of view. For fans in general, parity is great. To answer my opening question: yes, this is really what we as fans want. The disadvantages I listed above are real, but are greatly outweighed by these advantages:

• You (generally) don't have to watch your team struggle through a 3-13 season.
• You don't have to go to a game and think "we have almost no chance of winning this".
• When you watch a game, you know it'll be a hard-fought game on both sides. You know that the players aren't going to be mailing it in because "it's only the Edmonton Rush and we can beat them easily". Not anymore, you can't. Not easily.
• Even if your team is below .500 with only a few games to play in the regular season, the games are likely still important.

There might be some lacrosse fans who consider the Knighthawks' recent championships as less meaningful than previous years, but Knighthawks fans don't.

The same rule that applies to goals applies to Championships as well: the ugly ones count just as much as the pretty ones.

Stephen Stamp: From boats in BC to the 'Boro and the Borrelli

Stephen Stamp is a busy guy. During the last NLL season, he recorded 19 episodes of his radio show Boxla Beat, in which he interviewed more than forty NLL players, coaches, writers, and announcers. He also broadcasted the NLL entry draft for NLL.com and was one of the most prolific writers at ILIndoor.com, covering not only the NLL but CLax and MSL as well.

Last week, Stamp was rewarded by the National Lacrosse League for his dedication to his craft by being named the 2013 winner of the Tom Borrelli award for Media Person of the Year.

Over the past eight years, Stamp has interviewed hundreds of lacrosse people, done in-game play-by-play and commentary for countless games, and written thousands of articles. I thought it would be fun to put him on the other side of the table, making him the interviewee rather than the interviewer. Many thanks to Stephen for talking to me.

Stamp was born and raised in the lacrosse hotbed of Peterborough, Ontario. He played both house league box lacrosse and high school field lacrosse, and grew up watching the Peterborough Lakers of the MSL. An accomplished rower, Stamp moved to Victoria, BC when he was 22 to take part in Olympic rowing trials. Though he just missed making several Olympic teams, he won a silver medal representing Canada at the World Rowing Championships in the Under-23 division.

After earning a Bachelor's degree in writing from the University of Victoria, Stamp moved back east, living in Durham, New Hampshire for a year and a half while earning a Masters degree in writing from the University of New Hampshire. He then moved back to BC and stayed there for well over a decade, managing and coaching at a rowing club in North Vancouver, and also coaching regional, provincial, and national junior rowing teams. To keep his broadcasting chops fresh, he also did freelance writing, editing, and announcing.

But in 2006, Stamp decided he needed a change. "It was fantastic for a while, but I just felt like I was ready to do something else. I was going through some personal issues and feeling really burnt out on what I was doing," he said. "I've suffered from depression for a long time and it kind of came to a head for me, so I really just needed some change in my life." He decided to move back east once again, returning to his home town. "Peterborough is where my family is, so I decided to come back here for a while. When I was younger, I couldn't wait to get out of Peterborough, but when I came back I realized that it's a great city and great place to live."

After continuing his broadcasting education at Loyalist College in Belleville, Stamp combined his education with his lifelong interest in lacrosse and started doing colour for MSL games on TV Cogeco. In 2010, he began writing about the NLL and MSL for IL Indoor, and was named co-editor a year later. In the fall of 2011, he started Boxla Beat, a popular internet radio show focusing on box lacrosse.

Interviewing two or three people a week for his show as well as for IL Indoor articles has meant that Stamp has talked to many different players over the years. "Colin Doyle is always an excellent interview," Stamp explains, "because he's very open and honest and well-spoken, a great ambassador for the game." Another favourite of his is Washington Stealth star Athan Iannucci. "I think we have sort of similar personalities and views on a lot of things. I like the way he really thinks about stuff and looks deeply into them and isn't afraid to think outside the box, doesn't worry if people think he's odd."

If Iannucci's Stealth teammate Kyle Sorensen needs a job after his lacrosse career ends, he may consider a co-hosting gig on Boxla Beat. "The first time I had him on, I was doing the show on my computer from the Montreal House here in Peterborough. When he was done, he just struck around while I interviewed my other guests," recalls Stamp. "While I was talking to one of them, he motioned to me to ask if it was okay if he asked a question. I was like, absolutely, go ahead. Kyle asked some really good interviews and the rest of the show he was like a really good co-host with me. He's smart and very insightful into the game and he's just a nice and funny guy."

Sorensen's name came up again later in the interview when I asked Stephen about "unsung" players. He mentioned defenders in general, since "there simply aren't the statistics that make it easy to compare players and understand how effective they are at what they do", but two specific current players he mentioned were Sorensen ("He's one of the great leaders in the game") and Scott Self ("he really is one of the steadiest guys playing"). One retired player he mentioned is Pat Coyle, who he believes should be in the NLL Hall of Fame. "I don't know if he's unsung, because I think people get how great he was, but I'd like to see that happen."

We Ontarians are lucky to have three different pro box lacrosse leagues represented here, two of which are entirely based in Ontario, and not surprisingly, Stamp is a big fan of all three. "I enjoy the speed and athleticism of the NLL, especially now that the talent level is so deep on every team," he said. "CLax is good quality lacrosse with players who are really hungry to play the game. It's also really fast and high-scoring. I appreciate good defensive play, but end-to-end lacrosse is pretty darned exciting, too." But Stamp grew up watching Major Series Lacrosse and it holds a special place in his heart.

"I remember seeing the Peterborough Lakers and New Westminster Salmonbellies playing in the Mann Cup and going down to New West's locker room after the last game to ask Kevin Alexander for a pair of his socks. My friend and I each got a pair and we wore them for our own practices with immense pride. Probably seems weird asking someone for his socks, but they were really cool socks and Kevin was one of my favourite players. If he's reading this, he's probably thinking wow, Stamp was one of those weird kids that wanted my sweaty socks back in the day.

I love the heightened pressure and intensity of the one-and-done playoff format in the NLL, but I don't think there is anything better than a best-of-seven series for the MSL title or the Mann Cup."

The NLL's playoff format has been the topic of some discussion recently, so I asked Stephen his thoughts. He likes the CFL-style crossover that allowed the Swarm to play in the East playoffs in 2013, but admits the system could use some tweaking. He's an advocate of rearranging the teams into a single division with only four teams making the playoffs, which would include a best-of-three final. But it only makes sense to do that if the league were to stay at 9 teams, he explains. "There's no point switching to a system like that if the league is going to grow, which I believe it will do soon."

It does seem like expansion has been on the league's mind recently, and assuming a new CBA is done and a willing owner is available, Stamp agrees with many who see Vancouver as the likely first choice. "Whether a team eventually goes to Langley or if there's a way to work out a deal that could put a team in the Pacific Coliseum, I just hope it can happen soon because as everyone can see it's just so obvious that there should be a team in Vancouver." Montreal is another place Stamp would like to see the NLL return to, and despite the fact that New York and New Jersey have each failed twice, he thinks the New York area might still work in the NLL. "With the new development happening around the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, maybe that could work out, he says. I think it's important to keep an open mind."

We wrapped up with a few "quickie" questions and one tougher one:

GP: If you were NLL Commissioner, what's the first rule change you would make?
SS: I would probably go with not having the shot clock run when a team is shorthanded and has possession of the ball. Again, it's something that I grew up with. I really enjoy the strategy and skill involved in killing a penalty.

GP: What is your most memorable moment from a lacrosse game you were watching or covering?
SS: One thing that leaps to mind is the goal that Paul Rabil scored in the 2010 NLL championship game in Toronto. I was live blogging the game for IL Indoor and Rabil hit Bob Watson with a shot that actually knocked Whipper back into the net and sent one of his gloves flying off. It was unbelievable.

GP: Do you follow field lacrosse at all?
SS: I follow some field lacrosse. I can't really watch any MLL because it's very difficult to get in Canada and the only Canadian team is about a three and a half hour drive away. Most of the field lacrosse I see is at tournaments, particularly ones that I'm recording for my video production business, Sports and More Video. I actually like watching recruiting tournaments quite a bit because the focus isn't so much on coaching everything down to the finest detail, but rather just letting the players play and the game flow. Some folks say it's basically box lacrosse on a big outdoor field, which I suppose is why I like it so much. I suspect I would really enjoy MLL if I got a chance to see it more, because of the shot clock and the sheer talent level of the players. 

GP: Troy Cordingley was fired as Toronto Rock coach after the Rock finished first overall and he won the Les Bartley Award. What do you think of this move?
SS: That really caught me by surprise. It seems surprising that Terry Sanderson would remove Troy from his position. On the other hand, Terry is a consummate pro and would do what he felt was best for the team. Keep in mind that Terry also fired himself as the team's defensive coach. Someone pointed out to me that Troy has young children and a full-time teaching job and perhaps he was getting a little overextended. He may even have felt like he needed a change or a break himself. Of course, now the speculation is that Buffalo will hire him to replace Darris Kilgour. I'll believe that when I see it, though.