Recently the NLL announced the winners of several awards for the regular season. Here’s a short breakdown of which player won which award.
- Bowflex Sportsmanship Award — Sean Greenhalgh, Philadelphia Wings
- Belmont.com Defensive Player of the Year — Brodie Merrill, Portland Lumberjax
- RBK Goaltender of the Year — Steve Dietrich, Buffalo Bandits
- Vonage GM of the Year — Derek Keenan, Portland Lumberjax
- Les Bartley Award (Coach of the year) — Derek Keenan, Portland Lumberjax
- Executive of the Year — Angela Batinovich, Portland Lumberjax
- Edge Active Care Rookie of the Year — Brodie Merrill, Portland Lumberjax
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Last week NLL commissioner Jim Jennings was interviewed on CAMFM by Toronto Rock announcer Barks. During the interview, Barks asked some good questions about where the league was going and what we could look forward to in the future.
Chicago lacrosse
The first good bit of info came in regards to the Chicago expansion team. While the owners have been given a franchise so far neither the players nor a name has been chosen. Over the last several weeks there was a list of 10 possible team names that were posted on the teams website. The management was asking everyone to vote for what names they liked.
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After much debate back and forth, I’ve decided to put up a couple videos from the West Division Semi Final game where the Calgary Roughnecks lost to the Colorado Mammoth.
The first video had some controversy surrounding it but in the end the officials made the right call — even though it hurt the Roughnecks. During the game and shortly after there was a lot of talk saying that this particular goal shouldn’t have counted or that it wasn’t even a goal. As you’ll see, the ball does cross the goal plane and as I mentioned before, the officials did rule it a goal.
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Yesterday the Colorado Mammoth took on the Arizona Sting for the West Division title. In the East Division, the Buffalo Bandits faced the Rochester Knighthawks to determine their champion. The winners of these games are going on to the 2006 NLL Champions Cup on May 13th, 2006.
In the case of the East Division, the Buffalo Bandits completely dominated the Knighthawks to win their title 15–10. The game, held in the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, saw John Tavares and Cory Bomberry lead the Bandits to their victory. Of course, some great goaltending by Dietrich helped fend off the Knighthawks fourth quarter push.
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For the last three years, the National Lacrosse League has had a television contract with The Score — a sports broadcasting network. For some reason The Score wanted out of the deal early and it seems they left the NLL in a bit of a bind. Then, Rogers Sportsnet picked up a very miniscule amount of the slack.
While Sportsnet did broadcast some of the Canadian NLL teams it was a hit or miss as to which games were shown. This most likely had to do with hockey being back. Some also speculate — and I agree with it — that the executives at Sportsnet chose not to show more games because there were no Canadian teams playing. Certainly a sound decision right?
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In what seems to be an extremely exciting game in Denver tonight, the Calgary Roughnecks fought valiantly but come out on the bottom in overtime. The Mammoth will be moving on to the West Division final against either the Portland Lumberjax or the Arizona Sting — current score is 12–10 for Arizona the Arizona Sting — who beat the Portland Lumberjax 14–11.
Interestingly enough, the Roughnecks managed to score the first two goals in each quarter of the game, until overtime. During the first quarter scoring was even with both teams at 4 ending the frame. The next quarter is where Calgary fell behind, by a lot. At one point falling behind by 5 goals. Due to some hard work by the Roughnecks they managed to close the gap to one.
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In a bit of late breaking news, as much as this site reports news ;^), it seems that Roughneck forward Jason Wulder will be playing tonight. There was a lot discussion as to whether his suspension would stand, be rescinded or be put on hold during the appeals process.
According to the team roster on pointstreak.com, Wulder will be at the game and he will be dressed to play. Also, the third goaltender, Ryan Avery, is noticeably absent from the lineup. Unfortunately, on the same lines, Calgarian Jeremy Cheyne doesn’t seem to be dressing for tonight’s game. Of course, this is not the official news on the subject and details are sparse but it’s exciting regardless.
Go necks go!!
Even though Sportsnet has been broadcasting some of the regular season lacrosse games, it seems that there contract does not include the playoffs. Based on some correspondence between friends and Sportsnet representatives, it also seems that the network doesn’t have much enthusiasm towards the sport — but I could be reading too much between the lines.
Since that’s the case, the only options available to catch tonight’s Calgary Roughnecks at Colorado Mammoth game in Denver are on the b2 network or LacrosseTV. Unfortunately for anyone currently not subscribing to LacrosseTV that option is out since you need a set-top box to watch. b2 on the otherhand, is live coverage of lacrosse games via the web. The network — b2 — charges $6, most likely US, per game and requires a machine with Windows and Windows Media Player (click here to watch the game).
Go ‘necks go!!
As a follow up to yesterday’s mention regarding the suspension of Colorado Mammoth forward Gavin Prout, it seems that his appeal was successful. Prout was suspended for leaving the bench during an altercation in the Mammoth’s final regular season game against the Calgary Roughnecks.
Yesterday the NLL heard the appeal lead by the Professional Lacrosse Players Association (PLPA). Arbitrator Ramona Gallagher decided to decide in favor of the appeal and rescinded the suspension. This means that one day before the West Division Semi Final, the Mammoth will be a full strength.
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In an “interesting” turn of events, the NLL has suspended the Roughneck’s third top scorer for one game. What makes this so interesting is that the suspension wasn’t announced until today, 5 full days after the game against Colorado. The reason for the suspension? Wulder’s illegal cross checking penalty in the fourth quarter.
The suspension was handed down by the league after they reviewed the tapes of the game in which Colordao forward Gavin Prout was also suspended. According to the league, Wulder was suspended because of a violation of rule 64, attempt to injure, when he cross checked a Mammoth player. In defense of the league’s decision, the officials did call the cross checking penalty as a five minute major as opposed to a two minute minor.
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