NLL 2012 - A View from Above (aka: The Official 2012 NLL Thread)

[EagleFan]

My Picks - Week 3

I was 2-2 in week 2.

Edmonton 11 Colorado 9
Philadelphia 13 Washington 11
Buffalo 14 Rochester 11
Calgary 18 Colorado 13

[EagleFan]

Tonight's Wings game will have a charity jersey auction afterwards. They will auction off the special jerseys for the Wounded Warrior Project.

[EagleFan]

Last Night's Game

That was one of the best games I have seen them play in a long time. They bounced back well from last week's disaster. There was a time where I thought they were in trouble but they turned it around quickly.

They started out jumping to a 3-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. Rookie sensation Kevin Crowley had the hat trick in that quarter. Then things got a little touch and go. Washington scored the only 3 goals of the second to have the game tied 3-3 at the half. Really had an issue with the refs on one of those goals as there were two questions about a goal (if the ball actually crossed the line and if the player was in the crease). The replay clearly shows the player in the crease but they reviewed it and ruled it a goal.

The third quarter didn't start out well as Washington scored 2 goals in just over the first 2 minutes to take a 5-3 lead. Drew Westervelt would score two goals for the Wings with one Washington goal from Paul Rabil sandwiched in between to make it 6-5 which is how the third quarter ended.

The Wings came out strong and scored the first three goals of the 4th to take an 8-6 lead. Two quick penalties on the Wings would put them down 2 men and Washington would capitalize with a goal to make it 8-7. Crowley would then score his 4th of the game while shorthanded to give the Wings a 9-7 yead with about half of the quarter remaining. Washington would score twice to tie the game at 9-9 with just over 3 minutes remaining. The Wings looked in trouble for a couple posessions but goallie Brandon Miller would come up huge to keep the game tied. A bad giveaway with about 20 seconds remaining would give Washington a chance to pull their goallie and look forthe last shot but the Wings would play good defense and kept them from getting a good chance ad we head to overtime.

Several posessions would go by and each goallie would make a couple good saves. I was trying to video the Wings when they had the ball to capture the game winner if they got it. Wouldn't you know the one time I didn't start taping Crowley would score his 5th of the night to win the game 10-9!

The small turnout got to see a great game.


Positives
- Great bounceback game after the lousy season opener. They came together and didn't let a few bad calls get them down.
- They really tightened up their defense and you could see a huge difference in the way they hustled.
- Crowley did it again with 5 goals and 1 assist for 6 points.
- Brandon Miller was outstanding, making 49 saves on 58 shots.

Negatives
- Low turnout again.
- They need to avoid the bad quarter syndrome which has plagued them over the past several years.

[EagleFan]

Charity Auction

There was a good turnout for the charity auction. They earned about 25K for the Wounded Warriors Project.

I ended up with a winning bid on one of the jerseys (granted it wasn't one of the popular ones so it wasn't one of the higher bids but it is going to a good cause). The jerseys are actually pretty nice.

[EagleFan]

Rest of Week 3

Colorado 13 Edmonton 12

After falling behind 4-2 after the first Colorado scored 5 in the second to take a 7-4 lead into the half. Edmonton narrowed the gap to 10-9 after the third. Colorado scored first in the final quarter to make it 11-9 before Edmonton scored three times to take a 12-11 lead with a little over 5 minutes left in the game. John Grant Jr. would then tie the game with a little over 3 minutes remaining and would score the winning goal with 15 seconds left. Joh Grant Jr. led the way for Colorado with 5 goals and 4 assists.


Buffalo 12 Rochester 9

In the 1st Buffalo would score first and Rochester would tie it, as it would end 1-1. The second would continue with the teams scoring every other goal but Buffalo would get 3 and Rochester 2 as they go to the half with Buffalo up 4-3. In the third Buffalo would score first but Rochester would then add 3 to take a 6-5 lead. Buffalo would score the final two of the quarter to take a 7-6 lead heading into the final quarter. Buffalo would score 5 of the first 6 goals of the final quarter to take a 12-7 lead with about 8 minutes left. Rochester would add 2 to make it 12-9 with about 4 minutes left but that would be the final.

John Tavares would lead the way for Buffalo with 4 goals and 4 assists.


Colorado 13 Calgary 12

Colorado would look tired early as Calgary would jump to a 5-2 lead before Colorado adds a late first quarter goal to make it 5-3 after one. Each team would score 4 in the second to make it 9-7 at the half as it looks like a shootout. Calgary would score the first two of the third to take an 11-7 lead before Colorado would score the final two of the third to make it 11-9 going into the final quarter. Calgary would score first in the 4th to take a 12-9 lead but Colorado would score the next three to tie it 12-12 with just under 3 minutes remaining. Neither team would score and it would go to overtime tied 12-12. Colorado would score on the first shot of overtime for the win.

[EagleFan]

East           W  L   Pct  GF  GA
Buffalo        2  0 1.000  26  19
Rochester      1  1  .500  31  24
Philadelphia   1  1  .500  22  31
Toronto        0  2  .000  19  26

West           W  L   Pct  GF  GA
Colorado       3  0 1.000  46  38
Calgary        2  1  .667  37  32
Edmonton       0  1  .000  12  13
Minnesota      0  1  .000  14  20
Washington     0  2  .000  19  23

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

Week 4 Games

Friday
Rochester (1-1) @ Toronto (0-2)
Philadelphia (1-1) @ Buffalo (2-0)

Saturday
Buffalo (2-0) @ Minnesota (0-1)
Rochester (1-1) @ Colorado (3-0)
Toronto (0-2) @ Calgary (2-1)
Edmonton (0-1) @ Washington (0-2)

[EagleFan]

My Week 4 Picks

I'm 4-4 for the season.

Toronto 17 Rochester 11
Buffalo 15 Philly 11 (hurts to pick that)
Minnesota 15 Buffalo 14 (only because of the travel)
Rochester 14 Colorado 12 (Colorado is not a 4-0 team, I won't admit it at least)
Calgary 17 Toronto 13
Washington 18 Edmonton 10

[EagleFan]

Week 4 Results

Friday

Rochester @ Toronto

The game was close as it was tied 2-2 after the 1st and 5-5 at the half. In the 3rd Rochester scored the first two goals to take a 7-5 lead but Toronto scored with under 3 minutes remaining in the quarter to make it 7-6 which is how the 3rd would end. Rochester would again score the first two goals of a quarter to take a 9-6 lead. Toronto would go on to score 6 goals over about an 8 minute span to take a 12-9 lead with under 3 minutes remaining. Rochester would score two more with a Toronto goal sandwiched in between for what ended as the 13-11 final.

Philadelphia @ Buffalo

After the first the home Bandits would lead 4-3 but the Wings would flip that around by taking the second 4-3 to go into the half tied 7-7. The third looked bad for the Wings as they would be blanked and allow two as Buffalo would lead 9-7 after the third. In the 4th the Wings would score 2 goals in an 18 second span to tie the game 9-9 just a little over 3 minutes into the quarter. Two minutes later the Bandits would respond with a goal to take a 10-9 lead on a goal that should have been disallowed as the shooter was clearly in the crease but the Wings had no remaining challenge as their coach pulled an Andy Ried and used it for a bad challenge earlier in the game. Just two minutes later Dan Dawson would score to tie the game and then he put the team on his shoulders as QB'd the team to 3 more goals as he was primary assist on all three as the Wings stun the Buffalo crowd with a HUGE 13-10 road victory. They may be coming together as a team as it was great to see them not roll over after the rough third quarter. Dan Dawson had 1 goal and 7 assists for 8 points for the Wings.


Saturday

Buffalo @ Minnesota

The Bandits did not have their legs as Minnesota and the ugliest jerseys in the league jumped to a 4-1 lead after the first. They made it 10-5 at the half and then outscored Buffalo 7-0 in the third to take a commanding 17-5 lead. The Bandits managed to win the final quarter 6-2 but the Swarm coast to a 19-11 victory.

Rochester @ Colorado

Colorado jumped on Rochester, taking a 5-2 lead at the end of the first and 9-4 at the half. Rochester made it close with a 5-2 third quarter which make it 11-9. They would trade goals in the 4th with Colorado adding a late extra goal to take the 14-11 victory.

Toronto @ Calgary

Neither team could sustain the momentum in this one and it would be even at 3 at the end of the first, at 6 at the end of the half and at 11 at the end of the third. Calgary would score twice in the first three and a half minutes of the 4th to take a 13-11 lead. With under 2 minutes to go in the game Toronto would score to make it a 1 goal game, 13-12. With just 11 seconds left Toronto would tie the game and it would head to overtime at 13-13. On the second possesion of the game Toronto would score the game winner, 14-13.

Edmonton @ Washingon

I don't even understand how this game happened. Edmonton jumped out to a 5-0 lead on their way to a 6-2 lead after the first quarter. At the hald they led 11-4 and weren't done as it was 14-5 after the third. They added two more in the final quarter for a 16-5 victory against my favorite to win the West.

[EagleFan]

I was 2-4 with my picks, wow I sucked. Now at 6-8 for the season.

[EagleFan]

East           W  L   Pct  GF  GA
Philadelphia   2  1  .667  35  41
Buffalo        2  2  .500  47  51
Toronto        2  2  .500  46  50
Rochester      1  3  .250  53  51

West           W  L   Pct  GF  GA
Colorado       4  0 1.000  60  49
Calgary        2  2  .500  51  45
Edmonton       1  1  .500  28  18
Minnesota      1  1  .500  33  31
Washington     0  3  .000  24  39

[EagleFan]

Week 5 Results

Toronto 15 Philadlphia 6
Washington 11 Buffalo 10
Rochester 16 Minnesota 14
Colorado 11 Edmonton 7

[EagleFan]

Very disapppointed with the Wings last week. They started out okay as the game was close until almost halftime but they trailed 9-6 at the half. They did nothing in the second half and were outscored 6-0 for the 15-6 loss.

The team was disapointing, the crowd even more so. The sat on their hands the whole game and never got into it. Just a bad game overall.

What was worse is that I got a flat tire on route 42 on the way home. Had to get across lanes and then drive another half mile or so until there was a shoulder to pull off on. Then the fun of changing a tire in the darkness with cars flying past. Was glad there wasn't a drunk driver in a car with my name on it out there that night.

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

[EagleFan]

East           W  L   Pct  GF  GA
Toronto        3  2  .600  61  56
Philadelphia   2  2  .500  41  56
Buffalo        2  3  .400  57  62
Rochester      2  3  .400  69  65

West           W  L   Pct  GF  GA
Colorado       5  0 1.000  71  56
Calgary        2  2  .500  51  45
Edmonton       1  2  .333  35  29
Minnesota      1  2  .333  47  47
Washington     1  3  .250  35  49