Schemenauer’s Random Thoughts: Rush, Swarm Surging

My random thoughts…

It was only a four-game week in the NLL, but it had no shortage of storylines.  Saskatchewan and Georgia continued to roll.  Philly won both ends of the home and home against Vegas.  Colorado had a statement win at home.  And of course, we had two controversies.  Let’s talk briefly about them.

Fighting With Your Helmet On

The first, and by far more minor controversy happened Friday night in Henderson with 11:22 remaining in the 4^th quarter and Vegas down 12-7.  A fight breaks out between David Brock and Connor Sellars.  Normally this would be a non-story, but when this fight breaks out, Brock has his helmet off, but Sellars has his helmet on, and this fight goes for a good 15 seconds while Sellars has his helmet on.  Brock feeds punches to the cage, which you could see the after effects on Sellars’ forehead afterwards.  But once Sellars’ helmet finally comes off, he goes running away from the fight.

This is a terrible look for Sellars.  There are some unwritten rules in this game, and one of them is you don’t fight with your helmet on.  Secondly, its pretty clear he was only willing to engage Brock while he had this advantage.  Runing away like he did lost him a lot of respect amongst many fans.

What I’m going to be interested in seeing once Brian Lemon reviews the incident is how rule 80.8 is applied here because the intent of the rule isn’t abundantly clear.  The rule reads:

80.8 Any player who instigates a fight with a face mask on against an opponent who already has his facemask off will be deemed an instigator.

The standard penalty for an instigator is a 2 minute minor and a game misconduct.  The way the rule is written doesn’t make sense because if you instigate a fight, it doesn’t matter if your helmet is on or off, you’re the instigator and the penalty is applied anyways.  The intent of the rule, in my opinion is that there is a wording error at the start and the rule should read “Any player who engages in a fight.” 

If the rule was applied by Lemon, it won’t result in an immediate suspension for Sellars, but its an accumulated game misconduct that could come into effect if Sellars has additional game misconducts later this season.

Post Game In Colorado

Video and pictures have been circulating around social media regarding an incident between Halifax’s Tyson Bell and two spectators as Halifax was leaving the floor at the end of the game Saturday night, leading the NLL to put out a bulletin stating that they were aware of the situation and were investigating.  The video showed Bell punching one spectator and hitting another with his stick.

I’m not going to go too deep into Bell’s situation because Brian Lemon will be reviewing the situation.  Given the seriousness of the situation, the fact that it’s the Christmas holidays and how unusual the situation is, I won’t be surprised if the disciplinary report that comes out on Thursday will not have a formal conclusion to it by that time, other than that Bell is suspended for this Saturday’s game and that further investigation is needed.  I won’t be surprised if Lemon also reaches out to other sports leagues who may have dealt with similar situations prior to any decision.

I’m not going to get any further into that end of it other than to say, quite simply, that there is never an excuse to get into an altercation with a spectator.

Here’s the issue in my mind that is just as important.  I’m not going into the rumor mill as to what was or wasn’t done by the spectator to start the whole incident, but for something this serious to have occurred, something needed to be said or done by the spectator.  While its perfectly fine for spectators to heckle in good taste, there is a line.  When spectators cross that line, they are just as responsible for their actions (although this does not absolve Bell from what happened here).

I hope that the league and Bal Arena and the NLL investigates the spectator side of the incident as well, and if that line has been crossed, that the spectator is suspended from attending events at Bal Arena and/or the NLL for an appropriate period of time.

I also hope that Bal Arena reviews its seating systems.  I’m not sure why there are spectators allowed at ground level near the visiting players’ exit in what appears to be a drinking section, with just a moveable gate separating the two.  That in itself is a recipe for disaster and better separation should have prevented something like this from happening.

The simple rule here for players, if a spectator crosses the line, don’t attack (unless you are being physically attacked and need to defend yourself), walk away and have the matter reported immediately.  There are enough security cameras in the arenas now that spectators that cross the line can be spotted and investigated.

The New Rush?

Cody Janzen said it in his post-game analysis on Rush radio, in 2023-24, the Rush were 1-8 in close games.  This year they’re 3-0.  Although, in their 14-12 win over Rochester, it shouldn’t have been that close after the Rush went on a 9-2 run to open the second half and open up a 6-goal lead with 10:43 remaining, to almost blow it themselves.  In 6 minutes, Rochester had narrowed the lead to one, and it was Ryan Smith hitting the far post with 20 seconds to go, the rebound ending up in the stick of Matt Hossack and an empty net goal in transition that iced it.  A fraction of an inch to the left and this game heads to overtime, with the Knighthawks having all the momentum.

One question that was asked of me was whether Hossack should have shot the empty netter from outside the restraining line.  That’s a tough one because Hossack is unlikely to know how much time was remaining after a mad scramble of a defensive set and a mad scramble for the rebound.  With 12 seconds, yes Hossack likely can get to the corner and run the clock out, but any more time than 12 seconds, with zero support, there’s a good chance that Rochester has enough time to get the ball back and run it up the floor.

If there’s a concern here, it’s collapse of the Rush defense in that 4^th quarter.  This one wasn’t on Frank Scigliano.  Most of those 4^th quarter goals were either one on the goalie or the Rush defense giving Rochester shooters way too much space.  As Zach Manns put it in his post-game interview, the Rush still haven’t played a full 60 minutes in any of their three wins, which is a concern, but also an opportunity to improve even more.  The other concern is with captain Ryan Keenan, who has just 4 points in three games.  Now yes, he’s setting the hard picks and getting Zach Manns, who has the hot hand at the moment open, but even this level of output is surprising.

Perhaps even more impressive for the Rush is that in the roughly 93 minutes the Rush have been without Robert Church, the Rush have put up 21 goals (13.55 goals per game).  For a young team, thin on veterans up front, the loss of someone like Church might have been a death blow, but not this team.  I had put up a poll on Twitter asking fans what they think Keenan’s move should be with Church out for a while, make a trade, sign a righty SFA, go lefty strong with both Anderson and Walter in the lineup or bring up Josh Zawada.  Keenan and Quinlan ultimately decided to stay righty strong and brought up Zawada.  It might be tough to see Clark Walter being a healthy scratch two games in a row, but structurally the move is correct for the offense and if Levi Anderson is a big part of your future, you need to give him floor time.

Rush Nation was also quick to praise Jake Naso for winning 25 of 30 draws.  After seeing what an achilles heel this has been for years, Rush fans have someone new to really rally behind.  The Rush’s next coaching challenge, work Naso into the defensive system in practice enough that he can take a regular shift on defense and turn him into the next Jake Withers or Joe Nardella that aren’t FOGO’s.

The one question was asked as to whether the Rush are contenders for the title.  I’m not going that far just yet.  A 3-0 start is great, but its also close to an 0-3 start.  One concern that remains on that front in my mind is the goaltending situation.  Scigliano still has to prove that he can handle the workload of a full season.  One thing that might help is that he limited his play in summer ball this year, playing Sr B for Standing Buffalo and playing far fewer games than he would have in the WLA.  I still think that the Rush need to rotate Thomas Kiazyk into the lineup and give Scigliano some rest.  The next three games are critical though.  The Rush play the Wings this weekend, followed by the winless Rock and Desert Dogs the next two weeks.  Its not inconceivable for the Rush to start 6-0.

For Rochester, goaltending and defense remain concerning.  Its easy to say this when Dan Coates and Rylan Hartley remain on the IR.  But Hartley has been on the IR for significant periods of time in each of the last several years.  Riley Hutchcraft’s statistics aren’t terrible by any means, 11.98 GAA and a save percentage of 0.795.  But its not giving the confidence level of being able to be the starter.  Granted, in two of Rochester’s losses so far, the offense put up 7 goals, which also isn’t going to cut it.  The big problem for the Knighthawks is that their next two games are against Buffalo and Georgia, and unless they get into upset mode quickly, they’ll be 1-5 just after New Years.  

Peaches In Georgia

If the Rush are a big surprise, you also have to put Georgia into that same conversation.  Pre-season, when you are looking at the teams with the biggest potential upsides and downsides, I’ll admit, Georgia was a team that I was expecting might have a downturn this season.  Perhaps my biggest concern going into the season was the number of veterans they had, that are starting to get up there in age, and whether that would set them back.  Well, they’ve proven me wrong so far.

For what’s going right, we can start with the obvious.  Lyle Thompson is still LT4.  He might be 32 years old, but he’s not slowing down, and he’s put this team on his back when he’s had to.  A week ago in Toronto, he had a few goals for the highlight reels.  Whenever Lyle Thompson is around, positive things happen.

Then there’s Brett Dobson.  For many years, John Arlotta spent a lot of draft capital on finding his eventual replacement for Mike Poulin.  A lot of goaltenders came and went, Kevin and Steve Orleman, Laine Hruska, Aden Walsh and Warren Hill.  It was a lot of draft picks for players that ultimately were for the most part released or left as practice roster players.  But Dobson alone might make up for all of the misses from those draft picks being released.  Dobson can now challenge Dillon Ward as the best goaltender in the world combined in the field and box game.  The stats don’t lie as to how critical Dobson has been to the Swarm’s initial success, a 9.51 GAA and a save percentage of 0.814.  He’s also one of the guys I look forward to hearing from whenever he’s a guest on a podcast just because the level of his lacrosse IQ is so high.

Then there are the lefties where you know that Shayne Jackson is going to draw a tough matchup, and he only has 7 points in three games, but Andrew Key and Brian Cole have been able to exploit the focus on Jackson and are second and third in team scoring.

The team’s defence, well, there’s not really much to say, and that’s probably a good thing.  They’re playing well as a cohesive unit, getting the slides in where they need to.  Keep in mind their three games so far were against the Seals and Rock.  I wouldn’t have faulted them if their defensive stats were slightly worse than league average at this stage just because of the fire power these teams have up front.

Georgia has also done very well at the faceoff dot.  When I preach that faceoffs matter, I do have to recognize that Jeremy Thompson has won 71.4% of his faceoffs so far this season.  This is partially influenced in that the three games the Swarm have played this year, Trevor Baptiste missed both games against the Seals and TD Ierlan was on the IR when they played the Rock, so all three games were a bit of faceoffs by committee for their opponents, but you can only face the opponent in front of you, and in those tight games, those extra faceoffs won make the difference.

The Swarm head to Colorado this weekend to try to get to 4-0.  With both teams suddenly hot, its going to be the must watch game of the week.

Broadcasters to Rules Clinics

One thing that I have seen on the broadcasts far too often this season already is that some broadcasters absolutely nail the rule book when unusual situations occur in their games (i.e. Pat Gregoire nailing that you can bat the ball into the net from outside the crease in the Halifax vs Calgary game).  Others truly struggle because its not apparent that they’ve read the rule book or understand its interpretation.  Granted some of the broadcasters are relatively new to lacrosse and haven’t seen enough games to know the intricacies.

A few recent examples of these issues were in one broadcast stating that a challenge would result in a good goal when it was very clear that the ball had been batted from inside the crease.  Another one occurred in Colorado where the ball went off the goaltender, off the defender and into the net while the shooter had stepped into the crease while the ball was pinballing around and exited through the back of the crease.  This rule should be well known by now, when an offensive player steps foot in the crease, they must re-establish both feet outside the crease before the ball crosses the line.  Otherwise, it is a crease violation.

What is frustrating is that fans that haven’t read the rule book will depend on the broadcasters to sort out what is happening.  If you have a knowledgeable broadcast team that understands the rules, it gives the fan a better understanding as to why.  When you don’t have a knowledgeable broadcast team, they start to say things that aren’t correct and it only confuses the fan even more.

What I would love to see is that there is an abbreviated rules clinic that all broadcasters must attend before each season.  This doesn’t have to be a full referee clinic where positioning and communication with your referee team are critical aspects.  But I would love to see Don Koharski put on a clinic that goes through the finer details of the rules and the case book.  The hopes here being that with a better knowledge base, that at least one member of the broadcast crew will know the rule, or at least, be able to know where to look up the rule if an unusual situation occurs.

The referees only interact with the fans for very short periods of time, announcing penalties or giving the reasons behind a goal challenge.  The broadcasters are the ones interacting with the fans for several hours.  It would be optimal for all broadcast crews to have that level of knowledge to best engage the fan, especially the fans that are just learning the game of box lacrosse.

Until next time… Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!