Random Thoughts: Music During the Game?

My random thoughts…

Goals, goals and more goals.  Does anyone else still have “he scores” ringing through your ears?  If you love high scoring games, last week was your week.  If you’re Tino Fera, you loved only one game.  In 7 games last weekend, only two teams were held below 10 goals.  Only one game won on the under.  The average number of goals per game, 26.7.  And a game was played in Georgia before what was one person’s unofficial count, 109 fans.

Quiet Night in Georgia

I heard a number of comments poking fun at the number of fans in Georgia on Friday night.  While Georgia isn’t known for sellout crowds, what most of them seemed to be completely unaware of is that there was a major winter storm that ripped through the Atlanta area (despite it being repeated multiple times on the broadcast).  This is of course all relatively speaking.  If this was Saskatoon or Calgary, people would have driven into the game with their 4×4’s and winter tires with little difficulty and the roads likely plowed already.  But Georgia just isn’t equipped at any municipal level to handle that much snow, cars aren’t equipped with winter tires and it wasn’t going to be a one night problem, it was going to be a problem that was going to take a few days to clean up.  While a postponement of the game was being considered, the decision to play came down to economics.

The cost of a postponement is significant.  Even if you can find an opening in both teams’ and the arena’s schedules to allow for a postponement, you have the cost of flying both teams’ rosters to Georgia for another game, plus officiating crew.  You have to lease the arena for another day, which isn’t cheap.  You have to go through the cost of labour to reissue tickets to everyone.  Plus, you’re going through another set of hotel costs, player per diems and lost work day payments.  When all of the players were already in Georgia, it only made sense to play the game, and the Swarm offered to exchange tickets for anyone that couldn’t make it for a future game.  Economically, playing the game made more sense than postponing it.

This is a different situation than the one that arose last season where a game between Saskatchewan and Philadelphia was postponed because of travel disruptions.  The majority of the Rush roster weren’t able to make it to Philadelphia despite multiple attempts to go.  In this instance a postponement was the only option because the Rush didn’t have enough players that made it to Philadelphia to have the required minimum number of players.  With the situation in Georgia, both teams’ full rosters had already landed in Atlanta by the time the storm trouble began.

Editiors note: Ironically, Philadelphia’s game next weekend was postponed to Monday due to overlap with the Eagles playoff game.

It was an interesting game to watch with only bare essential staff on hand.  The broadcast crew wasn’t in the arena and was broadcasting from the New York area.  There was no DJ which meant no music and the Swarm crowd singing the goal song themselves.  There was a debate over whether the no music thing should be permanent, and my answer is no. 

Summer lacrosse is set up mostly for lacrosse enthusiasts.  The NLL on the other hand is an entertainment experience.  Its not set up for strictly lacrosse enthusiasts.  And you pay more to get into an NLL game because of the higher level of entertainment that is being brought forward.  Without the music, I believe you would have a product that wouldn’t have the right mix to get the non-lacrosse enthusiast in the door, attendance numbers would shrink and the effects would be significant.  Think of the old Calgary motto, “Come for the party, stay for the game.”  That is a critical selling feature of the NLL and it shouldn’t be lost.

Let’s Make A Deal

We’ve had a few trades go down this week of significance which might start the carousel of deals we’ll se go down up until the trade deadline in mid-March.

The first deal was Albany sending Eric Fannell to Ottawa for a 2^nd round pick in 2028.  Some people were quick to point out that Albany had traded a 2026 1^st and conditional 4^th round pick to acquire Fannell in the offseason and that after 5 games, this was quite the hit to trade him away.  You do need to look further into the details on that trade before judging it harsh. 

Shakeup in Albany 👇👇👇 https://t.co/9F36N1TRmU

— Lacrosse Culture Daily (@LaxCulturedaily) January 13, 2025

First, the pick that Albany traded away to get Fannell was a draft pick they previously acquired from Panther City.  Because Panther City has ceased operations, any draft picks they had traded away are still valid, but those picks are tacked onto the end of the round.  While it was a 1^st round pick, it’s the #15 overall pick.  The 4^th round pick has conditions which may or may not be met.  Yes, a 2^nd round pick is a lower pick than #15, but its not a steep drop off.  The truth is in 5 games, Fannell had 1 goal, 10 points, and just 14 shots on goal.  He wasn’t fitting the free-flowing style of offense that Albany plays.

So why does this deal make sense for Ottawa?  If you’re looking for someone to help get Jeff Teat the picks he needs to get open, Fannell is a good option to add to your lineup.  Plus how long Reilly O’Connor will remain out of the lineup is still in question.

Then we saw Vegas trade Dylan Watson to San Diego for Drew Belgrave and a 2^nd round pick in 2027.  This is a deal that makes a lot of sense for Vegas.  Watson was a healthy scratch the last two games.  Jackson Webster had a great first game in the NLL a few weeks ago and Marshal King is nearing a point of return.  You can only have so many guys in the lineup, and as much as Watson was drafted second overall, he had just 7 points so far, a shooting percentage under 10% and someone had to go. 

Picking up Belgrave will be a huge addition for the Desert Dogs’ defense.  Belgrave will still be a restricted free agent this summer so Vegas will be able to keep him around for another year.  This was a really good trade for Shawn Williams.

I’m still trying to make sense of the trade for San Diego though.  San Diego already has a slough of lefty forwards, so I’m expecting that Trent DiCicco will be moved to the back door as a result, which in fact might be beneficial for the Seals.  But if Watson is the shake up that the Seals are looking for on an offence that has sputtered the last few games, I just don’t see it.  The only way this trade works out for the Seals is if the Dylan Watson that was the high prospect when he is drafted finally finds that potential in San Diego.

More Comebacks

I spoke about a month ago about the trend of how many teams are blowing large leads, or as I have referred to it for several years now, the Vancouver, because of the Stealth and Warriors’ history of blowing large leads.  This weekend, the trend continued.

Imagine my shock when I’m sitting at the SaskTel Centre watching the Rush vs Desert Dogs game, deciding to turn on NLLTV quickly to see what the score was in Denver during a TV timeout, and its 8-1 Albany, five minutes into the second quarter.  Had hey finally figured it out?  Were they going to get away from the trend of close games? 

And then it began. 

Colorado scored 6 of the next 8 to have the deficit down to three before half time and then used a 5-0 fourth quarter to finish the job in a 15-13 win.  Colorado coming back from huge deficits is nothing new.  In fact, their massive comebacks against Vancouver is what started the trend.  When Colorado pulls these comebacks off, its typically at home and they use the momentum the crowd gives them so effectively.  The young Albany offence buckled late.  Doug Jamieson wasn’t his usual self and the stars aligned to give Colorado enough time to complete the comeback.

Halifax narrowly avoided the same fate.  While the lead was never as large, Halifax was up by 4 with 10 minutes to go only for Rochester to tie the game up with two late goals, before Clarke Petterson ended the comeback bid in the dying second of the game.

And then there was Vancouver, who turned the tide on the Seals.  Admittedly, the first half of this game was some of the most boring lacrosse I’ve seen all year and with the Seals up 3-2 at half, we had to wonder if the record the Seals had broken a week ago for fewest goals scored by a winning team was going to be tied or broken.  Going into the 4^th quarter, the Warriors’ offence looked dead.  They were down 6-3.  Their transition had scored more than their offence, and at that point in the game, Owen Grant was tied for the season lead in goals for the Warriors.  So, to say that Keegan Bal’s 4^th quarter sock trick, which was only one goal short of Dane Dobbie’s performance in December, came out of the middle of nowhere.  It was almost that Bal decided he needed to do this himself, taking shots that weren’t always high percentage shots, and everything seemed to be going for him.  The only Warrior other than Bal to score in the 4^th quarter was Reid Bowering on another transition goal.

The Warriors at 3-1 doesn’t make statistical sense offensively.  Even strength, the Warriors offence is dead last in the league in even strength efficiency as per Ty Merrow’s advanced stats, scoring on just 7.6% of their even strength possessions and on 9.1% of their even strength shots.  To put this into perspective, the teams just slightly ahead of them at the bottom of the even strength efficiency, Toronto at 8.3%, Vegas at 9.1% and Albany at 9.3%, three teams with a combined two wins.  So why do the Warriors have such a good start to the season then?

There are three factors in play, and a big thanks to Ty’s stats for pointing these out.  First is looking at defensive even strength efficiency, which Vancouver is top in the league at with only 8.3% of their even strength defensive stances ending up in goals, only 9.4% of their opponents even strength shots resulting in goals, and their opponents’ shots on goal percentage of 61.2%, all best in the league.  Their defense is forcing teams to miss the net a lot.

Secondly, their transition efficiency is the best in the league, by a lot.  This should somewhat be expected when Owen Grant has scored as often as he has.  But Vancouver is scoring on 27.1% of their transition opportunities and scoring on 30.2% of their transition shots.  The next best in the league, Ottawa scoring on 29.6% of its transition shots and 21.1% of their transition opportunities.

The third item is the play of Aden Walsh.  This is really surprising because ever since being thrown into the fire with Vancouver, Walsh’s statistics were near the bottom of the league.  But so far this year, with a much better defense in front of him, Walsh has a GAA of 9.00, a save percentage of 0.809.  But even better is a number Ty tracks called GSAA (Goals Saved Above Average).  This figure tracks how many additional or fewer goals a goaltender has saved compared to the average goaltender in the league.  Think of someone between Chris Origlieri and Brett Dobson this season as the average goaltender.  Walsh has a GSAA of 6.15, which means over the course of the four games the Warriors have played, Walsh is saving on average 1.54 more goals per game than “Brett Origlieri.”

Now there is still a concern for the Warriors, and that’s true offensive output.  If it wasn’t for Keegan Bal’s one-man show this weekend, we’re having a very different discussion on the Warriors.  If the offence can’t pick up their 5 on 5 efficiency, those close wins will turn into close losses.  But for now, celebrate your accomplishments and work on your deficiencies.

Until next time…