We are at the point of the season where the number that matters is how many wins your team needs to clinch a playoff spot. Only two weeks are remaining in the 2024-25 NLL Season, so the wins are paramount.
In Week 20, there are six games on the docket and every single one has something special to offer. The nuggets in this week’s edition of By The Numbers will help keep you locked in from start to finish.
15 – # Of Years Since Warriors Won 10 Games In A Season
This weekend might go down in the Vancouver Warriors history books.
The Warriors have the chance to achieve 2 notable accomplishments if they can defeat the Toronto Rock in Mississauga. A Warriors win would clinch them a spot in the playoffs, and it would also give them 10 wins on the season.
This would be the Warriors’ first playoff berth since 2017, and it would be the first time the team has reached 10 wins in a single season in 15 years – they last did it in 2010 (the Washington Stealth went 11-5 that year and won the championship).
15 years later, this franchise is barely recognizable. Instead of playing in Everett, Washington, they are now based in Vancouver, Canada. Instead of being called the Stealth, they are the Warriors. They have new ownership, new team colors, and almost an entirely new roster.
They do have one common player. Defender Matt Beers played for that 2010 championship team.
This is not your mom’s Vancouver lacrosse team anymore. It appears the dark days are behind this team. Can they prove that by finishing the regular season off strong and making some noise in the playoffs?
5 – # Of Points Alex Simmons Needs To Reach 90 This Season
Alex Simmons needs 5 more points over the Albany FireWolves last two games of the regular season to reach 90 points for the second year in a row. But why is that important?
If Simmons reaches that mark, it would put him in a rare category with only one other player. Let’s remember, Simmons posted 96 points in his rookie season last year – that was the second-most points put up by a rookie in NLL history.Â
If he posts 90 points again this season, he would become just the 2nd player in NLL history to start their career with 90+ points in back-to-back years. Jeff Teat is the only other player who can do that.
What may interfere with Simmons reaching this mark is that the FireWolves are mathematically out of the playoff picture, compounded by the fact that Simmons is still nursing a lower body that suffered a couple of weeks ago. This is a unique milestone you’ll want to keep your eyes on in the finals weeks of the season.
6 – # of Goals Jack Hannah Needs To Reach 40
Jack Hannah needs to score 6 more goals this regular season to become only the second player in Las Vegas Desert Dogs franchise history to reach 40 goals in a single season.
Hannah has been a masterful goal-scorer this season. Sitting with 34 goals scored heading into Week 20 action, Hannah would join Casey Jackson as the only player in franchise history to score 40 goals in a single season. Jackson scored 41 goals for the Desert Dogs last season.
If Hannah hits that mark, he will have done so by scoring 40 jaw-dropping goals this season.
Scoring for your team matters the most, but how you score separates the average player from the best players. Jack Hannah was born to score, and this season, he’s doing with a consistent flair that is not often seen in the NLL.
228 – # of Wings Home Games In History After Week 20 (284 Buffalo)
The Philadelphia Wings have been playing in Philadelphia since 1987, the NLL’s inaugural season.
This weekend, the Wings (original and current combined) will be hosting their 228th home game. This will tie them (for the week) with the city of Rochester for the 2nd-most regular season NLL home games hosted by a city in league history (the Knighthawks will move back ahead of the Wings next weekend the they host the Toronto Rock on April 19th).
Only the Buffalo Bandits have hosted more regular season home games (243), and that will move up to 244 after they host the Halifax Thunderbirds this weekend.
Over the decades, the Wings have built a passionate core fan base that has stuck with the team through thick and thin, including coming back to support the club after the original Wings first left town after the 2014 season.Â
Attendance numbers have neared the franchise-low this season, but that hasn’t stopped the diehard Wings fans from making a ton of noise when they show up to Wells Fargo Arena.
44 – # Of Goals Lyle Thompson Is On Pace To Score This Season
Lyle Thompson knows how to score like the best of em’. He has already scored 39 goals this season and is on pace to finish the regular season with 44 goals. If Lyle finishes this regular season with 40+ goals, this will be his 4th consecutive season scoring 40+ goals and his 7th career 40+ goal season.
For context of just how impressive that is to score 40 or more goals in 7 NLL seasons, well, only 4 other players in NLL history have done it more times, and they’re some of the greatest goal scorers the league has ever seen: John Grant Jr. (10 times), Curtis Dickson (9 times), John Tavares (9 times), and Gary Gait (8 times). Thompson will look to become the fifth.
Believe it or not, had it not been for the COVID-stoppage during the 2019-20 season, Thompson might be going for season #8 with 40+ goals. That year, had scored 27 goals in 12 games, putting him on pace for 41 goals. But what’s done is done.
It is almost a guarantee that Thompson will hit 40 goals this season. Thompson has only been held without a goal 13 times in his 153-game regular season NLL career, and the last time (and only) time that Lyle didn’t score in back-to-back games was the 2nd and 3rd games of his 9-year career back in 2016.