The 2012 National Lacrosse League season opens Sunday, January 8th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as the 2011 champions the Toronto Rock face the team with the best record last season, the Calgary Roughnecks.
The game of indoor lacrosse is rather regionalized, with strong support for teams in a number of hockey-crazed cities in the northeast: Toronto, Buffalo (home of the Bandits) and Philadelphia (home of the Wings), as well as Rochester, NY (home of the Knighthawks). The league also has five western region teams: Calgary, Colorado (home of the Mammoth), Edmonton (home of the Rush), Minnesota (home of the Swarm) and Washington (home of the Stealth).
The Buffalo Bandits, four-time champs, are led by Mark Steenhuis and John Tavares (the uncle of the New York Islanders forward of the same name). Tavares has been the team's heart and soul since its inaugural season, and even at age 43 shows no signs of leaving the game. Tavares is the game's Wayne Gretzky, leading the league's all-time stats for goals, assists, points and games played.
The Philadelphia Wings, the league's oldest team (they started playing in 1987), hold six titles. They recently made headlines by asking for league approval to replace players' names on their jersey with their Twitter handles as part of an auction for the American Cancer Society. They picked up defenseman Brodie Merrill, who was named "the best player in the world" by Inside Lacrosse magazine, from Edmonton in the off-season.
The Toronto Rock has been strong for the past two years, and looks stronger yet with the addition of six-time NLL All-Pro Josh Sanderson - who just happens to be the son of General Manager Terry Sanderson and cousin of teammate Phil Sanderson.
The Rochester Knighthawks are going with a young team after trading three of its veterans last season: John Grant Jr., Shawn Williams and Shawn Evans. Add to that the uncertainty of whether Casey Powell, picked up in the Boston dispersal draft, will play this season, and the Knighthawks are the NLL's wild card for 2012.
Out west, the Calgary Roughnecks hope to surprise the rest of the league again, but it's likely that they're onto the Roughnecks. The team didn't lose anyone in the off-season, so the other teams will pretty much know what's coming.
The Minnesota Swarm is loaded with new faces and rookies - the current lineup averages less than two years experience in the league. The offense is led by Ryan Benesch and Callum Crawford, and the most experienced defender on the team is Richard Morgan (eight seasons).
Rochester's loss is the Colorado Mammoth gain: Grant Jr. is returning to Colorado, joined by Gavin Prout and Alex Gajic. The defense gave up the fewest goals in the West in 2011 (172), but made a few moves to improve the position; the offense, in spite of Grant Jr. and company, needs a little more help, as they scored just 151 goals last season - second-fewest in the league.
The Washington Stealth were runners-up for the league title last year, and a stellar offense led by Lewis Ratcliff and Rhys Duch was a big reason why. The team added rookie Brett Hickey, who scored 50 goals and added 77 assists last season as a member of the Windsor (Ontario) Jr. B Clippers, for some added scoring power.
The Edmonton Rush traded physical defenseman Merrill to Philadelphia in the off-season, along with forwards Dean Hill and Mike McLellan and two draft picks, picking up forwards Athan Ianucci and Alex Turner plus goalie Brodie MacDonald and three draft picks. They've rebuilt after a dismal 5-11 season in 2011.
The National Lacrosse League recently signed a television deal with CBS Sports Network, beginning April 7th; the eight-game series will feature four regular-season games and four playoff games, including the championship game on Saturday, May 19th.
Paula is a life-long resident of Buffalo, New York and a long-time fan of the NLL's Buffalo Bandits.
