I jokingly tweeted last night that I had about 9,000 thoughts and none of them could fit into 140 characters. My buddy Tim suggested I blog about it. This is my first blog since October of 2014 on here, so I obviously haven't been very good at this. That being said, if people want to read my thoughts, maybe I'll keep these going.
First, we'll look at the Bandits 2016 season. I remember fending off tweets from people about the roster that Bandits GM Steve Dietrich had put together. People felt something more needed to be done to get the Bandits over the hump and make themselves a competitor in the NLL. Some of this may have been fueled by peoples' exhaustion from finishing behind the Toronto Rock and Rochester Knighthawks for years in the NLL. Bandits fans may have had a bit of a "little brother" feeling to those two East Division rivals. Furthermore, the Bandits dropped back-to-back games to the previously winless Rock and the Georgia Swarm and dropped to 4-4 on the year. Concern was high, perhaps rightfully so.
But then this team went on a tear. They didn't lose again until a bit of a "stinker" (as Ryan Benesch called it) about two months later to the Rock. The Bandits finished the regular season 9-1 after their 4-4 start and sealed the top seed in the NLL. Adding to the successful season that the Bandits had was the surprising struggles the Rock and Knighthawks faced. After sending Buffalo out of the playoffs for the past 8 years or so, they both missed the postseason and finished in the bottom of the East Division.
There were a ton of achievements for the Bandits in 2016, as well. Goaltender Anthony Cosmo broke the all time saves record and the all time record for minutes played by an NLL goaltender. Dhane Smith smashed just about every offensive record in the book and was scoring at a pace of 8+ points a game. The Bandits also set a new record for regular season wins, aided by the now 18 game season.
The Bandits swept the New England Black Wolves in the second round of the playoffs and showed why they deserved to be in the championship, scoring 20 goals in the last game of the East Division Finals.
Let's switch gears to the Champion's Cup series,
Buffalo came into the series having scored 25% of their goals off the sticks of non-forwards. The Bandits defense seems to be built of players who are quick to get the ball up the floor in transition and finish at the other end. The Saskatchewan Rush were able to negate that transition game from Buffalo for the most part, which I think is the biggest reason they hoisted the Cup again.
There were a lot of frustrations with the way game 2 panned out, but I think the bigger loss was game 1 at home. If all went to plan, Buffalo wins game 1 and has a bit of wiggle room knowing that home floor advantage was still in their favor.
Buffalo came up just short in game 1. When the score was 8-8, shots were 39 apiece. When the score was 9-9, shots were 44 apiece. The game couldn't have been closer. Buffalo just failed to hang on to a late lead and it cost them. More significantly, back to the transition point, I can only recall one goal scored in transition of the 9 Buffalo scored. Dhane had a good night with 3G, 3A against perhaps the toughest defensive unit the NLL has to offer, but the secondary scoring didn't come from the usual suspects pushing numbers up the floor.
Game 2 was a similar story. No team ever led by more than 2 goals at any point. Tight doesn't begin to describe the game or the series. Unfortunately, the game came down to a bounce with seconds to go. Buffalo had possession with about 27 seconds to go on the shot clock and about 32 seconds on he game clock. A shot attempt early in the possession took a hard bounce off the back boards and Jeff Cornwall found himself on a 2-on-0 break. He never looked to pass and instead buried his shot far side with 12 seconds to go. The Bandits got the ball on a faceoff procedure (I think the ball got stuck in the back of Jeremy Thompson's stick, which is a violation) with 8 seconds to go but failed to tie the game.
Were there goals that Cosmo and defense would've liked to have back? Certainly. Were there chances that the Bandits offense could have and should have buried? Definitely, lots of credit is due to the series MVP, Aaron Bold here. I'm sure the coaches and players would say that themselves.
Ultimately, if you try to think of the reasons the Bandits lost, you might go insane. I think the bigger factor than Buffalo losing the series was the Rush winning the series. I know, I sound like an idiot but bare with me. Over the course of 2 games, the Rush were 3 late goals better than Buffalo. If the games were 15 minutes longer, I bet the Bandits either win by one or two or lose by one or two. By no means was either team going to run away with the games. They were too evenly matched. The Rush proved to be a *little* bit better in both games.
Undoubtably, the two best teams met in the NLL Finals. It was an amazing display of the best that the NLL has to offer: speed, scoring, physicality, goaltending and competition.
What a great season it was and the future is bright for both the Bandits and Rush.
Steve lives in Tonawanda with his wife. He's been attending NLL games for over 20 years and has covered the league for eight seasons.
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