Crystal Ball: 2012 NLL Season

I'm getting very excited for the start of the 2012 National Lacrosse League season. I just listened to the podcast of the first episode of Toronto Rock Total Access; I watched some of the guys on CP24 this morning, and last night I read Andrew McKay's piece on Matt Roik. I'm unbelievably excited, even more so because my oldest nephew is coming down for his first game on Sunday.

Since I nailed my playoff predictions last year (stupid Boston), I figure I might as well gaze into the crystal ball again before the season starts. This isn't rocket science, because only one team in the entire league will miss the playoffs. In fact, teams could start clinching playoff spots as early as the All Star Break at the end of February. What amuses me the most about the number of teams making the playoffs is that two (or more) teams could go winless this season, and one of them would still get into the playoffs using the goals for / against tiebreaker.  Check out my predictions after the break.

Toes in the Crease

What a weekend in the National Lacrosse League.

The Battle for First Overall in the National Lacrosse League

After a several week layoff, the Toronto Rock are back in action Friday night at 9:30pm real time (7:30pm Calgary time) against the Calgary Roughnecks. Those of you lucky enough to have TSN2 can catch the game live, the rest of us will have to watch on the NLL Network. The picture and feed quality on the NLL Network have been very good this season, so it's actually nothing to scoff at unless you have a restrictive usage meter or are using dial-up.

Rock Clinch 2011 Playoff Berth

With the Calgary thumping of Philadelphia on Saturday night, the Rock are guaranteed a playoff spot. I know, I'm sounding like a broken record, since I wrote about it here and here.