NLL Power Rankings: Week 8

  • By Aaron Lommers Herald Writer
  • Thursday, March 8, 2012 8:53am
  • SportsSports

1. Colorado Mammoth (7-1), After the one hiccup in the road, the Mammoth have bounced right back and still have a firm grasp on first place in the West Division. John Grant Jr. has taken Player of the Month honors for both January and February and looks to be running away with the league’s MVP award.

2. Minnesota Swarm (5-3), Evan Kirk looks to be a dominant goalkeeper in this league and the young Swarm are lurking in the West. If Minnesota can secure a home playoff game, look out they might be poised for a playoff run.

3. Calgary Roughnecks (5-3), The Roughnecks have the same record as the Swarm, but the Minnesota thoroughly outplayed Calgary last weekend. Calgary has certainly been one of the better teams this season, but the upstarts Colorado and Minnesota might be better.

4. Philadelphia Wings (4-4), We finally get to an East Division team, the Wings lost another chance to take hold of first place in the East on Saturday, falling to Rochester 11-8. With that said, the Wings are tied with Toronto for first place and the Rock happen to be the team’s next opponent.

5. Toronto Rock (4-4), The Rock suffered an embarrassing loss at home to the Washington Stealth, but just a hunch, that loss won’t look so bad in about three weeks.

6. Rochester Knighthawks (4-5), If only Rochester could play at Philadelphia every single week. The Knighthawks seem to own the Wings in Philly, but need to pick it up elsewhere to have a chance to take over the East Division lead. It does seem the Knighthawks are flying under the radar a bit. They are just a 1/2 game out of first place in the East, but no one seems to be talking about them. It might not be a bad position to be in.

7. Washington Stealth (2-6), Maybe I’m getting a little too excited by the Stealth showing some signs of life that I moved them up two spots, but I think last weekend is the type of game that turns around a season. The Stealth have Chris Hall back, they are close to being healthy and a healthy Stealth team could make some noise. If you need a reference point, just look at last season.

8. Edmonton Rush (2-4), The Rush had the weekend off and all reports say they are still trying to find a buyer for Paul Rabil.

9. Buffalo Bandits (2-5), The free fall for the Bandits continue last weekend with yet another loss. If’s quickly looking like the Bandits might be the team on the outside looking in come playoff time.

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