By Aaron Lommers Herald Writer
1. Colorado Mammoth (8-2), The Mammoth split the home-and-home series with the Washington Stealth last weekend, but they did it without John Grant Jr., the league’s leading scorer. With that said though, the Stealth had an opportunity to take both games from the Mammoth which would have Calgary and Colorado tied atop the West. The Mammoth are still the best team in the league, especially when they are at full strength, but the gap between them and others appears to be closing.
2. Calgary Roughnecks (7-3), Calgary did what the Mammoth couldn’t do last weekend, sweep its home-and-home series. The Roughnecks beat Edmonton twice and Calgary is now just one game back of the Mammoth and thinking about getting home field advantage in the playoffs.
3. Minnesota Swarm (5-3), The Swarm were idle last weekend, but they get Buffalo this weekend with a chance to close the gap on Calgary and Colorado. Everybody’s eyes may be on the Roughnecks and the Mammoth, but the Swarm are lurking right in the mix.
4. Philadelphia Wings (5-4), The Wings record is still not where they probably want it to be, but a big win over Toronto last weekend has them on top of the East Division once again.
5. Rochester Knighthawks (5-5), The Knighthawks took care of business last Saturday against Buffalo and are now just a 1/2 game out of first place in the East. This is another team that is right in the thick of the playoff race that doesn’t seem to be getting a whole lot of attention.
6. Toronto Rock (4-5), The Rock failed to take advantage of an opportunity to take over first place in the East against Philly and because of that they now find themselves in third place in the East. The good news is that there are several games left and the teams are tightly bunched together.
7. Washington Stealth (3-7), It was a good week for the Stealth. They got a split against the league’s best team, their offense finally showed up to play and goalkeeper Tyler Richards returned from injury. I have said if the Stealth are healthy they are very dangerous and they are almost healthy.
8. Edmonton Rush (2-6), A season that started with so much promise for the Rush is now looking like it is headed in the wrong direction. The Stealth have surpassed them to get out of the cellar in the West and time is starting to tick down on the Rush.
9. Buffalo Bandits (2-6), The only place worse to be in the National Lacrosse League right now than Edmonton is Buffalo. The Bandits have been reeling for weeks and now as other teams, like the Stealth, start to get rolling, the Bandits need to put together some wins or they could be out of the playoff hunt. Playing two games this weekend, we will know a lot more about where Buffalo stands on Monday.
