Playoff Picture

[McMinnesotaFan]

My Swarm got absolutely screwed by the officials last night to give Buffalo the win, and the leg up for the playoff race.


What are your predications as to who will make the playoffs?

[Shootmaster_44]

This is how I envision the playoffs shaping up:

First Round:
East Semi-Final
Toronto beats Rochester
Buffalo beats Minnesota

West Semi-Final
Arizona beats Colorado
Calgary beats Portland

Second Round:
East Final
Toronto beats Buffalo

West Final
Calgary beats Arizona

Third Round:
Champions Cup Final
Toronto beats Calgary

I realize the Rock haven't been playing their best lax as of late, but in past years they seem to forget about the regular season and soar come playoff time.

[McMinnesotaFan]

Cool thanks for the insight - do you have a team that you are pulling for?

After last nights tilt v the Rock, the Swarm are clearly in a better position to at least make the playoffs. That'll be nice.

[BCRantzilla]

Until someone actually takes them out, the Rock are still the champions and have to be taken seriously. I consider them the prohibative favorites come playoff time as a result.

[McMinnesotaFan]

But the loss in Minnesota put the Rock's future in doubt. Having said that I think they are the toughest team I've seen here.

Seen too much of Rochester and was not terribly impressed.

Buffalo's appearance was marred to say the least.

New question: Is there any hope of going to best of three? Friday -H, Sat A, Sunday if necessary?

[BCRantzilla]

The NLL tried a best of 3 final in 1998, (Philadelphia vs. Baltimore,) in an attempt to spur interest with the old MILL tv deal with ESPN2 dying the year before. Unfortunately it suffered from very poor attendance in Baltimore. (The Wings drew as well as they usually do but the experiment failed to accomplish what they wanted to achieve that year.)

Professional lacrosse seems to have a set pattern in which they schedule games and the mostly US audience has grown accustomed to it. The way the OLA and WLA schedule seasons is in the summer without the NHL or NBA in mind. Whereas the MILL/MILL was always treated as "The NHL on a day off". This leaves little time for NLL games when the NHL has so many home dates in most NLL cities. (Especially Denver, Toronto and Philadelphia who have the NHL AND the NBA in the same arena as them.) I like the single game playoff format but I wish they would try to hype the big dance a bit more. A hype week would drum up more interest and an extra game or two.

[Shootmaster_44]

Cool thanks for the insight - do you have a team that you are pulling for?

After last nights tilt v the Rock, the Swarm are clearly in a better position to at least make the playoffs. That'll be nice.

I am a Rock fan, even though I live much closer to Edmonton and Calgary than Toronto.

[Shootmaster_44]

I like the single game playoff format but I wish they would try to hype the big dance a bit more. A hype week would drum up more interest and an extra game or two.

I think the single game format is a good idea too. I think the hype behind the dance will occur once the NLL gets bigger exposure on Canadian TV and more teams.

I still find it strange that Sportsnet thinks so little of the NLL as a whole to show only Rock games on Snet Ontario/East and Rush/Roughnecks games only on Snet West. While I applaud the NLL for getting more games shown on TV, I still think the NLL would be better suited if Sportsnet would show all these games nationally. As much as I wasn't a huge fan of their coverage, I still miss the days when The Score carried Rock (and occassionally Ottawa Rebel) games nationally.

[iowastate]

Toronto should Roll into the championship match and not have any trouble until they meet Portland who also shouldn't have any trouble in the West. Then they'll have a good title game.:D

[McMinnesotaFan]

But it can be done with goaltending and that's what's next for them.

Swarm out in one - good season though.

[CrimsonCross]

I would not count your team the Swarm out, Buffalo (my team) could really fall flat after losing twice to Rochester and losing Chugger was bad last Friday... I'm hoping for the best for my Bandits, I'll be at the game...

[rams80]

I would not count your team the Swarm out, Buffalo (my team) could really fall flat after losing twice to Rochester and losing Chugger was bad last Friday... I'm hoping for the best for my Bandits, I'll be at the game...

If you look closely, you will note that those posts are a year old.

[CrimsonCross]

If you look closely, you will note that those posts are a year old.

Yeah I noticed that after I posted, alot of threads on here are real old... not much traffic for some of the board, anyway...

[McMinnesotaFan]

The response for this year was appreciated.

[Pounder]

Do you want me to point you to a board that gets more traffic?

Is there an over/under on how long it takes for this post to get removed? :D

[McMinnesotaFan]

Sure go ahead.