It’s hard to describe what Josh Byrne did to the Philadelphia Wings defense on Saturday.
It isn’t because people weren’t paying attention, because they were. It’s the fact that they couldn’t believe the wizardry they saw from the 2024 NLL MVP.
Byrne had six goals in less than 28 minutes, giving him a first-half sock trick and doubling his previous season high in goals (3), outscoring the Wings 6-5 in the half by himself. Byrne’s performance tied his career highs in goals (7) and points (12).
Byrne’s teammate, Chase Fraser, even had a hard time describing the performance, though he did have one word to describe Byrne’s contribution to the Buffalo Bandits’ 19-14 win – magic.
“He’s magic. It’s his world at that time when he’s in that mode and everything just flows right for him and it’s magic. It’s just awesome to see,” Fraser said. “Art in another way. It’s amazing just to be a part of it too in the whole offensive scheme that we all have here.”
Byrne was effortlessly scoring goals at will throughout the first half, each time managing to find the one part of the goal that Wings goalkeeper Nick Damude wasn’t covering.
On his seventh and final goal of the game, with the left side of his body being cut off by Philadelphia defender Tony Malcom, Byrne switched to his right hand and shot underhanded with just one hand on the stick, managing to slip it past Damude’s right pad.
Josh Byrne just finding new ways to score… 😱#LetsGoBandits | @Joshbyrne94 pic.twitter.com/sEAiuZ9Ist
— Buffalo Bandits (@NLLBandits) January 19, 2025
Byrne credited his pinpoint shooting to being in a flow state, an increased state of focus.
“You hear guys like Stephen Curry and LeBron James, and they talk about a flow state. It’s like you’re not really pressing, you’re not really trying too hard, it’s just like everything’s kind of just working,” Byrne said. “If you go back and watch a lot of those goals like, I didn’t really have to do a whole lot, and a lot of the guys were setting seals and setting picks.”
As a result of the flow state and the timely seals and picks his teammates were setting for him, Byrne’s first six goals came on just seven shots.
Not many players in NLL history have had the kind of accuracy and power that Byrne’s showcased throughout his career. Byrne’s head coach, John Tavares, is a part of that exclusive club, knowing what it feels like when every shot is going in.
“A lot of it was the seals and picks they were setting for Josh to create a lot of confusion and give guys like Josh an opportunity to shoot the ball,” Tavares said. “When he was shooting, he was picking corners, and he just couldn’t miss, but the reason was because he had time to shoot.”
Then in the second half, Byrne flipped his game, focusing on becoming a facilitator rather than a scorer.
Byrne had a hat-trick of assists in the second half, bringing his total for the game to five and his total on the year to 29 through five games, the sixth most in the league.
“It’s understanding that when you’re scoring a lot, teams start to become hyper-aware of it and the goalie starts maybe stepping out a little bit, he wants to cut down the angle on you,” Byrne said. “So, any time that you can take advantage of stuff like that, at the end of the day it’s really just taking what the defense gives you.”
Coming off a career year for Byrne in which he racked up 82 assists as part of a record-breaking 135-point season, he’s been setting up his teammates with greater efficiency this season. Last season, Byrne had 4.55 assists per game, but this season he’s had 5.8 — 1.25 more assists per game than the 2023-24 season and 2.36 more than the next closest season average.
On top of that, he’s had nine points per game, putting him on pace to have 162 points this season, smashing the record he set last season. Probability says that he’ll fall off the pace but with Byrne, probabilities might not apply — he’s magic.
At the press conference following the game, even despite all that the magician managed to do against the Wings, Byrne kept a straight face and a nonchalant tone of voice as if 12-point games are the status quo for him.
“It’s just another day, man. Nothing’s going to change,” Byrne said. “Tomorrow, you have to start recovering again and Monday, the same thing, go to the gym, get our shots up, get physio, get PT. It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. We have to keep doing what you know has made us successful and like I said, that’s our process and that’s our routine.”