Wow, Those Colors
Well, now, Friday night’s game in Halifax was certainly colorful, what with the Marvel Super Hero Night uniforms the Thunderbirds and Bandits wore. It was way out of the order of what we’ve ever seen.
You can say that about the Bandit’s 14-12 loss to Halifax: Way out of the ordinary after building an 8-2 lead in the game.
“The frustrating part now, through 9 games, we are getting beat the same ways, so we are trying to figure things out,” said Bandits GM and defensive coordinator Steve Dietrich.
“We don’t have the tiebreaker with Georgia, New York, and Halifax, so we need to be a game ahead of them from here on out.”
The Bandits might have been physically shot, facing the Thunderbirds with 31 draws coming into the defensive zone. Players like Priolo, Weiss, and Spanger continue to be on the turf a lot.
There is only so much you can do with Ryan Benesch, the purest goal scorer in the game today, who netted five goals for the Thunderbirds last Friday night.
“We need more people we can rely on, and right now, we just don’t have it, and maybe that’s my fault because I don’t put enough trust in the other guys, and maybe that’s what’s happening in the fourth quarter when I ride those guys, and they’ve got nothing left,” said Dietrich.
The defensive group continues to work on cleaning things up, erasing the mental breakdowns, and putting together a full sixty minutes on the backend.
“We hung Matt out to dry too many times. He’s been there to make some big saves for us. Many people point to numbers, and the numbers are not where they should be for him or our defense.”
The offense continues with a 12-goal average. The transition is converting and taking several chances (Priolo scoring, Weiss and Spanger with two assists Friday night). The loose balls are being scooped (Ian MacKay had 14 last Friday night, which gave him 500 for his career), shots are being blocked, and turnovers are created.
But on defense, it’s always going to come down to locking things down, closing out the game to win and not to lose.
“I think we are doing all the right things. It will just be a matter of time before we click. But, it’s really a focus for us defensively just shutting things down, not relying on our offense to score 12-15 goals a game,” noted Spanger.
Throughout the season, Dietrich and the staff have been scouring talent elsewhere to make improvements, including evaluating and elevating the younger players within, like Zack Belter and Sam La Roue, and getting Frank Brown and Adam Bomberry back.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but if things continue on the path that they have been, we’re going to start seeing the younger guys, or we’re going to make some trades.”
“We have three first-round picks and three second-round picks, so we have lots of ammunition,” noted Dietrich.
Other notes from the stat column
Justin Martin played in his 100th career game, all with the Bandits. His athletic prowess comes from his grandfather, Peter, and father, PJ, who both played in the Canadian Football League with Toronto.
Nick Weiss is on a five-game point streak of 2+11. Steve Priolo is one caused-turnover away from 250, which will make him only the fourth player in NLL history to achieve that mark.
Kyle Buchanan has back-to-back hat tricks. Chase Fraser has scored two-plus goals in seven straight games, which includes back-to-back four-goal games.
Dhane Smith has nine six-plus point games, including a season-high nine points last Friday night. Smith leads the league in assists with 50 and power play assists with 14.
Josh Byrne has eight six-plus point games, including five hat tricks. Chris Cloutier is 5+10 in his previous three games and four goals shy of 100 for his career.
Native American Heritage Night with Special Jerseys
Saturday’s game against the FireWolves will be the annual Native American Night, horning the tribes on the Niagara Frontier and their dedication to lacrosse. The Bandit Native American Scholarship will be presented as well.
The Bandits will wear special Native American Heritage jerseys designed by Frank Brown’s sister, Alyson Brown.
BID ON NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE JERSEYS HERE
The explanation of the Bandits Native American Heritage jersey is paraphrased from Ms. Brown.
Buffalo Došo:Wëh – the O elongates the pronunciation of “oooo” while the accented “š” makes a “Shh” sound and the accented “ë” is nasalized.
The “Dust Fan” design on the shoulder of the jersey is representation of the great white pine tree. The significance of the belt of white pine came about during war amongst the nations people. It was said the planting of the white pine established peace amongst the nations and formed what is today the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
It was believed at that moment the men buried their weapons and picked up a lacrosse stick and played the first peaceful game of lacrosse.
The design on the back of the jersey represents the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 between the newly formed United States and the Chiefs across the Confederacy. This established a friendship between to two nations and recognized sovereignty of the Six Nations to govern and set laws as individual nations.
The quote on the tail of the jersey is from Seneca Chief Red Jacket on the treaty.
The Clans of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy are illustrated on the sides of the jersey.
Every Child Matters
The best NLL initiative ever in its 36-year history is the “Every Child Matters” campaign, calling for awareness and sometimes difficult discussion of the forcible placement of Indigenous children in residential and boarding schools by the Canadian and US governments from the 1860s to 1996.
Now, in the third year, every team will wear a specially designed Every Child Matters decal on their helmets for the remainder of the season. There will be ongoing awareness of the atrocities that occurred and continued reconciliation on all platforms, including TV and radio through March 10.
Broadcast Saturday
The Bandits vs. FireWolves game will be televised on CW23, My4 Albany, ESPN+ and TSN+. Broadcast time is set for 7:30 p.m. Radio coverage will be provided by 1520 AM The Bet, with the pregame show starting at 7 p.m.
Steve Bermel will join me in the booth, while Dave Buchanan will be between the benches.