Now is the time to ride. But follow instructions.
Like the ride attendant on the bumper cars, who voices, “Put your right foot on the pedal, go one direction only, no head-on collisions, no bouncing off the side rails. Here you go.”
And here we go with the Bandits preparing to bump and bang their way up the NLL standings. The club closes their first half of the season Friday night in Halifax against the surging Thunderbirds.
Both the Bandits and Thunderbirds are tied for fourth place. Halifax has won three straight, and the Bandits have won two straight, including four of their last five games.
This is an incredibly competitive league, with every team mounting solid attacks in the unified standings.
Like “Project Runway,” the reality TV show mantra: One day you’re in, the next day you’re out.
“The new unified standings make things more interesting week to week,” said Bandits coach John Tavares.
“If you lose a game, you could be out of a playoff spot. We need to earn consecutive victories, create space between teams, and make the playoffs. We need to do that.”
And that was the battle cry from assistant captain Nick Weiss, rising from his sweat-laden dressing room slot after their hold-your-breath win on February 3, demanding the team learn to close out games.
“Every game is so important. We have three losses, and there are a lot of teams behind with just four losses, and it can switch just like that,” said Brandon Robinson.
“Looking over the tie-breakers, there will be a lot of teams tied at the end of the year, so you must take advantage of head-to-head games. It’s just going to get more competitive as the weeks go on.”
It will get tougher for the Bandits, as sixty percent of their remaining games, including four of the last five, will be played on the road.
Prepare for Departure
In the next two months, including Friday night’s venture to Halifax, the Bandits will travel 7,868 air miles to enemy venues, and that’s not including the personal drive time to Toronto and Buffalo airfields.
We are talking three and two-time zone changes a whack. That alone can be a clear disadvantage, but quite frankly, not for the National Lacrosse League defending champions.
Every player on the roster wouldn’t want to have it any other way, what with their talent and determination.
“Great moments are born from great opportunity.”
That’s what lies before the club, which includes rematches with Albany, Toronto, and Colorado. Every team will be at their best against the Bandits, bumping and banging their way to the top to host a playoff game.
Game nine, Friday night, needs to be the mark where the team can look back at the end of the regular season and say that’s when they started to close out games and dominate.
Keep the pedal down, heading in the right direction.
Brandon Helping
Brandon Robinson continues to help out on the turf in any way he can. The fifth-year burly forward jumped back on defense when his brother, Justin, went down with an injury earlier in the season. He did it on his own accord, making himself available to a depleted force.
Back on offense, Robinson’s physical presence has helped tremendously, including crafty goal-scoring of late. His right-handed plop over the shoulder of Toronto’s Nick Rose on January 27 comes to mind.
“I do it a lot in practice for fun. It just happened to be the right moment, with last-minute instincts, not really thinking too much about it,” said Robinson, who has six goals and five assists.
Goals for Mental Health
Off the turf, one thing Robinson does think about is supporting athletes with mental health challenges.
At the start of this season, Robinson teamed up with non-profit Morgan’s Message to help normalize the struggles of athletes who suffer through mental anguish when rehabbing an injury.
Through his new program, titled Goals for Mental Health, Robinson has pledged $1 for each goal scored in the NLL this season. Almost at the halfway mark with NLL goals scored, that translates into $1,438.00 for Morgan’s Message.
Morgan’s Message was created in honor of Morgan Rodgers, a Division I lacrosse player from Duke, who died by suicide in 2019.
“I don’t like the attention personally. I like to fly under the radar. I take pride in trying to be a good teammate,” Robinson said.
“Being recognized is nice, but I am just excited to be a part of this team and do whatever I can to help us win every night.”
Represents the great character this club has.
Broadcast Information
Friday night’s game from Halifax will be available on ESPN+ and TSN+, and locally on CW23, with the broadcast time set for 6:30 p.m. Radio coverage of the game will be on 1520 The Bet and audacy.com. The pregame show will start at 6 p.m.
If you want to listen to the Bandits radio broadcast, you can freeze the digital TV coverage right at the assembly of the opening faceoff.
This will allow me to catch up with the radio audio (about seven seconds behind) when the two sticks are clasped at the center dot for the draw. Unfreeze your TV with the sound down and the radio signal on your app or regular radio up.