Let's go Bandits! The quest for a 3-Peat has begun

[Big Guava]

Was at the game last night and man it was a tooth and nail battle the entire way.

Very physical, refs let them play and very low scoring.

Bandits took a 5-2 lead into the half with an amazing set piece behind the net goal with 0.1 second left on the clock.

Then they never scored again. But they also limited San Diego to only 1 goal in the second half before they scored their final goal with 1 second left to make it a 5-4 final.

Matt Vinc has 48 saves and was looking like prime Dominik Hasek out there with several unbelievable saves.

Bandits even managed to kill off a 5-3 power play(thanks in part to San Diego taking their own penalty about 40 seconds into it).

Definitely one of the more stressful and low scoring games I have ever been at for the Bandits. Goals were at a premium and it never seemed like either team could to truly ever gain any real momentum.

Even moreso because the first round is a single elimination game before the next two series are best of 3.

But the usual sell out crowd saw them pull off the win and advance to the next round...

Let's Go Bandits!!

Edited Saturday at 02:34 PM by Big Guava

[SwampD]

That is an unbelievable lacrosse score.

[Derrico]

Right?!  Couldn’t believe how low it was.  Would be fun to get to another game before the end.  

[Taro T]

22 minutes ago, Derrico said:

Right?!  Couldn’t believe how low it was.  Would be fun to get to another game before the end.  

Can't stand the Kin-ig-hit Hawks but hoping for them to win in Vancouver tonight.  Was at the pasting the Bandits gave them last year in the 1st round.  Would be fun to see the Bandits in the bad guys' barn again.  (Went to both Bandit-Hawks games this year; fun times.)

[PromoTheRobot]

11 hours ago, SwampD said:

That is an unbelievable lacrosse score.

They won despite being shut out the entire second half. Crazy.

[PromoTheRobot]

So Halifax, Saskatchewan and Vancouver all won their games. Vancouver comes to Buffalo.

[JohnC]

6 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

So Halifax, Saskatchewan and Vancouver all won their games. Vancouver comes to Buffalo.

Are all home games usually sold out? What are the ticket prices for Bandit games?

[PromoTheRobot]

45 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Are all home games usually sold out? What are the ticket prices for Bandit games?

Friday's game was 17,500. Good crowd but not sold out.

 

[JohnC]

If the Sabres become a relevant team, I’m sure the house will be mostly filled and the place rocking and rolling.

Thanks for the ticket offer. I’m in Maryland. I do appreciate your generosity.

Edited 8 hours ago by JohnC

[PromoTheRobot]

38 minutes ago, JohnC said:

If the Sabres become a relevant team, I’m sure the house will be mostly filled and the place rocking and rolling.

Thanks for the ticket offer. I’m in Maryland. I do appreciate your generosity.

You should attend a Bandits game once. The fanbase has it's own unique culture and traditions. It's something to experience. They are the Patriots/Celtics/Yankees of the NLL. I'm sure other team's players are envious of what Buffalo created. No other franchise in the NLL has that level of success and support.

[matter2003]

3 hours ago, JohnC said:

Are all home games usually sold out? What are the ticket prices for Bandit games?

Bandits averaged 18,470 this year(up from 16,974 last year) for their 9 home games, by far the highest in the NLL and almost 6,400 per game higher than the 2nd place Calgary Roughnecks with 12,076. These were the only two teams averaging more than 10K per game, league average was 7,833. 

They outdraw the Sabres significantly, and it's not hard to understand why.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by matter2003

[Taro T]

4 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

So Halifax, Saskatchewan and Vancouver all won their games. Vancouver comes to Buffalo.

 

Vancouver ended the year on a crazy good run.  They won their last 7 (including last night over the Kin-ig-hit Hawks).  In those 7 games, they've only trailed for 3:38 seconds and THAT came in Banditland in a game the Warriors won by 1 (believe it was 14-13, maybe it was 13-12).  

The Bandits will need to bring their A-game to beat these guys.  Was really hoping Ra-cha-cha would find a way to beat them but they got dominated early and Hartley was having serious problems as Vancouver kept getting very high danger chances.  It was 9-3 at the 1/2 and the KH's could never get it back to closer than a 3 goal game though they did have a couple of glorious chances to get it back to only 2 but the post was not their friend last night.

If the Bandits can get a couple goal (or ideally 3 or 4) lead, it could be that the Warriors would crack under the pressure of actually trailing; but if Vancouver gets a lead, the Bandits will have to really bear down to get back.

Should be 2 good series.

[Big Guava]

8 minutes ago, Taro T said:

 

Vancouver ended the year on a crazy good run.  They won their last 7 (including last night over the Kin-ig-hit Hawks).  In those 7 games, they've only trailed for 3:38 seconds and THAT came in Banditland in a game the Warriors won by 1 (believe it was 14-13, maybe it was 13-12).  

The Bandits will need to bring their A-game to beat these guys.  Was really hoping Ra-cha-cha would find a way to beat them but they got dominated early and Hartley was having serious problems as Vancouver kept getting very high danger chances.  It was 9-3 at the 1/2 and the KH's could never get it back to closer than a 3 goal game though they did have a couple of glorious chances to get it back to only 2 but the post was not their friend last night.

If the Bandits can get a couple goal (or ideally 3 or 4) lead, it could be that the Warriors would crack under the pressure of actually trailing; but if Vancouver gets a lead, the Bandits will have to really bear down to get back.

Should be 2 good series.

Bandit defense is stifling in the playoffs usually...was last year, has been again this year.

If they score like they normally do, they should take care of business.

Edited 6 hours ago by Big Guava

[JohnC]

5 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

You should attend a Bandits game once. The fanbase has it's own unique culture and traditions. It's something to experience. They are the Patriots/Celtics/Yankees of the NLL. I'm sure other team's players are envious of what Buffalo created. No other franchise in the NLL has that level of success and support.

I get so angry and disgusted thinking what this fool owner has done to degrade the potential of this hockey market. He, more than anyone else, is responsible for the current state of affairs of this franchise. And he acting with some basic common sense can right the sunken ship by getting the right people to steer it back on course.

Edited 1 hour ago by JohnC

[Taro T]

3 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

Bandit defense is stifling in the playoffs usually...was last year, has been again this year.

If they score like they normally do, they should take care of business.

It TYPCIALLY is.  No Spanger nor Sweeting this year.  They do still have Weiss, Priolo, Dawson, Robinson, and Martin back there.  But those are 2 really important guys (1 of which hasn't been there at all this year) and when the 2nd one went down along with Weiss for a few games is when the 7-0 Bandits started to lose close games.

Their D was absolutely lights out on Friday.  (Which was a VERY pleasant yet unexpected turn.)  There was only a mispositioning on 1 of the goals against, they soaked a ton of shots, and they seemingly gathered every loose ball.  They'll need to bring that again this Friday.  

[PromoTheRobot]

Just now, Taro T said:

It TYPCIALLY is.  No Spanger nor Sweeting this year.  They do still have Weiss, Priolo, Dawson, Robinson, and Martin back there.  But those are 2 really important guys (1 of which hasn't been there at all this year) and when the 2nd one went down along with Weiss for a few games is when the 7-0 Bandits started to lose close games.

Their D was absolutely lights out on Friday.  (Which was a VERY pleasant yet unexpected turn.)  There was only a mispositioning on 1 of the goals against, they soaked a ton of shots, and they seemingly gathered every loose ball.  They'll need to bring that again this Friday.  

Be glad he isn't interested in lacrosse and football too.

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Be glad he isn't interested in lacrosse and football too.

Who's he?  Guava, Pegula, John?

[PromoTheRobot]

1 minute ago, Taro T said:

Who's he?  Guava, Pegula, John?

Terry.

[Big Guava]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

It TYPCIALLY is.  No Spanger nor Sweeting this year.  They do still have Weiss, Priolo, Dawson, Robinson, and Martin back there.  But those are 2 really important guys (1 of which hasn't been there at all this year) and when the 2nd one went down along with Weiss for a few games is when the 7-0 Bandits started to lose close games.

Their D was absolutely lights out on Friday.  (Which was a VERY pleasant yet unexpected turn.)  There was only a mispositioning on 1 of the goals against, they soaked a ton of shots, and they seemingly gathered every loose ball.  They'll need to bring that again this Friday.  

Hopefully Chris Cloutier is back for them this week...he plays an important role on offense for them.

Their D is typically just different in the playoffs...it's hard for other teams to get clean looks on goal...last year was the same thing.

Edited 3 hours ago by Big Guava

[Taro T]

45 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

Hopefully Chris Cloutier is back for them this week...he plays an important role on offense for them.

Their D is typically just different in the playoffs...it's hard for other teams to get clean looks on goal...last year was the same thing.

Definitely, they really tighten up on D in the playoffs.  But before Weiss and the other one went down, they were playing RS as tightly as they do in the playoffs.  And they were seriously rolling.  Bringing in Matisse (sp?) and Ron John didn't really get them back to form until Weiss came back and then he reinjured his leg down the stretch but is back again.

But will say, after watching them down the stretch, didn't expect them to play as well as they did Friday night.  If anyone has ESPN+ but didn't watch that game, they should do themselves a favor and watch it.  It was a very physical game and must've been a lot of fun to be in the barn watching.

Vinc looked years younger than he actually is, but the D were making his job pretty routine.  Shots directed to a corner of the net were soaked routinely by a defender and then the Bandits grabbed the loose balls.