Like its other fellow sports teams, the National Lacrosse League got hit hard with COVID stoppages in January. Some of the rescheduling efforts have been challenging, including a New Year’s Eve game between the New York Riptide and Colorado Mammoth that had to be rescheduled for a rare Monday night game on April 4. Other times, the stars align.

That alignment starts this Saturday in Banditland.

The Buffalo Bandits were scheduled to play the Halifax Thunderbirds this upcoming Saturday, March 26 from the start. It was supposed to be the second matchup between the two teams on the season, but as Nova Scotia implemented COVID-related restrictions on indoor gatherings during January, their January 22nd matchup in Halifax needed to be rescheduled. With a little bit of schedule tinkering, as Saturday’s game was pushed up from 7:30 pm to 1:00 pm, both teams will drive up to Toronto post-game and get on an evening flight to Halifax to play a Sunday afternoon game at 4:00 pm (All times Eastern).

Usually, there will be a handful of home-and-home back-to-backs scheduled over an NLL season, but this one will be unique as it will feature the top two teams in the East, as Buffalo is in first at 10-1 and the Thunderbirds are right behind them at 8-3. The only other team with 3 or fewer losses at this point in the season is the 9-to 2 San Diego Seals, and since the Seals play neither of these Eastern powerhouses, it’s safe to call these the two most heavyweight matchups of the regular season.

Previous Games

The Bandits and Thunderbirds could not have had more opposite outcomes in their last weekends on the floor. The Bandits hosted the Philadelphia Wings in front of 11,451 at Key Bank Center on March 12, and after a close 2-1 first quarter, Buffalo exploded offensively and slammed the door defensively, cruising to a 17-5 victory to improve to 10-1 while the Wings fell to 5-7. Dhane Smith put up 2 goals, but that was overshadowed by his 10 assists, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was primary. Tehoka Nanticoke had 5 goals to lead the team in that category. While Josh Byrne only had 1 goal on the night, he was right behind Smith in the assist column with 8 of his own and also added 8 loose balls. The shot differential wasn’t as lopsided as the final score would suggest, as the total shot attempts were 80-75 (51.6% CF%) and 59-55 with shots on goal (51.8% SOG%), but Matt Vinc’s 50 saves helped to secure the blowout.

Contrarily, the 8-1 Thunderbirds went into that same weekend (Both teams had a bye this past weekend) with two challenging matchups during which their record dropped to 8-3. On March 11, two scoreless quarters played a major part in the Albany FireWolves taking an 8-7 victory from the Thunderbirds. It was the first time the Thunderbirds had lost a regulation game at home since their relocation ahead of the 2019-20 season and the second time Albany defeated the Thunderbirds on the season. It got no easier on Saturday, as the Thunderbirds had to head from Halifax to Toronto to Atlanta to face the Georgia Swarm in Duluth. Despite their best efforts to come back from an 8-3 deficit at halftime, a 51 save effort from Mike Poulin made the difference in the end as the Swarm defeated the Thunderbirds 10-9. 

The Bandits and Thunderbirds played each other three times in 2019-20, with the Thunderbirds taking the season series 2-1: The Thunderbirds won 15-10 on December 28, 2019 in Buffalo, the Bandits evened the series at home with a 13-9 victory on February 29, 2020, and the Thunderbirds winning the rubber match in Halifax 11-9 on March 8 2020, which was the last day of NLL games before the COVID shutdown. You can check out my game summaries from those games at the hyperlinks in this paragraph (Also a shameless plug and reminder to follow @FirstLine_Lax on Twitter).

The Numbers

	Buffalo: 10-1 (1st East)	Halifax: 8-3 (2nd East)
Goals For (Per Game – Rank)	147 (13.36 – 1st)	121 (11.00 – 9th)
Goals Against (Per Game – Rank)	102 (9.27 – 2nd)	105 (9.55 – 3rd)
Goals For Percentage (Rank)	59.04% (1st)	53.54% (4th)
Shots on Goal For	587 (53.36 – 3rd)	830 (52.00 – 5th)
Shots on Goal Against	569 (51.73 – 10th)	525 (47.73 – 4th)
Shots on Goal Percentage	50.78% (6th)	52.14% (4th)
Shot Attempts For	808 (73.45 – 4th)	830 (75.45 – 2nd)
Shot Attempts Against	831 (75.55 – 12th)	718 (65.27 – 3rd)
Shot Attempt Percentage	49.30% (10th)	53.62% (2nd)
Powerplay Percentage (Rank)	47.8% (5th)	29.2% (14th)
Penalty Kill PPGA / TSH – PCT Kills (Rank)	57.6% (6th)	46.3% (13th)

What to Watch for

• Can the Thunderbirds offense keep up? The Halifax offense is in no way a slouch, pacing well with the Bandits in their ability to register shots and get them on goal, but the goals haven’t been able to keep pace, as they only average the 9th most goals per game in the NLL. The Bandits offense is primed to get theirs, and the Thunderbirds defense is primed to counter at their skill level as well to keep the score in check. The Bandits defense gives up their fair share of shots as well, so the Thunderbirds offense will get their chances; it will be a matter of burying them when they get their most supreme chances.
• Who Will Control the Boxes? Special teams has not been the strong suit of the Thunderbirds this year, as they currently rank last in powerplay percentage and only are ahead of the Riptide in penalty killing percentage. If the Bandits get the advantage in penalties drawn, that could be the way that the Bandits pull away.
• Controlling The Dot: Jake Withers is one of the best faceoff athletes on the planet, and he’s continued his strong play this year having won 70.5% of his faceoffs to this point of the season. In last season’s three matchups between Buffalo and Halifax, Withers won 69/79 (87.3%) of his draws. The Bandits, meanwhile, have only won 32.6% of their faceoffs on the season as a team, dead last in the NLL in that category. They signed Max Adler midseason to help alleviate this – Adler is one of the premier faceoff athletes in the PLL, but he is still adjusting to the box rules and with that, is still only at a 37.6% through his first 4 career NLL games. Adler’s ability to hold his own against Withers will be crucial to helping the Bandits control the possession game. In their lone matchup in the PLL last season, Withers won 14 for 25 (56%) of the faceoffs for the Waterdogs, while Adler finished 11 for 24 (45.8%) for the Chaos. Withers was 117 for 215 (54%) on the season, while Adler was 81 for 167 (49%).

While not an official prediction, a home team split of the two games is what will be most likely, which is probably a good thing considering it would allow two highly regarded fanbases to enjoy their teams winning their biggest home game of the season, and that kind of positive energy is always good for growing the game.

Both games can be streamed on ESPN+ (TSN Direct in Canada).

Epilogue

The Halifax Thunderbirds organization is the former Rochester Knighthawks. Owner Curt Styres relocated the franchise from Rochester to Halifax in 2019. The current Rochester Knighthawks organization was established as an expansion team owned by PSE. The purple and teal Knighthawks were who the Thunderbirds are now. The military green Knighthawks are the new franchise. The best way to think about it is if the Cleveland Browns didn’t have a couple of seasons off between moving to Baltimore and being re-established.

As for the rest of the epilogue, this section will mostly be so we can name some names from the past that had stints with the Bandits in the past. Sitting around and naming guys is always fun, right?

The only Bandit to have played for the Thunderbirds organization (As a Rochester Knighthawk) is Matt Vinc, who spent 8 seasons with the Knighthawks from 2011-2018. Frank Brown, currently on the PUP list, played 8 games with the 2018 Knighthawks. Bandits GM Steve Dietrich played for the Knighthawks from 1995-2001 before playing from 2002-2007 with the Bandits. Assistant GM Troy Cordingley played 4 games for the 2001 Knighthawks.

The Thunderbirds Head Coach, Mike Accursi, played for the Bandits from 2000-2004 and then again from 2008-2010. He was a midseason acquisition for the 2008 championship-winning Bandits. Also, a member of that team was Thunderbirds Assistant Coach, Billy Dee Smith, who played for the Bandits from 2003-2017. As for players, the most recognizable name on the Thunderbirds roster when they come into town on Saturday will be Shawn Evans, who was a trade deadline acquisition for the 2018 Bandits and then the second-leading scorer on the 2019 Bandits who reached the finals. Evans had 28G and 66A in 17 games that season before being selected by the expansion Knighthawks in the 2019 expansion draft. He was traded to the Thunderbirds earlier this month and registered a goal and 4 assists in their two games two weekends ago. In three matchups against the Bandits this season with Rochester, Evans registered 2 goals and 8 assists. Finally, Thunderbirds defenseman David Brock played for the Bandits from 2013-2017.

Photo Credit: NLL.com