The preview here is going to be quick. The Buffalo Bandits will host the Toronto Rock Saturday night in each team’s 18th and final regular-season game. Each team is locked into their playoff positioning, and since that’s first and second in the East, I’m not going to be previewing this one because there’s a pretty good chance that we will have to go through that process in two weeks from now.

For those who want a preview, don’t get hurt and have fun.

Instead, we’re going to celebrate Dhane Smith. The MVP favorite enters this weekend’s game with 41 goals and 94 assists to lead the league with 135 points, 22 points clear of Colorado’s Ryan Lee’s 113 points (33G 80A).

Smith has already broken the all-time single-season assist record this year; which was previously held by Mark Matthews during the 2017-18 season for the Saskatchewan Rush. The Rush team is a good comparison to the 2022 Bandits. (2005-2020 stats can be found on Pointstreak)

The points column is where the focus will be on Saturday, as Smith needs two points to tie and a third to break the single-season points record, which Smith set back in 2016. That season, he reached 137 points by getting the goal record of 72 goals to go along with 65 assists. When Athan Iannucci set the previous goal record of 71 goals in 2008, he only had 29 assists for a 10-6 Philadelphia Wings team. Of course, that was done back when the NLL played 16 games instead of 18, but still, that 70-goal mark has not been touched aside from those two seasons; a cluster of 50-55 goal seasons stand behind Smith and Iannucci in the record books.

Smith went on to win MVP that season just as Iannucci did in 2008 and Mark Matthews did in 2018. The 2016 Bandits went to the finals led by 13 more goals and 14 more assists from Smith in 4 games, but they were bested for the championship by the Saskatchewan Rush. Needless to say, he will be the favorite to win the award again this year.

So as I mentioned, not a lot to discuss this week, but in such a dominant season from Dhane Smith, he deserves some time in the Expected Buffalo limelight before the regular season wraps up.