The Buffalo Bandits rolled into Albany last weekend for their first game of March and walked away with an overtime victory against the Albany FireWolves. The win improves them to 9-1, which is their best start to a season since 2003 (which was ironically the last previous season that the NLL had a franchise in Albany before relocation to San Jose), and frankly, after the league went over 600 days between games during the COVID shut down from March 2020 to the start of the 2021-22 season this past December, your good friends at Expected Buffalo (me mostly, of course) want to take a megaphone and say “HEY! PAY ATTENTION TO THIS GOOD TEAM!”

It’s almost optimistic to say that the COVID shutdown may be the biggest reason the Bandits seem to have gone overlooked this season. The last time the NLL played a full season in 2018-19, the Bandits ran through the East with a 14-4 record and a league-best in both goals for (244 in 18 games) and against (186 in 18 games) but fell just short of the franchise’s 5th championship after getting stopped in their tracks in game 1 with a 10-7 loss followed by a 14-13 overtime loss in the second and deciding game of their best-of-3 series with the Calgary Roughnecks. The following season still saw the Bandits tied for the third-best win percentage in the league with a 7-4 record while keeping pace with the top of the league again with a top 4 offense and a defense that was continuing to hover around the benchmark 10 goals allowed per game mark. 

Now, the Bandits have bounced back and continue to pace the league in goals per game while being part of a three-way race for the second-best defense/goaltending behind the San Diego Seals. 

EAST	GP	W	L	GF	GA	GFPG	GAPG	Diff
W1. San Diego	9	7	2	108	78	12.00	8.67	3.33
E1. Buffalo	10	9	1	130	97	13.00	9.70	3.30
E2. Halifax	9	8	1	105	87	11.67	9.67	2.00
E3. Toronto	11	7	4	124	112	11.27	10.18	1.09
W2. Colorado	9	6	3	97	89	10.78	9.89	0.89
W3. Vancouver	10	5	5	113	105	11.30	10.50	0.80
E4. Philadelphia	11	5	6	116	119	10.55	10.82	-0.27
E5. Georgia	11	5	6	130	134	11.82	12.18	-0.36
W5. Saskatchewan	10	3	7	106	112	10.60	11.20	-0.60
E6. Albany	12	5	7	123	135	10.25	11.25	-1.00
E8. New York	10	2	8	120	135	12.00	13.50	-1.50
E7. Rochester	10	3	7	110	128	11.00	12.80	-1.80
W4. Calgary	9	3	6	88	109	9.78	12.11	-2.33
W6. Panther City	11	3	8	113	143	10.27	13.00	-2.73

We’re going to follow the Bandits over at Expected Buffalo for the remainder of the 2022 season and beyond as they continue to chase their first championship since 2008 with increasingly in-depth analysis as we figure out on the fly what the best way to present data to a hockey-centric audience would be. We’ve also partnered with First Line Sports Analytics to help provide lacrosse analytics content. It was easy to start this partnership; if you’ve been following along closely enough, you’d know why. 

To start us out in the lead up to Saturday’s home matchup with the Philadelphia Wings, let’s meet the team 

Meet The Offense

#92 Dhane Smith – Righty Forward (23G 47A through 10 Games): The Great Dhane (*insert barking noises here*) has been the team leader in scoring every season since 2016 – during that season, he put up 72 and 65 for 137 points in an MVP effort. Even in his first three seasons after being the 5th overall pick in the 2012 draft, he finished no lower than 3rd on the team in points. Needless to say, the offense runs through Dhane’s stick. He’s the current league leader in assists and will likely stay up there for the final 8 games as long as he stays healthy.

#22 Josh Byrne – Lefty Forward (18G 33A through 10 Games): Byrne is the player who will amaze you every time you see him play, somehow each time one-upping the last amazing thing he did the time before. The 2017 first overall pick has now settled into his place as the leader on the left side for the Bandits offense.

#5 Connor Fields – Righty Forward (21G 16A through 10 Games): Fields was traded to the Bandits this past offseason after spending his first two NLL seasons with the San Diego Seals. It took him some time to get his NLL legs underneath him after being drafted following an ACL injury in his final year at UAlbany in 2018, but in his first season in Buffalo, Fields has been a strong complementary piece to Dhane Smith’s playmaking on the right side and the goals are now starting to drop for him. Oh, did I mention he’s #FromHere?

#2 Chris Cloutier – Lefty Forward (13G 22A through 10 Games): Cloutier will show off his flare every once in a while, but his outside shot is his calling card. He’s found a home in Buffalo after a challenging rookie season in Philadelphia after going second overall in the 2018 draft.

#1 Tehoka Nanticoke – Righty Forward (19G 11A through 10 Games): 19 goals currently lead the rookie class): The Bandits selected Nanticoke with the third overall pick in the 2021 draft and is one of only a handful of his draft classmates to have turned pro immediately (The NLL implemented the option for players to go back and play their NCAA seasons after being drafted as part of the COVID shutdown). While New York’s Jeff Teat is on a crash course to probably win rookie of the year and lead rookies in points with 18 goals and 37 assists in only 8 games, Nanticoke will be right there with Teat at the top of the rookie goal-scoring race. His play this season has shown it will be a matter of when, not if, he reaches his potential in the box game. He also scored while lying on the ground a couple weeks ago.

#95 Chase Fraser – Righty Forward (12G 16A through 10 Games): Chase Fraser is the guy who will do everything he can to make sure you leave the arena knowing who he is. When he’s not on the doorstep of the crease finishing rebounds or scoring behind the net, he’s setting screens, taking the occasional faceoff, and if there’s a scrum, he’s usually dead center.

#91 Kyle Buchanan – Righty Forward (8G 21A through 10 Games): Last but certainly not least, the 34-year-old Buchanan signed with the Bandits in free agency and has been solid in a playmaking role after two seasons in San Diego.

Meet The Defense

The Bandits defense had some rough years in the mid-late 2010s (This peaked in 2018 when they scored the third-most goals in the league with 236 but also gave up the third most goals at 240 and missed the playoffs) but have turned a corner to become a solid unit over the last three or so years. Names like Steve Priolo, Kevin Brownell, and Nick Weiss have solidified themselves as mainstays out the back door. Guys like Matt Spanger and Ethan O’Connor get their fair share of tougher defensive matchups as well, and Bryce Sweeting brings the more heavyweight role on the back end.

The transition group (Traditionally play more set defense than offense) of Ian MacKay, Brent Noseworthy, and Jordan Stouros is still really getting its feet wet in the NLL, as they have joined the team in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 first two rounds, respectively. MacKay, the fourth overall pick in 2018, gets the most offensive shifts on the left side, actually playing more offense in late 2018-19 and in and out in 2019-20 following injuries on that side. He’s the truest transition player on the team and has 5 goals and 5 assists so far this season. 

Meet The GOAT

Following a trip to the 2018 NLL Finals and his 6th Goaltender of the year award with the Rochester Knighthawks, where he won three titles, St. Catherines native and Canisius graduate Matt Vinc signed with the Bandits in unrestricted free agency. It took no time at all for Vinc to get comfortable in orange and black and won his 7th Goaltender of the Year award in 2019 and is now over a .800 save percentage for the third straight season. Oh, and he turns 40 in June. While San Diego’s Frank Scigliano is probably going to run away with Goaltender of the Year this season (Currently at an 0.817 SV% and three games where he’s only allowed 4 goals this season), Vinc is going to continue to make room with many of his records and keep the Bandits in the race at the top of the East and has been a deciding factor is multiple close games this season that has led to the Bandits current 9-1 record.

Also, something that this crowd would enjoy, their backup goalie, Doug Buchan, who works for Stathletes.

So, That’s The Team

Led by John Tavares (Yes, the NLL GOAT and generational Bandit), the Bandits play their first home game of March this Saturday against the Philadelphia Wings. They won’t look too far down the road, but since we’re following from the computer, their likely biggest game of the season will take place at home on March 26th against the 8-1 Halifax Thunderbirds – their old pals who used to wear purple and teal.

All NLL games are included in an ESPN+ subscription, so if you already have ESPN+ for NHL games or the countless other sports on the network, you already have access to the rest of the Bandits season as well as past games if you want to get more familiar with the 2021-22 version of the team. 

Sources: 

–2022 season stat pack (via NLL.com)

-Data between 2005 and 2020 are available at Pointstreak

-My lacrosse Twitter account: @FirstLine_Lax

-Public Data Dashboards for 2005-2020 seasons are from our lacrosse page on the First Line Website

-First Line main account: @FirstLine_Stats

-Photo Credit: NLL.com