Tuesday, May 13, 2008

NLL Championship prediction

There is only one game left in the NLL season. It'll be in Buffalo, but we're going up north this weekend so I won't be going. Luckily, the game is televised, so I plan on watching it at my parents' place on Saturday night.

I went 1-1 in my second round predictions, slightly better than the 1-3 in the first round, so I'm 2-4 overall. Buffalo beat New York as I predicted, even though Mark Steenhuis did not learn how to pass the ball, only getting a single assist. Didn't matter much though, since he scored seven, and John "ageless" Tavares had 10 assists to go with his two goals. It was an intense game as I predicted as well, with each team racking up 65 minutes in penalties.

I got the Calgary-Portland game wrong, though I did wonder if Dan Dawson could carry Portland for another game, and with five goals and five assists, I guess the answer is "yes".

I'm going to stick with my previous statement that nobody will stop the Bandits, and predict a Buffalo championship. Championship game MVP is a tough one — Tavares is always a good bet and Mike Accursi has been great since returning to the Bandits, but I think I will say Steenhuis.

As for league MVP, which will be announced tomorrow, it's a no-brainer. Athan Iannucci beat Gary Gait's goal-scoring record by 10, and over a 16 game season that's pretty significant, especially for a player in only his second season in the league. It's possible that this year was a fluke (like Brady Anderson hitting 50 home runs, though that was more likely chemically-induced), but I think this guy's the real deal. It would not surprise me if in ten years, we'll be saying Iannucci's name in the same breath as names like Gait, Tavares, Marechek, and Veltman as one of the best in league history.

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