(Photo Courtesy of Halifax Thunderbirds)
Welcome to Week fourteen of the 2019-20 NLL season, y’all!
Week fourteen features eight contest as every team will take the floor this weekend. The weekend gets started on Friday night as New England travels to New York. On Saturday, there are six games as New York travels to Rochester, Halifax travels to Buffalo, Toronto travels to Saskatchewan, Colorado host Philadelphia, Calgary host San Diego, and Georgia travels Vancouver. On Sunday, New England host Halifax.
Halifax at Buffalo will be the NLL Game of The Week, FREE to watch on B/R Live, Twitter, and Facebook.
Big North Division Battle
The Halifax Thunderbirds (7-3) at Buffalo Bandits (6-3) is the NLL Game of The Week for a reason! These two squads currently sit in first and third in the North Division. This matchup this weekend is their second of the season, and it could have an impact on who gets the top seed in the division and possibly if Halifax gets the top spot in the playoffs, which they would have if the season ended today.
In their last meeting, Halifax won 15-10 and used a huge run in the middle of the game to get ahead and secure the victory, pretty much sucking the life out of Buffalo. That is not expected to be the case this time around, especially if Chase Fraser and Dhane Smith do indeed play this weekend for the Bandits. They are currently on IR. Also, Halifax’s Cody Jamieson was hit with a one-gam suspension after receiving a match penalty in last week’s game against Toronto.
While both team’s have electric offenses, goaltending might just be what decides this game. Matt Vinc (Buffalo) is one of the best to ever do it and Warren Hill has come into his own this season and show that he can be a high-caliber goalie in this league. No matter what, it should be an exciting on in Buffalo on Saturday.
Expansion Matchup
The league’s two newest expansion franchises, the New York Riptide and Rochester Knighthawks, each have just one win on the season. But somebody is going to come out of week 14 with two wins as these two squads face each other on Saturday night in Rochester.
Additionally, it will be the first look at each team after some major trades that they have made over the past few weeks. New York traded their leading scorer Tyler Digby to Colorado and Rochester sent Dan Lintner to Buffalo. Each move opens up some space for some younger players to possibly get some more runs and allows each offense to, possibly, develop from top to bottom more than they had previously.
If a big difference will be seen in game one following those trades is unlikely, but we’ll get our first look on Saturday to see what the Riptide and Knighthawks offense may look like moving forward.
Week 14 Schedule
Friday, Feb. 28th
7:30pm ET: New York vs New England
Saturday, Feb. 29th
7:00pm ET: Rochester vs New York
7:00pm ET: Buffalo vs Halifax
8:30pm ET: Saskatchewan vs Toronto
9:30pm ET: Colorado vs Philadelphia
9:30pm ET: Calgary vs San Diego
10:00pm ET: Vancouver vs Georgia
Sunday, Mar. 1
5:00pm ET: New England vs Halifax
