Sports, Ink

Bandits notebook: Random thoughts

Just wanted to make a few points as the Bandits hit the first-quarter pole of the 2012 season:

* I watched part of the video replay of the Bandits-Swarm game from Saturday night. OK, it was pretty ugly from a Buffalo perspective. I did want to see what the heck happened at the end of the first half, when 10 players were thrown out.

The feed for the game, however, cut out  right after the first half ended ... or, just when the two sides were coming off the bench and exchanging hostilities. So it was tough to tell what actually took place.

At least a couple of fans brought video cameras, and shot the action from a distance. The Bandits set a team record for penalty minutes in a game. Have you ever seen a goalie sit in the penalty box before? Mike Thompson picked up a fighting major in the incident, and Angus Goodleaf had to start the third quarter.

* Speaking of records, I did a little research on Sunday into the Bandits' loss. The 19 goals allowed was the most in the Darris Kilgour era (2003-2012). The loss wasn't the worst in Buffalo's history under Kilgour; it was the second-worst.

* After getting some quotes after the game in Rochester, I went back to the press box to write my story. There I encountered some very unhappy members of the scorekeeping crew. Lots of muttering was going on. The league has switched statistical systems this year, and the growing pains are obvoius. There have been goals scored without anyone getting credit for them, the wrong players receiving credit for goals, etc.

On opening night, I had John Tavares scoring a particular goal and Scott Self scoring another one in the win over Toronto by Buffalo. That's the way my story read for the first edition. When the official sheet came out after the game, it had Self getting credit for both goals. So, in the final edition, Self had two goals. A few days later, the league updated its stats .. and Self was back to one goal.

Last Friday night, I had Brendan Mundorf with four goals for Philadelphia in the win for the Bandits. Sure enough, the stats said three goals. Could I have made a mistake? Absolutely. But I figured I'd go with my own version this time and be consistent.

They'll get it figured out soon, I think.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits live blog from Rochester

7:10 p.m. -- Hello from Rochester. The drive on the Thruway was uneventful, my computer is up and running, and we are almost ready for lacrosse.

The Bandits are coming off a nice win against Toronto last week, and Rochester beat Philadelphia in a wild one in its first game. So ... this game is for first place in the NLL East. I know, Buffalo's fans aren't used to seeing one of their own in first place. We'll see how it goes tonight.

We have one lineup change from last week. Buffalo will sit Brandon Francis this week and dress Roger Vyse. Jeremy Thompson ought to take most of the draws. Frank Resetarits and Tom Montour also are sitting.

Mike Thompson is the starter in goal. He was the league's defensive player last week for his outstanding play.

8:04 p.m. -- I almost shot my computer in the past half hour, thanks to connection problems. But we seem to be back up and runnning. It's 1-1 early in the second quarter. Luke Wiles has the Buffalo goal. Mike Thompson has played very well.

I can't wait to see what Rochester looks like. The Knighthawks tied for first in the East last season, but blew up the roster. They got much younger in the process. Johnny Powless was a heralded rookie coming into the league, and Rochester traded up to get him in the draft. He had three goals and two assists last week against Philadelphia.

8:07 p.m. -- The Bandits are on a five-minute power play. After John Tavares took a hit, a funny thought hit me -- just read an article on Gordie Howe's last year, at age 52, in the NHL. No one wanted to hit him then, and not just because of age. Wonder if John would like that sort of status in his 40's?

8:15 p.m. -- The Knighthawks killed off the penalty. Plenty of action here, just not much scoring.

8:21 p.m. -- Somebody heard me. The teams have traded goals to make it 2-2, with Mark Steenhuis scoring for Buffalo and Alex Hill for Rochester. I've been trying to figure out how Steenhuis is being used, but it's not like the old days when he was out for every major offensive situation. And as I type, both teams add another goal. Four goals in 57 seconds.

8:29 p.m. -- We made it to halftime, and the Bandits have a 4-3 lead. Steenhuis has two goals to lead the way  -- one on a drive to the net, the other on a breakaway.

8:54 p.m. -- The pattern continues -- Bandits take a lead, the Knighthawks come right back. We're at 5-5 midway through the third quarter.

9:03 p.m. -- I'm starting to think these teams are well-matched. Neither side has had more than a two-goal lead. Just as Rochester picked up its first goal of the game, Tavares responded with a good shot frm the right side. So ... it's 6-6. I've seen some close games in this building over the last four years; I guess the tradition continues.

9:14 p.m. -- Chad Culp and Tavares have put Buffalo back up in front, 8-6. Johnny T. looks particularly sharp tonight. And again, while typing this, the Knighthawks score to cut it to one.

9:31 p.m. -- Bandits have a 12-9 lead with 3:27 left. Tavares is up to four goals, and it took two late scores by the Knighthawks to make it this close. Still, this one isn't quite in the books.

Postgame -- Oh yes it is, as the Bandits held off the Knighthawks the rest of the way to win their second straight.

Tavares took plenty of bows after the game for his fine work, as you'll see in my story. Just when the game was up for grabs, John grabbed it. Just amazing.

More computer problems around the end of the game, as the machine and wifi network stopped talking again. It's nice to be home.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits notebook: An interesting twist

There has been plenty of talk about all of the extra talent floating around the National Lacrosse League as free agents. Here's an example of what we might be seeing this season.

The Toronto Rock lost Blaine Manning to a broken collarbone during Saturday's loss to the Bandits in Buffalo. Manning will be out for at least six to eight weeks, perhaps more depending on if he can work out in the meantime.

Where did the Rock go for help? The Buffalo roster.

Toronto has signed Brenden Thenhaus to a contract; Thenhaus was on the Bandits' practice squad. Buffalo has 24 hours to match the contract offer from the Rock, and then move him on to the active roster. If the Bandits don't do that, Thenhaus will be awarded to Toronto.

Thenhaus had 17 goals and 18 assists for 35 points last season for Buffalo. We'll see how the Bandits decide to play it.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits blog -- Live from the First Niagara Center

6:56 p.m. -- We're back.

It's a new season for the Buffalo Bandits, as they start the 2012 campaign tonight in the First Niagara Center. (Wonder how long it will take me to call it HSBC Arena, or Marine Midland Arena, or the Aud.) The Bandits take on the Toronto Rock in the opener.

This game represents something of an opportunity for the Bandits. Toronto has already lost its first game, a defeat at home to Calgary last week. If Buffalo wins tonight, it would take a game and one-half lead over the Rock, and the season would only be a few hours old from a Bandits' standpoint. You couldn't ask for much better of a start.

The scratches for the game have been announced, and there was one surprise. Tom Montour won't be in the lineup. Montour is quite a weapon in the transition game, so it's easy to wonder if anything is going on there. Frank Resetarits and Roger Vyse are the other scratches. I would suspect that coach Darris Kilgour will go through several forwards during the course of the early part of the season, as he looks for a good combination. That would include players like Brenden Thenhaus and Kyle Clancy, who currently are not on the active roster.

Mike Thompson is slated to be the starting goalie tonight. It's our first look this evening at new Bandits like Jeff Cornwall, Luke Wiles, Mat Giles, Kevin Buchanan, Jeremy Thompson, and Kyle Sweeney.

Toronto has lost goalie Bob Watson to retirement. Matt Roik will start in goal this evening.

7:24 p.m. -- First time I've heard bagpipes since May. Must be time for the opening faceoff. There is a bit of a buzz in the building; I'm told that's in contrast to recent Sabre games. Looks like we'll have 16,000 or so here for the game.

7:45 p.m. -- We're off to a fast start. The Rock scored the first goal of the game, and could have been up by a few had it not been for some friendly goal posts. Buffalo answered with a couple of goals, including one by Steve Priolo -- the first of his NLL career. If you had him in a goal-scoring pool, you are the surprise winner. There's 8:33 left in the first quarter.

8:00 p.m. -- Toronto scored two goals within nine seconds to retake the lead, 3-2. Then Chad Culp responded on a delayed penalty to tie things up again at 3-3 after the end of the first quarter. Hasn't much to choose between the teams so far.

8:11 a.m. -- It didn't take long for John Tavares to score his first goal of the season. He tied the game at 4-4 after Garrett Billings had given the Rock the lead earlier in the second quarter. There are about nine minutes left in the half. It's been an entertaining game to date. Can't say either side has had much of a problem getting the ball over the halfcourt line so far.

8:21 p.m. -- Toronto finally scored twice in a row to take a two-goal lead at 6-4. Dan Carey and Glen Bryan, a couple of unexpected sources, got the goals. Bryan took off on a long missed shot and turned it into a two-on-one. He waited for the right moment and beat goalie Mike Thompson.

We've seen quite a lot of Jimmy Purves tonight. He's a transition player who has only one previous NLL game to his credit.

8:28 p.m. -- Great goal by Kevin Buchanan cuts the Toronto lead to 6-5. Time to go on radio for my traditional opening-game, halftime interview.

8:52 p.m. -- Tracey Kelusky and Mark Steenhuis have put Buffalo back up, 7-6. The Bandits have come out hitting so far in the second half.

9:00 p.m. -- It's nine o'clock on a Saturday, and the back-and-forth nature of the game continues. Toronto scored two goals within 12 seconds to tie the game, and Buffalo answered with two goals within 11 seconds to back up, 10-8. Wow.

9:08 p.m. -- Toronto's Blaine Manning suffered a broken collarbone earlier in the game. He's out indefinitely. That's a huge loss for the Rock this season. He had 75 points in 2011. We're 10-8, Buffalo, after three quarters.

9:27 p.m. -- Buffalo is on a 5-0 run that has broken the game open, as the Bandits lead 13-8. Buffalo has a hat trick from Luke Wiles.

9:41 p.m. -- Bandits in charge, 14-10, with 35 seconds left.

9:43 p.m. -- And that's the way it ends up. Nice win by the Bandits, with lots of heroes. Off to the locker room.

11:34 p.m. -- The Bandits were quite happy after the game, as you might expect. Taking a game and a-half lead over Toronto already is a good way to start the season. Darris Kilgour threw most of the credit to goalie Mike Thompson.

 "I thought he played one of the best games I've ever seen him play as a Bandit," he said. "Without him it would have been a completely different game."

Rochester and Philadelphia had a rough game tonight, and the Knighthawks came away with a 22-12 win. So much for wondering if Rochester would have enough offense. First place will be on the line when the Knighthawks and Bandits meet next week.

Good night.

--- Budd Bailey

This Day in Buffalo Sports History: An immediate hit

     January 4, 1992 -- No one was too sure what to expect when the Buffalo Bandits took the Memorial Auditorium turf for the first time to play their opening game. Many, however, were curious to find out.

     The start of the game had to be delayed because of the long lines at the ticket windows of the Aud. A crowd of 9,052 eventually found its way to the seats.

     Then the fans watched the Bandits lose to the New York Saints, 21-17. The problem was a 17-minute gap in scoring by Buffalo, as New York went from an 8-8 tie to a 13-8 lead.

     "That happens in lacrosse," said Bandits coach Buff McCready when asked about the dry spell. "There's some times you just can't buy a goal. It's not as though we don't have the shooters to do it. It's just that that will happen."

     Buffalo's Darris Kilgour had some history by scoring the team's first-ever goal. He had three others and added three assists. John Tavares scored two goals and five assists in his first game in the league. We'd be hearing a lot more about those two players in the two decades-plus of lacrosse to come.

   For more on that first season, click here.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits notebook: Roster games

A few of the veterans who played for the Buffalo Bandits in 2011 aren't going to have a happy holiday season. That's because they are out of work.

The Bandits figured to make some changes, what with the Boston Blazers' folding and the input of the usual bunch of rookies. There had been plenty of speculation about who would be involved during the course of training camp.

The biggest surprise among the departures is Brett Bucktooth. He played in the All-Star Game last winter, although to be fair his selection was a bit of a surprise. Bucktooth's play has been a little up and down over the past few years, although you'd think he might get at least a look from some other team that needs a transition player. Jeremy Thompson, the team's top draft pick this fall, may get some of Bucktooth's playing time.

Brenden Thenhaus had some good moments, but probably got squeezed out by numbers. Luke Wiles and Kevin Buchanan should supply extra offense this season. Jay Thorimbert was the team's second faceoff man behind Brandon Francis last season; Thompson might get a look at that role too.

Travis Irving was the other "name" cut. I would suspect that he would be offered a job on the practice squad.

It would be a little out of character for the Bandits to look at players who were released from other teams, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits notebook: Small rule tweak

   The National Lacrosse League has announced a small change in its rules for the upcoming season. Starting in January, teams will get to ask for video review once in each half. That means, each team will have a total of two challenges.

   If a team had won two challenges in the past, it earned the right to have a third challenge. That bonus benefit is now gone.

   Plays in the last two minutes and in overtime will be reviewed automatically by game officials.

   It's not a big move, obviously, but might improve the flow of the game just a little bit. NLL games usually have few camera angles to study plays, especially when compared to the NFL or NHL, so sometimes the challenges can take a while.

   Other rule changes involve maximum stick length (46 to 42 inches), and a shorter period of time to get the ball past the center line. The size of goaltender equipment also will be reduced.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits notebook: Please introduce yourself

The Buffalo Bandits had their first preseason workout together Sunday at the First Niagara Center. The first thing the players did was to look around. Their locker room was remodeled in the offseason as part of the Sabres' reconstruction of the area. The new look does have some orange in it, and is circular without any crannies so that everyone can look at everyone. The equipment has a new home too.

Then the players took a glance at who else was around. They probably noticed the amount of talent that had turned out. At one point in the workout, assistant coach Rich Kilgour addressed his half of an intersquad game. He said the squad had the makings of a pretty good team, and that it was made up of only half the roster.

Kilgour was certainly right. The demise of the Boston Blazers has again scattered good players around the league. With the NLL down to nine teams, about 23 more players won't be able to find work in January. When Darris Kilgour addressed the team at the start of the workout, he made that point by telling each player to look at a teammate. Chances are that one of them would be cut in a month. Ouch.

After some drills, the players played a full scrimmage for about 40 minutes. The media was allowed to sit behind one of the benches for a session. That's a very interesting experience. The line changes come off extremely smoothly through good communication about when one player comes off. It's a bit of a fire drill, but it works. I had the odd feeling I should tap a player on the shoulder and say, "Next man out there," but resisted the temptation.

We're less than three weeks away from the open practice. Some questions might be answered by then.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits notebook: New TV package

You'll have to switch channels in order to watch the National Lacrosse League on television for the next two seasons.

The NLL has signed a two-year deal to appear on the CBS Sports Network. it will contain five regular-season games and three postseason games. All will be shown live on Saturday nights in high definition.

The schedule will begin on April 7, with the complete schedule to be announced at a later date. It sounds like there might be a double-header involved there somewhere, with four weekends in April and five games to show.

The NLL games were on Versus in the recent past. In one sense, the new deal is a good one because it gets the games on live in prime time. Most of the games on Versus were on tape delay and thus didn't carry a great deal of suspense. However, speaking as a basic cable subscriber who gets Versus but not CBS Sports, I won't get to see any of the national games.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits' notebook: Crossover plan

Earlier this week, the National Lacrosse League announced its playoff format for the upcoming season. There was some mystery about that, since the league had lost the Boston franchise in the offseason. That left nine teams spread over two divisions in the NLL, and an existing format of eight teams.

What to do? The league opted to again have eight teams qualify for the postseason. However, since the East only has four teams, it added a wrinkle. The fourth place team in the East actually will compete for the playoff spot with the fifth-place team in the West. The team with the better record will gain the spot, so a West team could in theory cross over and grab the fourth slot in the East.

I'm not so sure I like the idea of playing 16 games to eliminate one team. I remember when the NHL used to be criticized for playing 80 games to eliminate five of 21 teams from the postseason. Two alternatives no doubt were considered:

* Cut the playoff teams down to four, two in each division, and have the top two in each division play for the division title, and then have the winners meet for the league title.

* Give the first-place teams a bye, have No. 2 play No. 3 in each division, the winners move on to play the division winners, and then those winners meet in the final.

The adopted system does give us three weekends of playoff action in May, with extra home dates for teams and possible television opportunities. Still, that's a lot of lacrosse in order to merely decide home-field advantage in the postseason. Bottom line -- I'd feel better about the league if it were at least 10 teams (and 12 would be even better).

--- Budd Bailey