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Finals MVP: Colin Doyle
The Matchup
The Rush and Rock each placed three teams in the quarterfinals, so it s hardly surprising that the clubs are meeting for the second time in three days. While the first quarterfinal was almost a coin toss between them, the 2018 Rush have a larger edge on paper over the 2002 Rock. Toronto actually outscored Edmonton by half a goal per game, but while Colin Doyle had a good season to lead the Rock with 80 points, Mark Matthews 115 still stands as the 7th-highest scoring total in NLL history.
The defence, though, is where the real difference lies. And it s really saying something about this Rush roster to argue that their defence sets them apart from what was an historically good Rock defensive group during their run of five titles in seven years.
The matchup
There is no question that the Toronto Rock won the 2000 NLL championship, but were they the best team that season? The only other teams that season that could make an argument for that were the Bandits and the Knighthawks, and they split with Toronto in the regular season with Buffalo scoring 18 (W) and 14 (L) goals in games against Toronto and Rochester scoring 14 (W) and 10 (L). And even in the championship game, Rochester scored 13 and lost on a last-second goal.
As good as the Toronto defense was with Bob Watson in goal and guys like Terry Bullen, Glenn Clark, Pat Coyle, Steve Toll and Jim Veltman in front of him, how would it have fared against an offense as slick as the Georgia team of 2017?
That is not a rhetorical question.
IL Indoor is opening it up to you to vote in a tournament-style bracket to decide which of the team that have captured the NLL championship in the 21st century would win if they were all competing for the title of grand champion.
We have seeded the 20 winners. To do so, we looked at won/loss records, goals for and against differential, where they finished in their division and overall in the NLL, considered all the variables and ranked them from 1 to 20.
Who would win in a fight between . er . a game between the @TorontoRockLax & the @TorontoRockLax?
That is not a rhetorical question.
IL Indoor is opening it up to you to vote in a tournament-style bracket to decide which of the team that have captured the NLL championship in the 21st century would win if they were all competing for the title of grand champion.
We have seeded the 20 winners. To do so, we looked at won/loss records, goals for and against differential, where they finished in their division and overall in the NLL, considered all the variables and ranked them from 1 to 20.
Today’s matchup put a fairly recent champ up against and old-school champ as the No. 6 seed Georgia Swarm from 2017 take on the No. 11 Philadelphia Wings from 2001.