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Breaking: League Adopts Unified Standings Format & Updated Playoff Structure for 2023-24 Season

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WK
1
Fri, Dec 1
19:00:00
Saskatchewan
Halifax
Fri, Dec 1
22:00:00
Albany
Las Vegas
Fri, Dec 1
22:00:00
Panther City
Vancouver
Sat, Dec 2
19:00:00
Calgary
Rochester
Sat, Dec 2
19:30:00
Philadelphia
New York
WK
2
Sat, Dec 9
19:00:00
Philadelphia
Toronto
Sat, Dec 9
19:00:00
Buffalo
Albany
Sat, Dec 9
19:30:00
Colorado
Georgia
Sat, Dec 9
20:00:00
Rochester
Saskatchewan
Sat, Dec 9
22:00:00
Calgary
San Diego
Sun, Dec 10
16:00:00
Las Vegas
Panther City
WK
3
Fri, Dec 15
22:00:00
Saskatchewan
Las Vegas
Sat, Dec 16
13:00:00
Albany
Philadelphia
Sat, Dec 16
19:30:00
Halifax
New York
Sat, Dec 16
19:30:00
San Diego
Buffalo
Sat, Dec 16
22:00:00
Georgia
Vancouver
WK
4
Fri, Dec 22
20:00:00
Toronto
Panther City
Fri, Dec 22
21:00:00
Georgia
Colorado
Sat, Dec 23
19:00:00
Vancouver
Rochester
WK
5
Fri, Dec 29
18:30:00
Philadelphia
Halifax
Fri, Dec 29
19:30:00
Georgia
Buffalo
Fri, Dec 29
22:00:00
Rochester
San Diego
Sat, Dec 30
16:00:00
New York
Toronto
Sat, Dec 30
21:00:00
Las Vegas
Calgary
Sat, Dec 30
21:00:00
Vancouver
Colorado
Sun, Dec 31
20:00:00
Albany
Saskatchewan
WK
6
Sat, Jan 6
19:00:00
Halifax
Albany
Sat, Jan 6
19:30:00
Panther City
Georgia
Sat, Jan 6
19:30:00
Colorado
Buffalo
Sun, Jan 7
15:00:00
New York
Philadelphia
WK
7
Fri, Jan 12
18:30:00
Toronto
Halifax
Fri, Jan 12
22:00:00
San Diego
Las Vegas
Sat, Jan 13
19:00:00
Buffalo
Rochester
Sat, Jan 13
19:00:00
Saskatchewan
Philadelphia
Sat, Jan 13
19:30:00
Panther City
New York
Sat, Jan 13
19:30:00
Albany
Georgia
Sat, Jan 13
21:00:00
San Diego
Colorado
Sat, Jan 13
22:00:00
Calgary
Vancouver
WK
8
Fri, Jan 19
19:30:00
New York
Buffalo
Sat, Jan 20
19:00:00
Georgia
Toronto
Sat, Jan 20
19:00:00
San Diego
Albany
Sat, Jan 20
20:00:00
Vancouver
Saskatchewan
Sat, Jan 20
21:00:00
Calgary
Colorado
WK
9
Fri, Jan 26
22:00:00
Colorado
Vancouver
Sat, Jan 27
18:00:00
Rochester
Halifax
Sat, Jan 27
19:00:00
Buffalo
Toronto
Sat, Jan 27
19:30:00
Georgia
New York
Sat, Jan 27
19:30:00
San Diego
Philadelphia
Sat, Jan 27
22:00:00
Panther City
Las Vegas
WK
10
Fri, Feb 2
19:00:00
Halifax
Philadelphia
Fri, Feb 2
19:30:00
Vancouver
Georgia
Fri, Feb 2
21:00:00
New York
Calgary
Sat, Feb 3
19:00:00
Las Vegas
Albany
Sat, Feb 3
19:30:00
Rochester
Buffalo
Sat, Feb 3
20:00:00
Panther City
Saskatchewan
Sat, Feb 3
21:00:00
Toronto
Calgary
Sun, Feb 4
18:00:00
Colorado
San Diego
WK
11
Fri, Feb 9
18:30:00
Las Vegas
Halifax
Fri, Feb 9
20:00:00
Colorado
Panther City
Sat, Feb 10
19:00:00
Georgia
Rochester
Sat, Feb 10
19:00:00
Calgary
Toronto
Sat, Feb 10
19:30:00
San Diego
New York
Sat, Feb 10
22:00:00
Saskatchewan
Vancouver
WK
12
Fri, Feb 16
18:30:00
Buffalo
Halifax
Fri, Feb 16
22:00:00
Philadelphia
Las Vegas
Sat, Feb 17
19:00:00
Colorado
Albany
Sun, Feb 18
19:00:00
Halifax
Calgary
WK
13
Fri, Feb 23
21:00:00
New York
Colorado
Fri, Feb 23
22:00:00
Georgia
San Diego
Sat, Feb 24
19:00:00
Las Vegas
Rochester
Sat, Feb 24
19:00:00
Vancouver
Toronto
Sat, Feb 24
19:30:00
Albany
Buffalo
Sat, Feb 24
20:00:00
Halifax
Saskatchewan
Sat, Feb 24
21:00:00
Philadelphia
Calgary
Sun, Feb 25
16:00:00
Georgia
Panther City
WK
14
Fri, Mar 1
19:00:00
Georgia
Halifax
Fri, Mar 1
20:00:00
San Diego
Panther City
Fri, Mar 1
22:00:00
Toronto
Las Vegas
Fri, Mar 1
22:00:00
Buffalo
Vancouver
Sat, Mar 2
13:00:00
Calgary
Philadelphia
Sat, Mar 2
19:00:00
New York
Albany
Sat, Mar 2
21:00:00
Saskatchewan
Colorado
Sat, Mar 2
22:00:00
Toronto
San Diego
Sun, Mar 3
16:00:00
Rochester
Panther City
WK
15
Fri, Mar 8
19:00:00
Vancouver
Albany
Fri, Mar 8
19:30:00
Calgary
Georgia
Fri, Mar 8
19:30:00
Saskatchewan
Buffalo
Sat, Mar 9
17:00:00
Colorado
Toronto
Sat, Mar 9
19:00:00
Albany
Rochester
Sat, Mar 9
19:30:00
Las Vegas
New York
Sat, Mar 9
22:00:00
Halifax
San Diego
Sun, Mar 10
15:00:00
Panther City
Philadelphia
WK
16
Fri, Mar 15
18:30:00
Panther City
Halifax
Fri, Mar 15
21:00:00
San Diego
Calgary
Fri, Mar 15
22:00:00
Las Vegas
Vancouver
Sat, Mar 16
19:00:00
Rochester
Albany
Sat, Mar 16
19:00:00
Toronto
Buffalo
Sat, Mar 16
19:30:00
Philadelphia
Georgia
Sat, Mar 16
20:30:00
New York
Saskatchewan
WK
17
Fri, Mar 22
20:00:00
Buffalo
Panther City
Fri, Mar 22
21:00:00
Albany
Calgary
Sat, Mar 23
19:00:00
Halifax
Toronto
Sat, Mar 23
19:00:00
Vancouver
Philadelphia
Sat, Mar 23
19:30:00
Saskatchewan
New York
Sat, Mar 23
21:00:00
Rochester
Colorado
Sat, Mar 23
22:00:00
Las Vegas
San Diego
Sun, Mar 24
17:30:00
Saskatchewan
Georgia
WK
18
Sat, Mar 30
13:00:00
Buffalo
Philadelphia
Sat, Mar 30
19:00:00
Halifax
Rochester
Sat, Mar 30
19:30:00
Toronto
New York
Sat, Mar 30
22:00:00
Vancouver
Las Vegas
WK
19
Fri, Apr 5
21:00:00
Saskatchewan
Calgary
Fri, Apr 5
21:00:00
Buffalo
Colorado
Fri, Apr 5
22:00:00
Panther City
San Diego
Fri, Apr 5
22:00:00
Halifax
Vancouver
Sat, Apr 6
19:00:00
New York
Rochester
Sat, Apr 6
19:00:00
Toronto
Albany
Sat, Apr 6
19:30:00
Las Vegas
Georgia
Sat, Apr 6
20:00:00
Calgary
Saskatchewan
Sun, Apr 7
16:00:00
Philadelphia
Panther City
WK
20
Fri, Apr 12
21:00:00
Philadelphia
Colorado
Sat, Apr 13
19:00:00
Rochester
Toronto
Sat, Apr 13
19:30:00
Calgary
Buffalo
Sat, Apr 13
20:00:00
San Diego
Saskatchewan
Sat, Apr 13
22:00:00
Colorado
Las Vegas
Sat, Apr 13
22:00:00
New York
Vancouver
Sun, Apr 14
16:00:00
Albany
Panther City
WK
21
Fri, Apr 19
19:30:00
Rochester
Georgia
Fri, Apr 19
22:00:00
Vancouver
San Diego
Sat, Apr 20
18:00:00
Colorado
Halifax
Sat, Apr 20
19:30:00
Albany
New York
Sat, Apr 20
20:00:00
Toronto
Saskatchewan
Sat, Apr 20
21:00:00
Panther City
Calgary
Sat, Apr 20
22:00:00
Buffalo
Las Vegas
Sun, Apr 21
15:00:00
Philadelphia
Rochester
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Ready To Rock: Toronto Visits Calgary

The Calgary Roughnecks (3-8) will host the Toronto Rock (10-3) at Scotiabank Saddledome for the second and final matchup of the season between the two teams on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET. Watch the game live on TSN GO in Canada and NLL LIVE in the U.S.

The Riggers are going into this game after a big 20-9 win against the New England Black Wolves last weekend, which seems to be a good starting point for the winning streak the team needs.

“We challenged the guys to be better, we don’t have tomorrow; we have to win now,” said Roughnecks head coach Curt Malawsky. “We can’t give up games, we can’t pass up games. You never want to express that urgency to the players to put a lot of pressure on them, but the gloves and helmets are off for us now, they all know where we sit. The challenge was it’s either today or never. We’ve got a lot of character in that room, the guys stepped up they played really well… We liked the way we played and it was a good stepping stone for us moving into this weekend.”

Knowing where they stand, and the immediacy of their situation sparked a fire for the ‘Necks players. The team’s blowout victory last week was its strongest performance this season.

“They played with a lot of passion and emotion that I hadn’t seen all year,” Malawsky said. “These guys really care about team success, and that was a big turning point for me looking at the guys on the bench.”

After celebrating a huge win, the Roughnecks are now back to business and focusing on Saturday’s game, the team is fully aware of the threat the Rock poses to its playoff run.

“It’s a whole different animal playing the Rock,” Malawsky said. “I watched the game on the weekend against Edmonton and that was a war. We had a war down in Rochester and it was a war up in Edmonton, so we’ve been a part of a few of those. But you gotta battle for every inch you got on the floor…I expect them coming hard at our guys.”

“They’re very well coached and very disciplined, they move the ball very well, they have great goaltending and their defense is big, strong and very aggressive. We’re going to have to come up with a real good game plan,” Malawsky added.

Falling to another team after every triumph is a trend for the Roughnecks this season, they are looking to break that pattern and string together two wins for the first time this year. However, it will be an uphill battle with the Rock in town.

“This weekend’s a huge game for us coming off a big win, every time we come off a big win we kind of face a good team. It’s gonna be another test for us this weekend,” said Roughnecks forward Shawn Evans.

Replicating the strong start the Riggers had against the Black Wolves will be a key factor for the team, as they focus on defeating the Rock, who are first in the NLL.

“I definitely think the start’s going to be a big part of it,” Malawsky remarked. “Early in the year, teams were attacking us early thinking we’re going to fold, we took that personally. We tried to really work on our starts, and we came out of the gates hot last weekend. We’re hoping to do the same thing because you get behind five or six against Toronto, I don’t think you come back.”

Evans will be looking to stack more points onto the 83 he has tallied so far this season. He believes that playing with the same energy they did last week should propel them to victory.

“Toronto’s a good team,” Evans said. “We watch video on them; we watched their game last weekend too. They’re a strong team that moves the ball well we gotta come out a quick start like last weekend…If we do that, I’m sure that things are gonna hopefully go our way.”

Using its losses as a lesson has been important to the Roughnecks. The coaching staff is looking back at their Rochester games, and will be looking for the ‘Necks to get into the rougher areas on Saturday night.

“I think our guys learned from the fact that when we got a couple put on our wrists, and tailbones in our Rochester games,” Malawsky admitted. “We stood around the outside, I expect our guys to get right to the dirty areas, that’s the only way to score against Toronto, you gotta get to the middle of the floor and they don’t make it easy. By far, I believe this is going to be our toughest test of the season.

The Rock, fresh off its first home loss of the season, look to rebound on the road and will have to do so without their top player in Rob Hellyer, who suffered an upper body injury in last Saturday’s defeat against the Edmonton Rush. Hellyer left for the locker room ahead of halftime and never returned. Following the game, Toronto Rock owner and general manger Jamie Dawick explained the injury as just a precaution. However it was reported Wednesday morning that Hellyer will be placed on injury reserve, which means the league’s leading scorer will have to sit out for a least ten days. At which time, Hellyer will be reevaluated by the team’s medical staff.

“Losing him, it’s obviously a big hole for us,” said Rock forward Kevin Ross. “But we’re not an offense, that’s going to rely on one guy on any given night to get the job done.”

The Rock are no stranger to suffering big losses. Roughly the same time last season, Toronto lost Garrett Billings to a torn ACL. At the time of injury, Billings, like Hellyer, was leading the league in scoring and looked poised to hold that title until season’s end.

The Rock called upon Hellyer to fill the void Billings left and his 86 points (31+55) over 13 games this season speaks loudly to his success in doing so. But the Rock’s back pocket, at least for now, is without a savior anywhere close to Hellyer’s caliber. Toronto is faced with the objection of acting as one, functioning by committee on offense.

“The key to our offense this year is our unselfish mentality and keeping the ball hot,” said Ross, who has tallied up 40 points (16+24) thus far.

Exit Hellyer and enter Brandon Benn, a 22-year-old Orangeville native with only a couple NLL preseason games under his belt. Despite this, the Rock hold very little reservation in adding brand new skin to the lineup.

“We got a great guy in Benn, I think he showed in the preseason that he is an NLL caliber player and we don’t expect him to replace Rob, but we expect him to have a good showing,” Ross added.

Over two preseason games, Benn found the back of the net four times, finding success both on the powerplay and five-on-five play. The youngster nabbed a hat trick against the Rochester Knighthawks in a game played played at the Bell Centre in Montreal.  

“Benn is going to be one of our rights on the team and it’s going to be a tough game for him in terms of playing his first game in the NLL, but coming out of training camp he was very good,” said Toronto head coach John Lovell.

“We have confidence he’s going to be able to do this.”

Benn and the rest of the Rock squad will get their first taste of life without Hellyer against the Roughnecks, a once struggling team that may have finally found their balance. After starting the year to a franchise-worst 0-6, Calgary has won three of their last five games. Two of those wins were against Rochester and Edmonton, teams with a combined record of 15-7.

“I still think Calgary is one of the best teams in this league, they present an unbelievable challenge in terms of their offense. They have four or five real good players there,” said Lovell. “They are always a major challenge to defend.”

The biggest challenge for Toronto’s back-end will surely be forward Shawn Evans, who carries the league’s best points per game average (7.54).

In related news, the Knighthawks signed restricted free agent Garrett Billings to an offer sheet on Friday night which means that the Toronto Rock have until Monday night to match the offer in order to retain the services of the All-Pro forward.

By Laura Bates (@RoughnecksBeat) & Justin Millerson (@RockBeatToronto) for NLL.com. Photo by Dave Abel.

NLL