Blue Skies: What’s New Heading into the 2024-25 NLL Season on TyMer Lacrosse
Happy opening day of the 2024-25 NLL season. After seven months, TyMer Lacrosse is back and better than ever ready for the upcoming NLL season excited to be here sporting some new features.
It’s been a weird six months since the 2024 NLL Postseason ended for the NLL. Bear with me as I go over the NLL’s recent history.
For the NLL, a poorly placed team folded, meaning a wealth of player (and front office) jobs just vanished; a team owner and general manager described upcoming CBA negotiations with nuclear terms on the Lacrosse Classified podcast, which the NLLPA representatives undercut by saying those negotiations haven’t even started yet in a following episode (not to mention the NLL commissioner’s comments on OTCB Podcast casting a more positive viewpoint); a former NLL MVP won’t play for the foreseeable future (franchise tags are dumb); 13 more NLL UnBOXed markets were announced (but I still can’t buy Snowbirds merchandise); and the league unveiled the six-figure-plus NLL+, which snapped my patellar tendon in half when I immediately went “NLLTV 2.0” (I am unable to pitch but can still bat and lead my team to the postseason, where Freddie Freeman will finish the job and win the World Series). Fortunately, it’s not NLLTV 2.0; NLL+ will be huge for international viewers and perfect for fans looking to rewatch games, and it’s currently free. Credit to the NLL where it’s due — that’s an awesome initiative and great investment from the teams.
The overdue evaporation of Panther City LC is a black eye for the NLL that it needs to wear for a minute. Cannot stress that enough, especially as we see the repercussions on the floor with numerous players that have been regulars in lineups through seasons past unsigned. But its inevitability means we can stop worrying about a franchise’s woes and focus on a league that’s grown in terms of total attendance the last two seasons — very top heavy — and is so chock full of talent that predicting who will make the postseason in 2025 is a more foolish endeavor than normal.
Think at this point we can all agree that “The Next Major League” slogan was moronic from the get-go and was completely undermined after a franchise folded and an owner grandstanded and threatened future seasons over players wanting to be able to make a full-time living off of playing in the National Lacrosse League. It needs to go away, but I imagine this is now in our tired lacrosse lexicon, along with “Grow the Game,” “blue-collar team,” and “face-offs matter.”
All that said, let’s turn to TyMer Lacrosse — I plan to continue this stats project for this season. Hold your applause.
Nine less games to deal with in a season somehow sounds more manageable to handle over the next six months. Plenty of work was done to make the presentation of the depth charts and advanced team statistics more pleasing to the eye and easier to interact with on this site. Details below.
I’ve no clue what I want to do for my coverage of the NLL this season beyond “create data and post it publicly.” I’m independent — no Lacrosse Flash or IL Indoor — for the first time in my post-Swarm NLL career. Game recaps on Swarm games get dogshit interaction — a problem that’s plagued me for almost a decade even when I worked for the Swarm — and I’m not sure how much time and effort it’s worth for two clicks per article — my dog, Hugo, has to be walked regularly, and a CTR <50 doesn’t pay for his sweet potato treats.
For now, things are in flux. At a minimum, you have regularly updated depth charts and stats you can sort. Additional content will be at my whim. Warnings about mental health will be in short supply — talk to people and take care of your mentals, damn it.
Photo Credit: Buffalo Bandits
What’s New
If you’re on desktop, look at the top navigation bar; mobile, click the dropdown menu in the top right. The stats sections have been consolidated to just “Advanced Stats,” where you can see the current season’s stats and past seasons’. But the cooler part is those stats and Depth Charts are now visible on the site. No longer will a new window open to take you to a Google Sheets document (not everyone likes Excel/Sheets for viewing, but if you’re a weirdo like me and prefer that, links to the stats Sheets will be included on each relevant page at the bottom).
(Ignore the data you see for any 2024-25 stats if you’re reading it before Week 1’s conclusion — I needed test data to make sure everything worked.)
Stats are divvied up into four main categories — Goals/Shot Types, Offensive Percentages, Defensive Percentages, Goalie Stats, and Shifts. They cover everything from 5-on-5 Even Strength to Power Play shifts to all types of Fast Breaks to Penalty Shots. I’ve included goals scored off the draw, multiple possessions, and failed clears, the latter of which I wouldn’t put too much stock in, as production camera changes tends to affect those.
The terminology and what it all means hasn’t changed. My original article detailing those definitions remains the same, and I’ve included ribbons that clearly spell out what everything means. If you’re unsure of what constitutes a PPFB or anything like that, the original explainer article’s the place to go. I’ve faith in all of you sports fans to know what an even strength possession is. Spend five minutes studying, and it's all pretty intuitive (says the guy that came up with all this nonsense). If you’re unclear on anything, hit me up on BlueSky.
Depth Charts are also on the site now. I don’t sort players by positional strength; it’s all alphabetical. You are still able to see who’s active, on the IR, HoldOut, and other lists (Colors! (or Colours! depending on your latitude)) — including a Restricted Free Agent list I’ve never seen before in a decade of working for/covering the NLL. These are generally updated late every evening.
Finally, the social media strategy is changing.
And by “changing,” I mean I’m not on Twitter much anymore. Watching an oligarch continue to fail upwards as he actively undermines a democracy so he doesn’t have to pay more taxes and makes an already terrible social media platform somehow worse and worse isn’t something I’m interested in engaging with, especially since links are purposely being throttled on that site. There’s a follower base already built there, but way too much of it are bots, and I’m tired of seeing my DMs being filled with the weirdest spam icebreakers. The pornbots were at least consistent telling me their pussy was in bio.
I’ll post articles on Twitter for a bit, maybe, but if you’re interested in engagement, BlueSky’s the better platform for that.
Still won’t be on FaceBook (just as bad as Twitter).
Think that covers everything.
Re-reading this, and I’m noticing my tone’s a bit negative. Apologies; that’s my default setting. Being excited for a new season unfortunately isn’t overshadowing all the issues I’ve seen this past season, way too many of them that are continuations from years’ past.
Coverage will be more positive forward — the beatings will continue until morale improves and all that jazz — but I think it’s important to remember that the NLL isn’t where we want it to be and that the positive coverage needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
Enjoy what we have — the players and coaches and front office folks have put in so much time and effort for a sport we all dearly love and pay that does not scale appropriately, but don’t let that stop you from demanding better. The NLL has a long way to go to get to the lofty place we all aspire it to be; keep up the pressure.
Preseason Power Rankings and Postseason Predictions
Here’s how I’m feeling about everyone and the postseason predictions I feel like hazarding way too early. Obviously, things will change; better to have flags planted somewhere. For posterity:
1.) Buffalo Bandits
2.) Albany FireWolves
3.) Toronto Rock
4.) San Diego Seals
5.) Rochester Knighthawks
6.) Georgia Swarm
7.) Halifax Thunderbirds
8.) Vancouver Warriors
9.) Saskatchewan Rush
10.) Ottawa Black Bears
11.) Colorado Mammoth
12.) Philadelphia Wings
13.) Las Vegas Desert Dogs
14.) Calgary Roughnecks
Final Standings and Postseason Predictions:
Knighthawks
FireWolves
Bandits
Seals
Rock
Warriors
Black Bears
Rush
Swarm
Desert Dogs
Mammoth
Thunderbirds
Wings
Roughnecks
Quarters — KHawks over Rush, Black Bears over FireWolves, Bandits over Warriors, Rock over Seals.
Semis — KHawks over Black Bears, Bandits over Rock.
NLL Finals — Bandits over KHawks in the I-90 NLL Finals.