“PLAYOFFS? Ya kiddin’ me? Playoffs?”
While seemingly everyone around town is tripping over themselves to climb aboard the soccer bandwagon, the pro team that got the dreams of Atlanta as a Titletown going is out to win its second championship in three years.
The Georgia Swarm kicks off its fourth consecutive postseason appearance since the indoor “box” lacrosse franchise moved from Minnesota in 2016. For their first-round, single-elimination, Eastern Division semifinal match, they’ll get a piece of the Toronto Rock at Gwinnett’s Infinite Energy Arena tomorrow night (7:30 PM Eastern, game available online via Bleacher Report's "B/R Live" for $2.99).
The Swarm has staked their claim as one of the upper-crust clubs in all of professional lacrosse, and they’ve done so by building the equivalence of the Golden State Warriors’ offensive prowess.
During this strike-abbreviated season in the National Lacrosse League, their 230 goals scored and +20 differential ranked second only to the league-leading Buffalo Bandits. The MVP of 2017’s NLL championship season, when the Swarm shattered the league record with 266 goals in 18 games, Georgia’s Lyle Thompson scored 43 goals to finish third in the league in 2019.
Thompson’s 62 assists rank 8th in NLL. Aided by fellow forwards Randy Staats, Shayne Jackson and Holden Cattoni, the Swarm are the only NLL outfit with four players among the league’s Top 20 in points (goals plus assists).
Georgia did stumble into the postseason, with a pair of bad losses at Calgary and versus expansion Philadelphia in the regular season home finale. But they made their run with a perfect 4-0 romp through March. In that month, the Swarm became one of only two NLL clubs to beat the top-ranked Bandits (14-4) in Buffalo (Toronto being the other), and Georgia closed out March by pulverizing the Rock (4-5 in road games) here in Gwinnett by a 14-5 score. That latter win secured the tiebreaker with Toronto, who also finished 2019 with a 12-6 record.
Georgia lost those final two games after their steady goalie, Mike Poulin, exited the Calgary game in the first half due to a lower-body injury. The netminder is rested and recuperated, and he is always eager to flummox his former Toronto team. The Rock were also once directed by Georgia’s coach, Ed Comeau, who notched his 100th career NLL win back in January.
If Poulin is back on his game and the offense clicks behind Thompson, the Bandits may need to start looking over their shoulders. The championship buzz may be back in the ATL!
Let’s Go Swarm!
~lw3
