Bandits suffer another home loss

By Budd Bailey

Say, what happened to “Guaranteed Win Night” when the Bandits played a home game in the KeyBank Center?

You remember those good times way back in, um, January. The Bandits would show up, and then pillage and plunder the opposing teams … all to the delight of a nearly full house.

Lately, however, Buffalo has had some problems. The Bandits lost their first game of the season three weeks ago at home to San Diego. After two close road wins, Buffalo lost again on Saturday night – this time to Calgary by a slightly deceptive score of 17-12 before a disappointed sellout crowd. It was a generally close game, but the Roughnecks poured it on in the end. The Bandits hadn’t allowed that many goals since their first game of the 2023-24 season in Albany, more than a year ago.

So what exactly is going on here?

Here’s one theory: There’s more parity in the league as the season goes along.

There were plenty of personnel moves in the offseason, in part because of the folding of one of the franchises and the dispersal draft that followed. It took a while for the new people to fit in, but now three months into the season, most of the teams have started to fully integrate the new parts. That means there won’t be many more blowouts on the schedule from here on in.

The Bandits were immune to that to some degree at the start of the season, since they had virtually everyone back. But that advantage is about gone, and Buffalo has gone through a run of tough games. The luck of how the schedule falls has a role in all of this, of course. If the Bandits had beaten up someone in the bottom of the standings last night, it probably would be less of an issue. But they didn't, and here we are

“Teams get together more (as the season progresses), and the dispersal draft of the Texas team (Panther City) made a lot of teams stronger,” Bandits coach John Tavares said. “They added some new pieces to the puzzle, and it takes some time. So maybe these teams are starting to get better with these new additions. … I think there’s parity throughout the entire year, but now it’s getting even tighter. If you look at the standings, there are a lot of teams around .500 – 6-6, 5-6. 7-5. On any night, anybody can win.”

The Bandits started well enough on Saturday night, taking a 2-0 lead in the first seven minutes and probably should have been ahead by more. But the Roughnecks tied the game late in the first period, and edged ahead late in the second quarter. Calgary never trailed in the second half, and a 7-2 burst in the final 15 minutes sent quite a few people to the exits in an effort to beat the traffic.

“They outscored us because they shot the ball better than we did,” Tavares said. “In the fourth quarter, we didn’t really have an answer.”

A couple of old pros led the way for the Roughnecks. Curtis Dickson, in his 13th year in the league at the age of 36, had six goals and two assists. Dickson has had two 50-goal seasons, eight 40-goal campaigns, and 11 30-goal years. He put up six goals and two assists on Saturday night in helping his team gain control of the game.

“He had a great game,” Tavares said. “He’s feeling it. From outside and inside he was scoring. When someone like that gets going, we can try to cut him off. But he had a pretty good ‘supporting cast’ with him. Like with our offense, when you have many threats, it’s hard to stop. He did a good job of coming around and shooting off of screens.”

“He’s got really good feet,” Bandits forward Kyle Buchanan added. “He’s able to get himself open. He doesn’t need a lot of space. He can also shoot it in different ways.”

Jesse King supplied some help with four goals and six assists for 10 points, while Tanner Cook chipped in with three goals.

“They outscored us because they shot the ball better than we did,” Tavares said. “In the fourth quarter, we didn’t really have an answer.”

Then there’s Nick Rose, who turned 37 last month. The goalie already had lost twice to the Bandits this season while playing for the Toronto Rose. But he recently was dealt to Calgary, and took advantage of a chance to get a little revenge – even if he was wearing a Roughnecks uniform.

“It was certainly different,” Buchanan said about Rose’s new threads. “We know how he plays. It’s a bit of an adjustment playing with a different defense. … We’ve seen him before, so we know what to expect, so that’s not an excuse.”

No one on the Bandits could match that sort of production; no one had more than two goals. The highlight of the evening came right away when Dhane Smith scored the 400th goal of his career. Smith has a way to go to crack the top 10 in NLL history in that department (Shawn Evans – 479), but he’s already there in points and his induction into the Hall of Fame becomes more of a slam dunk with every game.

One of the Bandits’ problems was that they kept getting goals wiped out – four, in fact. Sometimes it was a foot in the crease, sometimes it was a penalty. Just to add insult to penalty, the Roughnecks often responded with a quick goal after such plays.

“It definitely was a momentum killer,” Buchanan said. “It happens to every team. Tonight it happened to us. … It’s obviously difficult because it’s like a two-goal swing. … There were a lot of things that contributed to the loss; it wasn’t just that.”

There should be no panic here for the Bandits. They are still 9-2 and in first place in the league standings. A little bit of an early spring clean-up of some mistakes will be necessary. That should start in a week, when Buffalo heads to Calgary for a rematch. If that reminds you about how the Bandits beat San Diego out West after losing to the Seals here the week before, you’re on the same page as Buchanan.

“I said that to the guys after the game,” he said. “The message to the guys was that we were winning but we weren’t playing that well. We can’t get comfortable in those routines and those habits. That’s not going to get it done at the year, and we’re aware of that."

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)