National Lacrosse League season starts tonight
The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is back in action this weekend, with five games starting off the 21-week regular season.
The start of the season, however, will have to wait for Kahnawa’kehró:non Louis Alfred Jr.
After the conclusion of training camps, the Halifax Thunderbirds defender was placed on the physically unable to perform list on November 24, meaning he is not able to play games for the time being.
Alfred confirmed to The Eastern Door that he was injured, but did not comment further on the nature or severity of the injury. The Thunderbirds did not respond to The Eastern Door’s request for comment.
He was a fifth-round pick by the Thunderbirds in the 2024 draft and signed a one-year contract with the team in September.
This season, dozens of Onkwehón:we will be taking the floor for NLL teams.
Along with Alfred is Kahnawa’kehró:non goalie Angus Goodleaf, who will return to the Georgia Swarm in his role as secondary in goal behind Brett Dobson. The 37-year-old appeared in limited action last season - only playing 88 minutes - but performed well when pressed into duty, with a .843 save percentage.
His teammate, forward Lyle Thompson, is looking to continue burnishing his impressive offensive resume after becoming just the third ever Indigenous player to score 300 goals in the NLL last season. The six-time NLL Sporstmanship Award winner scored 42 goals and added 45 assists in 2023-2024.
He will be joined on the roster by two of his brothers, forward Miles Thompson and transition player Jeremy Thompson.
Cody Jamieson, the second ever Indigenous player to reach the 300-goal mark, will return to the Halifax Thunderbirds this year, playing for the franchise since 2011. Jamieson scored 22 times last year and assisted on 41 goals, and is only 41 points away from crossing the 1,000-point threshold.
Others to look out for include two more Halifax forwards, 26-year-old Austin Staats, the fourth-best goal scorer in the league last year with 50 goals, and Randy Staats, who had 47 points in just nine games.
In goal, Doug Jamieson was tied for third in wins last year for Albany, and even added a goal himself while tending the nets, his second time doing so after scoring in 2019.
In the NLL season’s first game, the Ottawa Black Bears will play host to the Toronto Rock at the Canadian Tire Centre at 7 p.m. tonight (Friday).
The Black Bears will be playing their first game in Ottawa against Toronto, as the team operated as the New York Riptides from 2018 until the end of last season before relocating to Ottawa.
The Colorado Mammoth and the Vancouver Warriors will square off at 9:30 p.m. in the second of two games Friday.
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Saturday will feature another two games, with the Rochester Knighthawks hosting the Las Vegas Desert Dogs and the Albany FireWolves facing the Saskatchewan Rush. Both games will start at 7.p.m.
Finally, the Philadelphia Wings will be in San Diego to play the Seals, starting at 6 p.m.
All NLL regular season games can be watched on the TSN+ streaming service in Canada and the ESPN+ streaming service in the United States.
