The 2005

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United States and five in Canada. The N ...

season is the 19th season of the NLL that began on January 1, 2005 and concluded with the championship game on May 14. The

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. Oakville resident ...

won their fifth NLL championship, defeating the

Arizona Sting The Arizona Sting was a member of the National Lacrosse League from 2004 to 2007. They played at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, from 2001 to 2003 as the Columbus Landsharks. On August 28, 2003, it was announced that the team was relocating to ...

19–13 in Toronto. Colin Doyle of the Toronto Rock won the scoring title, marking the first time since

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

that someone other than

Gary Gait Gary Charles Gait (born April 5, 1967) is a Canadian retired Hall of Fame professional lacrosse player and currently the head coach of the men’s lacrosse team at Syracuse University, where he played the sport collegiately. On January 24, 2017, ...

Paul Gait Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

, or

John Tavares John Tavares (born September 20, 1990) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected first overall by the New York Islanders in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft ...

has led the league in scoring. For his efforts in leading the Rock to the championship, Doyle was named both league

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

and Championship Game MVP. Just hours after the Rock's championship victory, another lacrosse legend, former Toronto head coach and general manager Les Bartley died from colon cancer at age 51. Bartley had coached the

Buffalo Bandits The Buffalo Bandits are a professional box lacrosse Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada in the 1930s, where it is more po ...

to three MILL/NLL championships before moving to the expansion

Ontario Raiders The Ontario Raiders were a member of the National Lacrosse League during the 1998 NLL season. The franchise was founded as an expansion team in Hamilton, Ontario, and played their home games at Copps Coliseum. Former Buffalo Bandits coach Les B ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

. Bartley moved with the Raiders to Toronto the next year, and went on to win titles in four of the next five seasons. Bartley also won the NLL Executive of the Year award in 2005, in part due to his involvement in the negotiation of the new CBA. The 2005 season featured the NLL retirement of two lacrosse legends:

and

Tom Marechek Tom "Hollywood" Marechek (born August 25, 1968 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a retired professional lacrosse player. College career Marechek played college lacrosse at Syracuse University where he teamed with Paul and Gary Gait to form one o ...

. Marechek played his entire 12-year career with the Philadelphia Wings, winning Rookie of the Year in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, as well as four championships with the Wings. He was named to the All-Pro team eight times, and is third all-time in the NLL in points, after only Gary Gait and

. Marechek announced his retirement shortly before the end of the season. Gait, at the time the league's all-time leading scorer, announced his retirement shortly before the season began. He was named League

six times, won seven scoring titles, and was named an All-Pro an astonishing 14 times in 14 seasons. With four games left in the regular season, Gait managed to coax his twin brother

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

out of retirement to play with him. However, Colorado was eliminated in the division semi-finals by Arizona, so Gait's dream of winning the championship in his final season did not come to fruition. He did win the championship in his first year as head coach of the Mammoth the next year.

Labour dispute

The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the league and the

Professional Lacrosse Players' Association The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United States and five in Canada. The N ...

(PLPA) expired at the end of the 2004 season, and negotiations for a new CBA took place over the summer. However, these negotiations did not result in a new agreement, and the NLL even accused the PLPA of negotiating in bad faith. The league made its "last, best, and final offer" to the PLPA on September 29, 2004, and announced that if this offer was not accepted by the players, the season would be officially cancelled on October 2. Marathon negotiations continued until early morning on October 1, and resulted in two different proposals. Both were presented to the players that day with the stipulation that if neither of them was acceptable, the season would be cancelled. One of the two proposals (a three-year deal) was accepted, and the season went on as scheduled.

Team movement

The season featured a new team added to the East division, and one removed from the West. The ownership of the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

team purchased the rights to the old

Montreal Express The Montreal Express was a member of the National Lacrosse League during the 2002 season. They played at the Molson Center in Montreal, Quebec. They were inactive during the 2003 and 2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of ...

franchise, moving it to Minnesota and renaming it the

Minnesota Swarm The Minnesota Swarm was a box lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League who played at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota from 2004 until 2015. The team's previous owners (Minnesota Sports & Entertainment) who also own the NHL's ...

, while the

Vancouver Ravens The Vancouver Ravens were the original Vancouver National Lacrosse League (NLL) franchise from 2002 to 2004. The team played their home games at General Motors Place, now Rogers Arena, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. At the conclusion of ...

franchise was removed from the schedule less than three weeks before the start of the season.

Milestones

*February 10:

legend

became the first player in league history to reach 500 assists, as the Bandits defeated the

Anaheim Storm The Anaheim Storm was a member of the National Lacrosse League. They played at the Arrowhead Pond, now the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. They were the New Jersey Storm from the 2002 season to 2003. Starting for the 2004 season the team re ...

20–9. *February 18: Tavares reaches another milestone in his very next game, scoring his 1000th point in an 11–7 defeat of Rochester. Tavares becomes only the second player ever to reach that milestone, following

Final standings

Regular season

Playoffs

*Toronto hosted the championship game.

All Star Game

The 2005

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or d ...

was held at the

Pengrowth Saddledome Scotiabank Saddledome is a multi-use indoor arena in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Located in Stampede Park in the southeast end of downtown Calgary, the Saddledome was built in 1983 to replace the Stampede Corral as the home of the Calgary Flame ...

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

on February 26, 2005. The East division defeated the West 11–10 in a thrilling overtime game.

scored the winner, and hometown captain

Tracy Kelusky Tracey Kelusky (born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian former lacrosse player and current head coach of Panther City LC. Kelusky played for the Columbus Landsharks, Montreal Express, Calgary Roughnecks, Buffalo Bandits and Philadelphia Wings. Whi ...

was named game MVP.

All-Star teams

Awards

Annual

All-Pro Teams

Reference

First Team

* Colin Doyle, Toronto * John Grant, Jr. (lacrosse), John Grant, Jr., Rochester * John Tavares (lacrosse), John Tavares, Buffalo * Dan Dawson, Arizona * Steve Dietrich, Buffalo * Andrew Turner (lacrosse), Andrew Turner, Rochester

Second Team

, Colorado * Blaine Manning, Toronto * Josh Sanderson, Toronto * Jim Veltman, Toronto * Bob Watson (lacrosse), Bob Watson, Toronto * Tracey Kelusky, Calgary

All-Rookie Team

Reference

* Ryan Boyle, San Jose * Delby Powless, Buffalo * Andrew Burkholder, Philadelphia * Rory Glaves, Anaheim * Ryder Bateman, Minnesota * Dan Finck, Philadelphia

Weekly awards

The NLL gives out awards weekly for the best overall player, best offensive player, best defensive player, and best rookie.

Monthly awards

Awards are also given out monthly for the best overall player and best rookie.

Statistics leaders

Bold numbers indicate new single-season records. ''Italics'' indicate tied single-season records.

References

External links

2005 Archive at the Outsider's Guide to the NLL
*[http://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/goalieleaders.html?leagueid=230&seasonid=686 Goalie Leaders from pointstreak.com] {{DEFAULTSORT:2005 Nll Season National Lacrosse League seasons, 05 2005 in lacrosse, National Lacrosse League