The 2006

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 was the 20th season in the history of the league, which began as the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League in 1987. The season began on December 30, 2005 and concluded with the championship game on May 13, 2006. The defending champion Toronto Rock were once again the favourite to win the Champions' Cup, but a slow start plus a dismal performance in the semifinal game against

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

removed the Rock from contention. The Colorado Mammoth, under first-year head coach

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, ...

, won their first title since winning the first ever title in 1987, as the

Baltimore Thunder The Baltimore Thunder were a member of the National Lacrosse League from 1987 until 1999. They were based in Baltimore, Maryland, and won the first Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League (later the National Lacrosse League) championship in 1987. After th ...

. Highly touted Portland rookie Brodie Merrill lived up to his hype, winning both the Defensive Player of the Year and the Rookie of the Year awards. Portland continued its domination of the post-season awards with Derek Keenan, himself a former Rookie of the Year Award winner (1992 with Buffalo), winning both the

Les Bartley Award The Les Bartley Award is given annually to the National Lacrosse League head coach of the year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and ...

for coach of the year and the GM of the Year Award, and owner Angela Batinovich winning the Executive of the Year Award.

Team movement

The season featured the debut of two expansion teams; the Edmonton Rush and the

Portland LumberJax The Portland LumberJax (sometimes referred to as the Jax) were a professional lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League (NLL), which started playing in the 2006 season and ended operations after the 2009 season. Angela Batinovich, the owner ...

, both in the Western Division. Portland beat the expansion team odds and won its division, finishing with an 11–5 record, while Edmonton did not fare so well. The Rush finished the season 1–15, their only win coming at the hands of their provincial rivals, the

Calgary Roughnecks The Calgary Roughnecks are a professional box lacrosse team based in Calgary, Alberta. They are members of the Western Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and play their home games on WestJet Field at Scotiabank Saddledome. The te ...

. Before the 2006 season, 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 ...

folded not being able to attract enough fans in their two years in Southern California moving from their original home of New Jersey after the 2003 season where, for two seasons, they were not able to attract enough fans.

Milestones

*February 18:

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 ...

tied

for the all-time record in points, with 1091, as 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 ...

defeated the Minnesota Swarm 14–9. *March 4: Tavares sets a new NLL record for career points, scoring his 1092nd point in an 11–8 loss to the Swarm.

Final standings

Regular season

''Toronto won the 3-way tiebreaker with Minnesota and Philadelphia''

Playoffs

All-Star game

The 2006

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

Air Canada Centre Scotiabank Arena ( French: ''Aréna Scotiabank)'', formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purposed arena located on Bay Street in the South Core district of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto Ra ...

in Toronto, Ontario on February 25, 2006. The West Division defeated the East Division 14–13. The MVP of the game was Lewis Ratcliff of the

, who scored 4 goals, including the game winner. This marked the second straight year that a Roughneck player was All-Star Game MVP, with Tracy Kelusky having won it in 2005.

All-Star teams

Awards

Annual

All-Pro Teams

First Team * Colin Doyle, Toronto * John Grant, Jr., Rochester * Brodie Merrill, Portland *

Gavin Prout Gavin Prout (born March 13, 1978 in Whitby, Ontario) is a Canadian professional lacrosse player who plays for the Colorado Mammoth in the National Lacrosse League, and formerly of the Hamilton Nationals in Major League Lacrosse. He was also a mem ...

, Colorado *

Josh Sanderson Josh "Shooter" Sanderson (born April 23, 1977 in Orangeville, Ontario) is a Canadian former professional lacrosse player. Sanderson played 19 seasons in the National Lacrosse League including nine with the Toronto Rock. In 2002, as a member of th ...

, Toronto * Steve Dietrich, Buffalo Second Team * Craig Conn, Arizona * Dan Dawson, Arizona * Jay Jalbert, Colorado * Lewis Ratcliff, Calgary *

, Buffalo * Nick Patterson, Minnesota

All-Rookie Team

* Brodie Merrill, Portland * Sean Greenhalgh, Philadelphia * Dan Carey, Colorado * Jeff Zywicki, San Jose * Shawn Evans, Rochester * Luke Wiles, San Jose

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

Standings from pointstreak.com
* ttp://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/goalieleaders.html?leagueid=230&seasonid=977 Goalie Leaders from pointstreak.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2006 Nll Season 06