2008 NLL season

The 2008 National Lacrosse League season, the 22nd in the history of the NLL, began on December 29, 2007 and concluded with the Buffalo Bandits winning the championship game over the Portland LumberJax on May 17, 2008.

In an odd coincidence, all four eastern division teams that made the playoffs finished with identical 10-6 records. Due to tiebreakers, the Buffalo Bandits clinched first place overall, followed by the Minnesota Swarm, New York Titans in their playoff debut, and the Philadelphia Wings in their return to the playoffs after a five-year absence.

There was also a tie atop the west division standings, as the San Jose Stealth and Colorado Mammoth both finished with 9-7 records. The Stealth won that tiebreaker and clinched their first western division title. The Calgary Roughnecks and Portland LumberJax finished out the playoff teams in the west despite having losing records.

History was made in 2008 as neither the Rochester Knighthawks nor the Toronto Rock made the playoffs, for the first time in the history of either team (though the Toronto franchise, then the Ontario Raiders, missed the playoffs in their inaugural season in 1998). The Knighthawks broke a 13-year streak of making the playoffs, the Rock streak was stopped at 9 years. [cite web|url=http://nll.com/article.php?id=3457|work=NLL.com|title=2008 Season Was Down To The Wire|date=April 27, 2008|accessdate=2008-05-21]

Philadelphia Wings second-year stars Athan Iannucci and Geoff Snider set a number of new league records in 2008. Iannucci eclipsed Gary Gait's record of 61 goals by scoring 71, and Snider set or tied marks in loose balls (244), face offs won (318, tied with Peter Jacobs in 2005), and penalty minutes (103). [cite web|url=http://nll.com/article.php?id=3458|work=NLL.com|title=Snider Breaks Loose Ball Record|date=April 29, 2008|accessdate=2008-05-21]

The 2008 season almost never happened. On October 16, 2007 the league released a statement officially cancelling the season, after no agreement could be reached on a new collective bargaining agreement.cite web |url=http://www.nll.com/article.php?id=3127|title=2008 Season Cancelled|accessdate=2007-10-16 |author=|date=2007-10-16 |work=NLL.com|publisher=] However, negotiations continued, and on October 25, the league announced that a new CBA has been agreed on, and that the season would proceed.cite web|url=http://nll.com/article.php?id=3132|title=NLL, PLPA reach seven-year deal|work=NLL.com|date=October 25, 2007|accessdate=2007-10-25] The new revised schedule was released on November 2, 2007, but only included 12 of the expected 14 teams. The expansion Boston Blazers and 2007 Western division champion Arizona Sting had decided for "a number of business reasons"cite web|url=http://nll.com/article.php?id=3141|work=NLL.com|title=League Releases New 2008 Schedule|date=November 2, 2007|accessdate=2007-11-02] to opt out of the 2008 season and return in 2009.

Team Movement

An expansion franchise for Boston, Massachusetts was announced on May 9, 2007. It was expected that the team would play at the TD Banknorth Garden, which is also home to the NBA's Boston Celtics and the NHL's Boston Bruins. [cite web|url=http://www.nll.com/article.php?id=2944|title=Expansion Team Awarded to Boston for 2008|work=NLL.com|date=May 9, 2007|accessdate=2007-05-09] On October 3, 2007 the Boston franchise was officially named the Boston Blazers. [cite web|url=http://www.nll.com/article.php?id=3111|title=Boston Team Name: Blazers|work=NLL.com|date=October 3, 2007|accessdate=2007-03-10]

When the revised schedule was released on November 2, 2007, it was announced that both the Arizona Sting and Boston Blazers were suspending operations for the 2008 season, returning in 2009.

Work Stoppage

In the off-season between the 2007 and 2008 seasons the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the National Lacrosse League and the Professional Lacrosse Players' Association expired. The owners announced that if there no deal was in place before midnight, October 15, 2007 the 2008 season would be cancelled [cite web|url=http://calsun.canoe.ca/Sports/OtherSports/2007/10/12/4569900-sun.html|title=NLL Season could be cancelled|work=Calgary Sun|date=October 12, 2007|accessdate=2007-10-14] . On the morning of October 16, the league announced that no agreement had been reached, and that the season was cancelled. The next day, commissioner Jim Jennings even said that the league would not change its mind about the cancellation, saying: Cquote|There's no hope due to the fact that we've released our dates. It's very difficult to get dates in places like (New York's) Madison Square Garden and (Toronto's) ACC Centre and places like that. To try to restart this thing up on a moment's notice is an impossibility. [cite web|url=http://nll.com/article.php?id=3128|title=Report: NLL won't change mind|work=NLL.com|date=October 17, 2007|accessdate=2007-10-17]

However, the negotiations continued, and on October 25, the league announced that a new seven-year agreement had been reached, and that the season would be played.

Before the initial cancellation of the season, the Versus network announced that it would not carry a game of the week, as they had in 2007, even if an agreement was reached before the deadline. [cite web |url=http://www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=170242 |title=NLL: Saturday night Game of the Week on VERSUS a no-go |accessdate=2007-10-12 |author=Johnson, Craig|date=October 11, 2007 |work=InsideLacrosse.com |publisher=]

Final Standings

"W = Wins, L = Losses, GB = Games Behind Division Leader, PCT = Winning Percentage, Home = Home record, Road = Road record, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against"