So, now that we have football back, I’m gonna post about lacrosse for the next week or so. haha.   As some of you may know, I’m a big lacrosse fan.  I would like to say I still play, but I’m a “never was” kinda player and just out to talk a bit of trash and to run around.  As part of my fandom, I have season tickets for one of the teams close to me (about an hour away) in Peterborough called the Lakers.  For many Peterborough is cottage\cabin\camp country and are only up there on vacation.  But there’s some great lacrosse to be seen up there and the tickets are pretty reasonable at like $25 a game.  This will be my second Mann Cup post on the site, my firstest ever post was me going to the Mann Cup back in 2018.  That seems like forever ago.  Fuck you Covid.

I’ll try to take some pics and video but will prob get caught up in just watching the games, so will (read try) be doing a game report after each game.  The schedule of the games:

Game 1: Friday, September 9th at 8:00PM
Game 2: Saturday, September 10th at 7:00PM
Game 3: Monday, September 12th at 8:00PM
Game 4: Tuesday, September 13th at 8:00PM
Game 5: Wednesday, September 14th at 8:00PM*
Game 6: Friday, September 16th at 8:00PM*
Game 7: Saturday, September 17th at 7:00PM*

*if necessary

The Mann Cup is the Senior “A” Men’s Championship. It’s been played yearly since 1932 (except for 2020 and 2021) to determine the champ between the Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) and Major Series Lacrosse (MSL).  These teams no not play each other during the season as they are in separate leagues.  The only thing I can think that it’s close to is JV Football teams playing in bowl games against a team not in their conference. Yes it’s dumb, but there’s not enough money in lacrosse to fly teams all over the country.  It’s also one of the hardest things to win as the team needs to win their league and then play that crazy schedule above to win.  The Lakers have won the last 3 Mann’s and are looking to tie the record with 4 consecutive Mann Cup wins.  The previous team was the Peterborough Timbermen from 1951 to 9154.  Back to the flying thing, each year the Cup is either played out West with the winner of the WLA hosting all the game or out East with the MSL hositng all the games.  This is an east year.

So representing the WLA is the Langley Thunder.  They finished first in the regular season.  For the playoffs, this is how they won:

Western Lacrosse Association Finals
#1 Langley Thunder vs. #4 Victoria Shamrocks
Game 1: Victoria 9 at Langley 15
Game 2: Langley 15 at Victoria 10
Game 3: Victoria 10 at Langley 3
Game 4: Langley 10 at Victoria 12
Game 5: Victoria 8 at Langley 10
Game 6: Langley 15 at Victoria 10

Western Lacrosse Association Finals
#1 Langley Thunder vs. #3 Nanaimo Timbermen
Game 1: Nanaimo 4 at Langley 12
Game 2: Langley 10 at Nanaimo 8
Game 3: Nanaimo 11 at Langley 12 (OT)
Game 4: Langley 6 at Nanaimo 12
Game 5: Nanaimo 5 at Langley 11

Thie big names on this team are Dane Dobby and Curtis Dickson aka Superman. Here are some of his highlights from a few years ago.

It will be interesting to see how he’s treated by the fans as he was part of the last Laker team to win the Cup.

Representing the MSL is the Peterborough Lakers.  They finished second in the regular season and this is how they did in the playoff:

Major Series Lacrosse Semifinals

#2 Peterborough Lakers vs. #3 Brooklin Lacrosse Club
Game 1: Brooklin 8 at Peterborough 12
Game 2: Peterborough 10 at Brooklin 12
Game 2 Note: Game 2 decision reversed due to Brooklin having suspended coach on bench ( Offensive Coach Gavin Prout, who got penalties after game 1 for abuse of the officials)
Game 3: Brooklin 11 at Peterborough 10
Game 4: Peterborough 12 at Brooklin 8
Game 5: Brooklin 8 at Peterborough 11

Major Series Lacrosse Finals

#1 Six Nations Chiefs vs. #2 Peterborough Lakers
Game 1: Peterborough 10 at Six Nations 6
Game 2: Six Nations 13 at Peterborough 12
Game 3: Peterborough 11 at Six Nations 7
Game 4: Six Nations 5 at Peterborough 12
Game 5: Peterborough 8 at Six Nations 15
Game 6: Six Nations 8 at Peterborough 10

The big names on the Lakers are Shawn Evans, Mark Matthews and Matt Vinc.  Shawn is 24 points away from being the all time Mann Cup point leader.

I’m intentionally ignoring all the drama in the MSL as it’s still before the courts and there are a zillion rumours flying around.  It’s basically a buncha old men trying to hold on to whatever power they think they have.  So dumb.

For my prediction, I think that the Lakers will win in 6.  This team has lots of Mann Cup experience and overall a bit more talent on the roster.  Also having all home games and good fans will push the Lakers to win.  And the West team has not won out East since 1986 and has only won 4 times since 2000, so don’t see that changing now.

For those interested, all games should be streamed here.

Research came from here, here , here