NLL Week Five: Toronto Rock vs Philadelphia Wings

What a wild set-up week 5 in the NLL has turned out to be. Some may have thought the matchup between the Toronto Rock and the Philadelphia Wings would be for 1st place in the East, but would they really think it would have taken a sweep in week 4 for the Rock to get there? Would they have predicted ALL of Toronto's wins would come WITHOUT Blaine Manning or Colin Doyle in the lineup? Or, would they have predicted the team with the upper hand would NOT be the Toronto Rock? Those who said yes to all of the above, are chronic liars.

It has been a wild start to the 2012 Rock season, but this is a big game for the club. If you can have a 'must win' in week 5, this is it. The Rock are on a roll with 2 character victories in back to back nights, in 2 different time zones. While the Wings also notched a huge victory, on the road in Buffalo in week 4. Despite back-to-back wins for Philadelphia they are still only 1 of 2 teams in the league (the other being the winless Stealth) with a negative goal differential (-6). They are 3rd last in the league in goals scored, in fact, they are near the bottom of every team stat in the league (except penalty minutes). How are they leading the East again?

Saturday night's matchup is for top spot in the East. Who will be top (turf)dog after the dust settles? We take a closer look, after the jump.

Toronto wins if ..........

they get support from their secondary guys. We know Toronto will be without Blaine Manning who is still recovering from a broken collarbone but GM Terry Sanderson announced in the coach's conference call this week Colin Doyle will also be out of action. Without them Josh Sanderson put the team on his back last week and carried them to back-to-back wins. It will be up to Casey Biernes, Cam Woods, Stephan LeBlanc et al again to provide the support. Those were the guys who stepped up last week. Who will it be this week?

Philadelphia wins if ..........

they play physical. Philadelphia has played with an edge all season long, and it's gotten them to where they are (along with stellar performances from Brandon Miller in their wins). Toronto has shown against Calgary in week 1 they could be susceptible to the physical game. If the Dawsons can throw their frames around and get the Rock off their game, the Wings could end the weekend still atop the leaderboard.

Final word:

By all accounts Philadelphia has no business leading the East. But they'll be the first ones to disprove that. After last weekend it seems almost everyone is counting them out of this game. As the Roughnecks proved in week 1, that's usually enough motivation to do damage. But Toronto has all the momentum coming in with huge wins without 2 of their top players. The real story of this game is, which Brandon Miller shows up? If it's the Miller of the past 2 games, the Wings have a good shot. If not, this one is Toronto's. At the end of the day, the fairy tale run for Philadelphia could be over this weekend either way.