HOME OPENER WILL SEE ROCK HOST ALBANY ON DECEMBER 4
Historic First Game In Hamilton
Oakville, ON – The National Lacrosse League (@NLL), the largest and most successful professional lacrosse property in the world, will officially start its 35th season with Face Off Weekend, December 3-4, 2021, with six games across North America. The Rock will play their Home Opener on Face Off Weekend against the Albany FireWolves on Saturday, December 4 at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre at 7:00pm ET.
Fans can expect the same great product on the floor and the great entertainment off the floor when the Rock begin play at their new home in Hamilton this season.
“We are very excited to get back to a true regular season and starting at home is always fun,” explained Rock Owner, President and GM Jamie Dawick. “There’s always a lot of excitement at the beginning of year and there will be an added level of excitement around our first game in Hamilton. We’re really looking forward to that first night in our new home on December 4th!”
The Rock’s opening night opponent, the Albany FireWolves, relocated from New England during the pandemic. While this team was atop the shortened season standings in 19-20, they lost a pair of key players to free agency in Callum Crawford (New York) and former Rock Stephan Leblanc (Halifax). It will be a new look FireWolves team that faces the Rock to kickoff the season, both in terms of branding and the players that fill out their lineup.
The NLL’s 14 teams competing this year will be aligned into two Conferences: East (Albany FireWolves, Buffalo Bandits, Georgia Swarm, Halifax Thunderbirds, New York Riptide, Philadelphia Wings, Rochester Knighthawks, and Toronto Rock); and West (Calgary Roughnecks, Colorado Mammoth, Panther City Lacrosse Club, San Diego Seals, Saskatchewan Rush, and Vancouver Warriors).
The new alignment means a revised playoff format, with the top four teams in the East and top three in the West advancing to the playoffs. The eighth playoff slot will go to the team with the better record between the fifth place East and fourth place West teams, per NLL tiebreaker rules. The first round will be single elimination, while the second round and NLL Finals will each be best-of-three series.
The first matchup for the 2021-22 season will take place on Friday, December 3, when Colorado visits San Diego. On Saturday, December 4, there will be five matches, with Calgary visiting Buffalo, Philadelphia visiting Georgia, Rochester visiting New York, Saskatchewan visiting Halifax and Albany taking on Toronto in its new home in Hamilton, Ontario. Two teams, Vancouver and expansion Panther City, will have byes the first weekend.
“It’s very exciting to announce Face Off Weekend and returning to play,” said NLL Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz. “Face Off Weekend will mark a long-anticipated return to play for the NLL in a very big way with a new TSN Game of the Week partnership featuring 20+ games on linear television and the remaining match-ups streamed on TSN GO.”
The entire NLL schedule and game times, as well as national broadcast showings, will be announced in the coming weeks. Each team will have 9 home games during the regular season, followed by the playoffs and the league championship series. The Calgary Roughnecks, who defeated the Buffalo Bandits to win the 2019 NLL Title, are the league defending champions, since the 2019-20 NLL season was not completed due to the pandemic.
Rock fans can sign up for the Rock Insider Newsletter at torontorock.com/rockinsider for exclusive access to the Home Opener ticket pre-sale which begins on Tuesday, July 27.
2021-22 Toronto Rock Season Memberships are on sale now! For more information on tickets for games at the Rock’s new home at FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton or to purchase, please visit torontorock.com.
About the National Lacrosse League
The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is North America’s premier professional lacrosse league. Founded in 1986, the NLL ranks third in average attendance for pro indoor sports worldwide, behind only the NHL and NBA. The League is comprised of 15 franchises across the United States and Canada: Albany FireWolves, Buffalo Bandits, Calgary Roughnecks, Colorado Mammoth, Georgia Swarm, Halifax Thunderbirds, Las Vegas NLL, New York Riptide, Panther City Lacrosse Club (TX), Philadelphia Wings, Rochester Knighthawks, San Diego Seals, Saskatchewan Rush, Toronto Rock, and Vancouver Warriors.
For more information, visit NLL.com and find @NLL on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For more information visit NLL.com.
