This has to be pretty close to one in my book. We can't afford to lose back to back games to winless teams before two games against the current undefeated Stealth

I think it's a must win mostly in that it's a team they SHOULD be able to beat. They beat Calgary, so they have the talent to take town the top teams. Buffalo isn't a top team this year. If they get Tavares back, they get a good bit better.

Really the game isn't super critical. If this game were against another team in the West, it would absolutely be a must win.

I think the Must-win factor is probably for more of a team mental confidence building type thing.

Or a different note, with only 16 games, they're all must-win!

Starting the season 1-3 would be tough, but with only 5 teams in the west, we just can't finish last... and this game is against the east so its not as critical as some of the others.

With that said, I still think that we have a chance of winning. Granted, we traditionally have done poorly against Buffalo in general-- especially at Buffalo. But Niknak was right about the bandits being crappy this year.

Should be a good game to watch.

I wouldn't say they're crappy, but without JT to free up Steinhuis, they just don't seem to be as potent. They're still going to be a tough beat, but we definitely should be able to. If the D can pick it back up and play like they did against Calgary, they should definitely pull out a win.

Guess my definition of "must win" is different. Losing back to back games versus winless teams just before back to back versus an undefeated team is a tough pill to swallow. The fact that 3 other teams have only one win and those came from us is not sitting well with me

I don't believe the opposing team's record is a factor. In the end it's all about how well you play against that team. I've seen so many times how a team with a losing record comes in and demolishes a team with a winning record.

With a couple of regular players out and the lack of practice time, it's not surprising that we lost to Buffalo. The Bandits are one of those teams, Colorado also, that can play the Swarm well. We don't have a good record against Buffalo either. I believe we are 2-11 against them not counting the playoffs. Against Washington (San Jose) we are 4-1. I'm looking for a couple of wins against Washington.

The only upside to that loss is that they were an East team. Right now, even though the NLL website has the Swarm 5th, it's wrong. The swarm are in 4th ahead of Calgary and would be in the playoffs if they started today.

I'll take it Curly meant must-win as that the Swarm SHOULD have beaten that team.

These next two games though I would definitely are MUST wins. This is a team in our division and we play them back to back. Losing these next two games would start to cast a dire shadow for the rest of the season.

Must at least split against Washington to get a split in the season series.

Then we must beat Colorado on Feb 20 and Feb 27 to win the season series, just one loss in those two games, we lose that season series as we are down 1-0 to Mammoth.

Must win in Calgary on March 26 as that will decide the season series which is tied at one.

Two games still left with Edmonton.

All West games are must win. We are 1-2 in the division and only have seven left in the division. Other teams in the division have anywhere from eleven to thirteen division games, which is a bit more leeway for those teams.

The Swarm have to go into each game as a must win because an incomplete game in any way just won't get a win against any team in this league right now.

So yeah, this Saturday officially becomes a must win game now.