Game preview: Seals at Riptide

The 2022-23 NLL season is here!

The San Diego Seals are heading East for their season opener on Saturday, December 3 vs. the New York Riptide at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island.

Head coach and GM Patrick Merrill said he feels confident with this year’s squad heading into the upcoming campaign.

“I think we had a really good start,” said Merrill. “We have a lot of returning guys which will help us, the new guys we brought in, the veteran guys that’ve been around for a long time. We feel really good about where we stand going into the first week of the season.”

The 2022-23 roster features 17 returners, six rookies and some stellar offensive pieces in newly acquired Curtis Dickson and Kevin Crowley. Defenseman Brodie Merrill returns as team captain, with defenseman Cam Holding and forward Wesley Berg holding their respective titles of assistant captains, making for a team fortified with strong, veteran leadership.

With a handful of new faces on this year’s crew, Berg acknowledges the importance of that leadership in guiding the team to a successful season.

“It’s important to build chemistry early and get some of the young guys who haven’t played in the league before up to speed and game ready,” said Berg. “We think they got a good taste of that during the preseason but there’s nothing like game speed.”

After an intense few weeks of training camp with a high-level of competition, the Seals are prepared to come out of the gates hot.

“Overall training camp was really competitive,” said Merrill. “We had less guys to start camp because we had less spots to fight for, but it’s been the most competitive training camp we’ve had since the beginning and it’s nice to see the team continue to push themselves year over year.”

Saturday will be the only meeting between the San Diego and New York during the team’s regular season. All-time the Seals boast a 1-0 record against the Riptide after a dominating victory in January 2020.

Merrill and the squad couldn’t be more ready.

“First game of the year is always really exciting, just to see what we have. I’m excited to get the season started,” said Merrill. “Seeing where we stand against somebody else is really important, and there’s a difference between an exhibition game or scrimmages and the real thing. I’m really, really excited to see how we measure up.”

The Seals face the New York Riptide to open the 2022 NLL season on Saturday night at 4:30pm PT. There will be a watch party in San Diego at Woodstocks Pizza in Pacific Beach. Anyone wearing Seals gear will get select pitchers of beer for only $9.99. Fans at home can watch the game locally on The CW or streaming on ESPN+. The Seals return home on December 9 to face the Saskatchewan Rush at Pechanga Arena for Opening Day. Reserve your seats today at SealsLax.com.