The Boston Cannons and Charlotte Hounds are both 4-5 and tied for the fourth Major League Lacrosse playoff seed. When they battle tonight, it could be for getting in the playoffs altogether. At the moment the Cannons hold the tiebreaker with a win over the Hounds three weeks ago. If they win they will own the entire tiebreaker and lead them by a game. If the Hounds win, they will be tied there and the Hounds will overtake Boston on record alone.
The Cannons and Hounds both had very active trade deadlines. Boston added Stephen Berger and Ricky Pages while the Hounds added Josh Hawkins. Pages goes to the Cannons from Charlotte, a move that general manager Kevin Barney is very excited about.
“Berger is obviously going to garner a lot of the headlines, but I am just as excited about picking up Ricky Pages this week.” Barney told us this week. “Ricky is an athletic, high energy, physical player. He is also a great locker room guy who lives in Boston. We have depth at LSM, but we have also seen injury and scheduling force us to play several different line-ups at defense. Ricky is another proven MLL player who if called upon we have 100% confidence that he can help our team win.”
The Hounds held Paul Rabil scoreless last time they met. That is unlikely to happen again, but even if he is shut down a bit the Cannons offense is much improved. Matt Poskay has found a rhythm while rookies Will Manny and Cam Flint have won back to back rookies of the week. Now add Berger along with Ryan Boyle, Kevin Buchanan and Mike Stone and they have a newly potent offense.
Gametime is tonight at 8pm and can be seen live on ESPN2 nationally.
