The Charlotte Hounds had a lot of fanfare going into their first year of Major League Lacrosse. Â The Hounds are now 3-7 on the season and in seventh place, one game ahead of the expansion Ohio Machine.
With their playoff hopes bleak, the Hounds will try to get into the race but they will need a lot of help. They need to win all of their games to finish at .500, and their remaining games are against the Rochester Rattlers, Long Island Lizards, Hamilton Nationals and Rochester again.
Not a very difficult schedule, as Rochester have had their struggles and Hamilton has had a bad year, though Long Island should be tough. Still, they will need teams like Long Island and Rochester to fall off, and hope Hamilton does not get hot.
Charlotte has struggled this season not for lack of star power. Their leading scorers are Matt Danowski, Stephen Berger, Jeremy Boltus and Jovan Miller, all big names in MLL.
The biggest area of weakness this season has been in the faceoff circle, something they addressed when they traded for Geoff Snider, who will not be active for two more weeks, so it might be too little too late for that department.
In net, Joe Marra struggled to start the season and after he was injured they went to Adam Ghitelman. He has the second worst goals against average in the league, but he is a young goalie and has gotten better in each week. Mark Manos is their backup, so those two will probably be around for years to come.
While their record is something of a disappointment this season, Charlotte has done a great job to grow the sport in the Carolinas and is dedicated to growing their organization into an elite MLL squad. Their attendance is fourth in the league, and for an expansion team, that is something to be proud of.
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