The Major League Lacrosse Most Valuable Player race is now over. It is abundantly clear one player in the league is above and beyond crucial to his team’s success which has become evident over the last two weeks. How could the Lizards look like one of the best teams in league history wiping out their first eight opponents with relative ease, then drop back-to-back games against teams with a combined…
After another weekend of intense lacrosse there are only two teams tied for second place, Boston and Ohio, while the three third place teams are looking for an edge to secure a playoff berth. Chesapeake, Rochester, and Denver were left scratching their heads after their losses as their playoff chances are decreasing. New York remains in first place despite losing to the Florida Launch 16-12. Charlotte and Florida remain in…
How about a self-indulgent rankings theme this week? In addition to some great MLL games this weekend, the remaining members of the Grateful Dead played their first two of five final concerts, the Fare Thee Well celebration, out in Santa Clara, California. Looking ahead to this coming weekend, with more MLL and more Grateful Dead goodness, as Fare Thee Well descends on Chicago for three nights, let’s do the marriage…
A wild weekend in Major League Lacrosse to kick off the second half of the season was highlighted by the New York Lizards getting upset by Charlotte halting their bid to go undefeated. Not to toot my own horn, but I said in this column on June 10, the Lizards were bound to lose. It was a bit surprising the loss came to the struggling Hounds. Charlotte came into the…
As I am writing this my fiancé is not having a good Monday. Greg Gurenlian’s New York Lizards lost 13-12 to the Charlotte Hounds, the Florida Launch lost in the last seconds to the Boston Cannons 19-18, the Ohio Machine lost in overtime to the Chesapeake Bayhawk 12-11s, and the Rochester Rattlers lost to the Denver Outlaws in that Seventies overtime game22-21. Mel’s team loyalties lie with her favorite players…
With all of the NLL award candidates being revealed, its also time to start thinking of which players should and could get elected to the hall of fame in September. A plethora of legends have recently retired, leaving us with a huge pool to decide from. In 2014, the elections were former Toronto Rock and Colorado Mammoth player Pat Coyle and former Calgary and Vancouver head coach Chris Hall. Before…
With the All-Star game in the books, it is now time for the MLL to collectively take a breath and get ready for an intense finale to the regular season. While every team will say they take things one game at a time, I’m not part of any MLL team, so let’s take a look at everything coming down the road in the next few weeks. Here are the top…
Are faceoffs important in the NLL? The answer is yes… and no. Faceoffs determine initial possession of the ball. However, they do nothing to keep possession. Furthermore, possession does not equate scoring; that is dependent on several factors including accuracy of the shooter and the skill of the goaltender. The slight increase in possession increases the scoring chances but is no guarantee. So, where winning the faceoff and the slight…
Well that was fun. The MLL All-Star game provided a few hours of quality lacrosse entertainment on Saturday evening. I, for one, prefer this type of game as opposed to the Team USA vs MLL that takes place during FIL years. There is too much on the line in those games and they’re not as fun and free-flowing. But Houston got it dialed in really nicely. Let’s revisit the items…
The people close to me understand that I have a certain fondness for a particular malted beverage that started in Boston and is named after a father of the American Revolution. This fondness may border on a certain obsession due the fact I do not frequent establishment that fail to carry my brand. So as I did my All Star piece, I was thinking about all of the people in…