There is a tendency in sports to over-react to any sign of weakness in a team’s performance. In most cases it’s important to avoid knee-jerk reaction or evaluations because a team can have a bad day or a bad game, heck, even a bad quarter at any time and any one of those situations could deep six their efforts for the day.
The middle of the pack in MLL seems to be getting simultaneously larger and tighter, a phenomenon that goes beyond Newton’s laws of physics (I assume. I spent most of my time sleeping in physics class in high school) and into spaces only people like Stephen Hawking and Neil de Grasse Tyson can understand.
Put it this way, the task of ranking MLL teams could be summarized in a gif, it would pretty much be someone standing there with a dumb look on their face, shrugging in a defeated manner, turning, and walking away.
Nevertheless, let’s try the impossible.
1. New York Lizards
Their margin of victory seems to be normalizing to something, well, normal over the past two weeks. Charlotte had trap game written all over it, and with a 5 minute EMO and three two-point goals in that span things got serious late. Finishing strong is much easier when you start with a Lizard-sized lead though. Every week you can count on at least three standouts: Pannell, Rabil, and the tricky thing is figuring out the third. Like the Denver Pioneers, the Lizards can simply substitute one threat for another at any given time. The rest of the league is getting closer, but no one is there. Yet.
2. Boston Cannons
Perhaps the most significant mover. The Cannons looked shaky for a few weeks there but have settled into a groove that primarily includes winning. So many question marks existed at the start of the season and it seemed to most pundits that the Cannons needed to look outward for assistance. Turns out they needed to look inward instead.
3. Rochester Rattlers
At what point do the Rattlers rebrand their team as the Wolves and make Jordan Wolf their mascot? If you have the choice between bigger, stronger, or faster, Wolf shows that “faster” is the right choice pretty much every time in MLL.
3. Ohio Machine
The Machine finally seem like they are firing on all cylinders, and remarkably without the services of Peter Baum. Ohio torched a lethargic Outlaws team behind a power house performance by Marcus Holman and company. Jimmy Dailey didn’t score a goal in the contest (he has one called back) but stands as another example of how speed kills in this league.
5. Denver Outlaws
The most significant drop from last week to this. A good offense can bail out a struggling defense, but when the offense is shooting itself in the foot left and right like Denver did against Ohio, a struggling defense simply becomes a bad one. Where have you gone Jesse Schwartzman?
6. Chesapeake Bayhawks
Welcome back Joe Walters! The Bayhawks continue to struggle at the face-off X. How can a team just cede one entire aspect of the game on a weekly basis? It’s beyond me. Yet they somehow were tied with Rochester late in the game this week. Then the J-Train pulled into the station for the Rattlers (Jordan Wolf, Jordan MacIntosh, and Jeremy Boltus). Tyler Fiorito made 24 saves in the game. If he’s not the team MVP for singlehandedly keeping them in the running most weeks, who else is worthy?
7. Florida Launch
Offensive possessions are still too rare for this team, but when the offense did have the ball, they looked pretty good against the Cannons. They lost by 4 goals, but when you figure that Brett Queener was completely out of the net for 3 of those (including a two-pointer) the game was closer than it seems to a certain extent. Now that the whole gang is here it may take a couple more weeks to let the Jell-O set, but in the meantime expect more jiggliness and wobbliness.
8. Charlotte Hounds
There were signs of fight in these dogs, but it turned out to be too little too late. Still, one has to tip the cap to them for their 4th quarter efforts against the undefeated Lizards. Down by 20-7 with about 10 minutes remaining, the Hounds rattled off nine points (including 3 two-pointers) in the span of about 5 minutes. A valiant effort, but ultimately too little too late.
