Some teams are struggling while others are surging, but one thing remains clear: MLL is a perpetual logjam. This week I considered getting a set of playing cards, pulling out Ace through 8 of one suit, blindfolding myself, drawing a card, and writing a team name on it, then removing the blindfold to see what the rankings were, but I was on vacation last week and didn’t have time to do a proper video, you know, for the sake of transparency. Perhaps another time.
Instead let’s just christen the Flying Wasp and get this sloop out on the water.
- New York Lizards – The team that has a bagel in the preferred table column was neck-and-neck with the Florida Launch for about three quarters before making the visitors bite the curb. This was a really fun game to watch though and was closer than the score indicated. Having Greg Gurenlian is almost unfair at this point.
- Rochester Rattlers – The other New York team comes in at number two. I’m not only impressed by the freak of nature that is Jordan Wolf, because he is one. No, what stands out to me was the fact that Rochester only surrendered 6 goals to a Boston team with tons of a momentum. And this is just 2 weeks removed from an absolute shootout OT loss to this same team.
- Ohio Machine – There comes a point where you have to admit you’re wrong, and I’m going to assume that Brian Phipps has been reading these rankings all year and is trying to make me look foolish. Congratulations Mr. Phipps. Mea culpa. The offense gets all the ink, but the defense has done a huge about-face from last year. If this keeps up the Machine’s rematch against New York could be appointment television.
- Boston Cannons – The Rattlers poured water in the Cannons’ gunpowder last week, but since we try to avoid knee-jerk adjustments here, Boston stays in the top half of the rankings.
- Chesapeake Bayhawks – Welcome to the party Joe Walters! If anyone looked askance when someone mentioned the impending arrival of Joe Walters his performance against Denver last week showed why have #1 in the lineup is such a big deal. This team was dying a slow, painful death in the offensive end and JW1 dropped 8 points (4, 4). With Drew Westervelt back in the saddle as well, the Bayhawks suddenly have sharpened talons. When Macrides and Hunt return… rut roh!
- Denver Outlaws – Dillon Ward got his first start of the season, but I don’t even blame him for the 10-1 score at half. The offense had 17 turnovers in that same span, and the defense all but roped off an express lane to the goal for the Chesapeake offense.
- Charlotte Hounds – The bottom of the rankings are getting mixed up a bit. Charlotte’s late surge against New York two weeks ago carried over into this past weekend against Ohio. The two teams were tied in the fourth quarter before Jake Bernhardt broke the game open and all but sealed the victory for Ohio. Joey Sankey continues to make a solid case for Rookie of the Year.
- Florida Launch – The Launch held their own against New York for 3 quarters, going to half tied at 4 and then down 10-8 after three. Then the Beast decided he’d had enough messing around and went into full on domination mode. I’ve said time and again that Florida’s offense is lethal when it gets the ball, however, getting the ball to them is a huge issue. Adam Fullerton stopped moving to Lizard shots in the 4th quarter. It was just bad. That resignation alone puts them back in the cellar this week.
Disagree? Let me know on the Twitter machine @doc_lunchbox. So until next week, don’t scratch your anchor.
