Rob Pannell has had no trouble becoming one of the best players in the MLL since breaking records at Cornell. Last season, he finished ninth in scoring with 42 points in 10 games played. This season, he has continued his strong play and currently ranks fourth in the league with 31 points, nine points behind Paul Rabil for the league lead. Here is a quick look at Pannell’s strong start this season.
Let’s get this out of the way, last season he had at least three points in every game he played. This season, he had one scoreless game in which the Lizards entire offense had a forgettable effort as they only mustered eight goals against the Florida Launch. Outside of that blemish, Pannell has three six-point games, one four point game and three three-point games. As expected, Pannell can do it a multitude of ways as he is equally adept at scoring the ball as he is at setting up his teammates.
While he hasn’t had as many points as he did last season in almost as many games, the numbers were expected to dip considering the Lizards added more offensive threats in the offseason in Ned Crotty and Matt Streibel and also got Max Seibald back for a full season. Despite this, Pannell has had some of his strongest efforts against some of the best defenses in the league. Against Denver, Boston and Rochester, who rank as the top three teams in goals allowed, he put up six points against Denver, three against Boston and has combined for nine points in two games against the Rattlers.
Some of this is due to his high shot volume, that much is true. He has five games in which he has at least 11 shots, however, you can’t score if you don’t shoot. Am I right or am I right? All joking aside, this isn’t a new revelation as Pannell had similar statistics last season when he had 10 or more shots in seven of the 10 games he played. While, he has shot a lot, his shooting percentage is actually up this season as he sits at 25.9 percent compared to the 23.4 percent he sat at last year.
As Pannell gets a full year under his belt this season, he should get to 50 points this season, especially with four of his last six games coming against defenses ranked in the bottom half of the league. If the Lizards can go on a winning streak and he continues to put up big numbers, he could be in the MVP discussion.
Pannell will only continue to get better and given the amount of threats surrounding him on the offensive end, he should be able to add to his assist total as well, which is only at 10.
The MLL takes a break this week because of the All Star Game which Pannell will play for Team USA but he and the Lizards will face the Machine when they get back to action.
