Alex Urquhart
While teams like the Denver Outlaws, the Hamilton Nationals, the Chesapeake Bayhawks, and the Charlotte Hounds have their minds on the Championship the rest of the league is looking to next year and what they will need to do in the offseason to get themselves into Championship Weekend.
The Rochester Rattlers this season finished in fifth place and were the odd team out for the playoffs. The Rattlers spent most of the season out of the playoff picture but improved towards the end of the season. Ned Crotty was the Rattlers number one scoring threat and for the most part the only player on the Rochester roster that struck some fear into the opposing teams defense. In the offseason the Rattlers will need to beef up their offense and shore up their defense with another good pole. Rochester finished the year in sixth for goals for, with 152 goals. At the same time that they weren’t scoring they were giving up goals, they finished in fifth for goals against, with 173. That’s a goal differential of -21. Yes games aren’t won on defense but championships are, the Rattlers have to get better on both sides of the ball. The easiest way to do this would be to add players who compliment Crotty at attack and Max Striebel and Jordan MacIntosh at midfield.
The Team of streaks, the Boston Cannons, won four games straight in the middle of the season but lost three straight and four straight at the beginning and end of the season. The Cannons had their future in their own hands and let it slip away in the final weeks of the season. Boston had the biggest up and down season this year and a big part of the problem can be attributed to switching coaches five weeks into the season. After the switch the Cannons went 4-4 with four straight wins and then straight losses. The Cannons, this year, had the worst goals against at 202. This was mainly because Boston’s defense had to play so many possessions and were made to go up against too many fast breaks. The offense for Boston will need to get better in the offseason, this will most likely happen in house and in the draft. It will also help to have the same coaching staff going into next season.
The New York Lizards are one of the more well known teams to non lacrosse sports fans, so seeing them go 4-10 is hard for the sport. The salt in the wound is that the newly crowned Rookie of the Year, Rob Pannell, is on the team. The biggest problem for New York was possessions, they led the league in face-off wins but were among the last in scoring. The Lizards are a good team on paper with Pannell and Steve Mock teaming back up after great college careers at attack, and David Earl and JoJo Marasco at middie. Most of the Lizards squad is young, in their first or second year in the league. This along with great leadership from the ‘Beast’ Greg Gurenlian the team has a lot to look forward to. This offseason will be more of a fine tuning year and adding small pieces at midfield to round out the team.
This year’s worst team ended up being the Ohio Machine. The Machine spent the entire season at the bottom of the standings, with a record of 2-12. The team was extremely young with all except two or three of their top scorers would be considered veterans. Ohio has the hard choice this offseason on whether or not they continue to go with the youth movement or try to trade a number of players to get some better veterans. Either way the Machine need to find players on offense to compliment Logan Schuss and Steele Stanwick on offense and a defense that can play in front of Brian Phipps or Scott Rodgers. The Machine probably have the best of getting better out of the four teams not in Championship Weekend but they also have the youngest group of players with the most pressure to play like veterans.