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Greg Gurenlian New York Lizards MLL Championship 2015 2016 schedule week 9
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Week 9 MLL Stock Report

Welcome to the Week 9 MLL Stock Report! MLL Stock Report is a week by week look at several of the stand out units, players, and moments in Major League Lacrosse, as well as a few things that stood out in the negative.

Grades are given like stocks are traded, with ratings on a scale of +/- 10.

I’m putting the spotlight on the things that stood out throughout the weekend’s match ups as well as giving you some bets for the upcoming weekend. It’s all for fun. I like betting, I’m just not a big gambler. There’s a difference!

MLL Week 9 Stock Report Grades

+10.0 Rattlers Defense: Talk about impressive, they dictated everything about this game except what the DJ played in the stadium. Early on in the game John Galloway made a near point blank save that lead to a 14 yard Jack Near transition goal that was almost as beautiful as watching a 3 long pole fast break for a Mike Manley goal. The defense was so good they played offense too. They frustrated Chesapeake into nearly double their season average in turnovers. This unit is Championship caliber.

+9.7 Two Man Games: Jesse King and Ty Thompson did it almost to perfection this weekend. King drew a double dropped his stick low to bring the defender down, dished to Thompson who was wide open 4 yards from the cage and buried it.

+8.2 The Big Rig: Ohio’s defense gets a lot of press, their offense gets even more but Thursday night against the Hounds it was Scott Rodgers who shined once again. He allow only 8 goals all game and stole a number of quality scoring chances from Charlotte. His stone wall stop on Joey Sankey was as pretty of a save as I’ve seen all season. He made Ohio’s entire defense look better than they played in this game.

+8.0 College Free Agents: MLL teams were able to grab rookies that we undrafted, and many grabbed guys who quickly fill in needs for them. Towson’s Mike Lowe was my prize pickup and his pole will be welcomed in Denver, Charlotte got James Ikeda from Duke another Pole that should see time. Florida went faceoff to get Patrick Kelly from UNC. Rochester got a sniper with a cannon in Cuse’s Derrick DeJoe. Atlanta got a quality longpole also as they grabbed Bobby Duvnjak from Harvard And the Bayhawks got quality scoring option in Nate Lewnes from UMBC.

+7.8 Those “Other Guys” in New York: Rob Pannell and Paul Rabil are still as good as anyone in the world at what they do but this win belongs to Dave Lawson, Kyle Hartzell and Joe Fletcher. Lawson was fantastic all game and scored the game winner in OT. Hartzell had a steal, GB and 2 point goal that was shot from orbit all in under 10 seconds of can’t miss lacrosse. Fletcher was his usual self in denying dodges and causing turnovers, he makes it look so effortless.

+6.2 Hot-Lanta: They sit at 2-4, yet if I was to do a power ranking I’d have them no lower than 4th. Kevin Rice has been fantastic (I’m still pissed Rochester traded him.) Deemer Class has proved every MLL GM wrong and looks terrific as a finisher to Rice’s feeds. Atlanta has size, speed, power, and unselfishness. Nobody wants them to make the playoffs because they will be a tough out.

+5.0 Florida: Just about everyone on the team had their best game of the season in this one. Connor Buczek is shaping up to be a true MLL superstar. Austin Kaut showed flashes of what he can do and Tucker Durkin and Matt Landis teamed up well. Florida is still a long ways from where I’d like them to be, but getting win #1 can’t hurt them at all.

+3.3 Matt Kavanagh: He looked happy and healthy. Like someone uncaged him and said “just attack”. He did, and played like he had something to prove. He could be the difference to help Denver get it all together. That and grabbing Mike Lowe in the undrafted player dispersal today. He will start for them.

+0.0 Good Hounds/Bad Hounds: Thursday night Charlotte looked like Humpty Dumpty. They had a lot of parts but nobody could figure out where they went. It was on both ends of the field. Saturday they came out and worked the ball a lot smoother. My good friend Joe Keegan always points out that Hero ball is never the answer and Charlotte showed the difference in 3 short days. Also Mike Chanenchuk gets some props as he is my front runner for most improved.

-2.0 Chesapeake: Every team is plagued by inconsistency and none worse than the Bayhawks this season. They go from world beaters to very pedestrian from week to week. This game was no different. Quint and Evan Washburn didn’t say it on the call but at no point in this game did it look like Chesapeake was the better team.

-4.2 Boston: Hawkins and Merrill played great this weekend and kept this one close but not all is well in the Northeast. After getting three very close wins early in the season Boston has lost 3 of 4. The offense is scoring more but the defense is giving up 2.0 GPG more on 2 less shots in the last 4 games. They still struggle in the 6×6 set on offense and having defensive woes makes it that much worse. Making things worse is Will Manny’s PPG has fallen from 6.75 in the first 4 to 1.75 in the last 4, though he is still having a huge season.

Week 9 Locks

Denver gets its first loss at home UNLESS… The Rattlers have been playing very well the last three weeks and the Outlaws just haven’t clicked. Unless Denver can score 16 plus they lose this one.

Florida gets win #2 IF… The defense should be greatly improved with Landis now having a game under his belt. They will need good goalie play and for the offense to come alive again. The need 9+ points from the attack unit to get this win.

New York bests up on Boston UNLESS: Fiorito settles in, his season last year was magical and its hard to duplicate that, he is struggling some this year. Boston needs him to have 60% or better to win.

Game of the Week

Ohio wins UNLESS… Atlanta is able to attack that defense from all sides and slow down Tom Schreiber.

This matchup feels a lot closer than it is in the standings as Ohio has been rolling along while Atlanta has flashed what they could/will be.