Carolina has to make lemonade, the Whips sky high ceiling, and it's Denver's title to lose. PLL Week 4 Overreactions.

It’s Denver’s title to lose

Jared Bernhardt has shaken off whatever rust was left. The speed has been there each of the three weeks. The athleticism has too. He's been a walking “everything but the finish” for his first two PLL games. This week, he found the groove again. He had a feel for the game, feel for space, that sort of came and went the past two weeks. At one point, Bernhardt got a feed on the right wing. He dropped his stick low, pump faked a bit, felt that he really wasn’t guarded, reloaded and fired overhand high to low for a goal. Two weeks ago, he takes that show low to low right away. His comfort level is back. Denver also did a great job of shuffling their personnel around to create opportunities. Bernhardt spent some time at attack, scoring a goal by beating Graeme Hossack one on one. He spent plenty of time at midfield, where his speed made him uncoverable while dodging down hill out of the sub box. He moved between spots, Wisnauskas spent time inside, at X, and on wings. Kavanagh spent time on wings and at X. The Outlaws had a total of 313 touches and 248 passes on offense. More than half the touches went to the four Tewaaraton winners, and 121 of the passes were thrown by them. Pat Kavanagh alone threw 43 passes this weekend. This ball movement and fluid nature of the offense that everyone was waiting to see was on display. On the other end, Logan McNaney had another excellent game. 16 saves, and over 60% in net. McNaney has been excellent at making the clean save, which becomes transition. A clean save against Denver right now has to be one of the worst possible ways an offensive possession can end. It immediately hits the stick of Ryan Terefenko, Zach Geddes, Alex Smith, or Jake Piseno, and they transition to an attack with three Tewaaraton winners while the 4th joins the play late out of the box. Beating Denver right now requires giving this up as little as possible. But McNaney makes difficult saves cleanly, and that just fuels the Outlaw engine.

Faceoffs are upside down

We’ve gotten used to the same few names on the top of faceoff lists in the PLL. This season is throwing that list into disarray. The winning faceoff specialists this weekend were:

Alec Stathakis, 14/27 (vs Trevor Baptiste)

Joe Nardella, 14/23 (vs Zac Tucci)

Luke Wierman, 14/25 (vs Mike Sisselberger)

Justin Inacio, 15/28 (vs Joe Nardella)

TD Ierlan wasn’t in action this weekend, but he along with Baptiste, Sisselberger, and Nardella have been the names we’re used to seeing as FOTY finalists, dominant players, as other teams look for answers at the spot. Other teams have found those answers. Luke Wierman went 8/12 in the second half for Denver, keeping the pedal down on their 8-0 run to close the game against the defender champs. Sisselberger is now at 41% on the season, uncharted territory for him.

For the past few seasons, you either had one of Baptiste, Ierlan, Nardella, or Sisselberger on your roster, or you were in the market for a new faceoff specialist. Those were the two settings. A top four guy or looking for someone who could be. The other four teams all seem to have found someone who give them a shot against that big four .The result is a faceoff position, league wide, that’s got as much parity as it’s ever had.

Carolina Chaos have to make lemonade

The Chaos played just about the ugliest PLL game we’ve seen. It was the largest regular season margin of defeat since the league launched, as they fell 20-6 to the Whipsnakes. The Whipsnakes were on the second half of a double header, in blistering heat. Ajax Zappitello and Tim Muller picked up injuries, although it looks like both are fairly minor, in game one. In the PLL you can never definitively declare what a result should/will be before a game starts, but it was not reasonable to expect this game to be non competitive. And that’s what it was.

The Chaos offense had three new faces in it as rookie Owen Hiltz debuted while Shane Knobloch and Sergio Perkovic came off the PUP List. There were obvious chemistry issues as you would expect. Early on, Hiltz went to cut behind his man at the exact moment Perkovic through a pass his direction, causing the pass to just float out of bounds. That only happens when you have guys who there who just haven’t spent any time together. And that sort of tends to fix itself over time.

The Chaos offense has a long way to go. Hiltz came out of the box at times, he played attack at times. Hiltz was drafted to step into a lefty spot created by Josh Byrne’s departure; he needs to be on the field at all times.

For all the talk about how the league should expand because there’s so much talent, the Chaos are evidence to the contrary. The player pool isn’t so deep that this team is a few moves away from suddenly becoming an offensive powerhouse. Of this team's 10 highest scorers in 2023, not a single one is still on the roster. Not one. Kyle Jackson is the only one still rostered anywhere in the PLL. That’s an entire offense departing in two years. You don’t just grab a few guys from the player pool to solve that problem. The Chaos had three draft picks, spending one on Hiltz and then two on defenders. With Will Bowen retired, they suddenly had big gaps not just on offense, but on defense too that they tried to address on draft night. The short of it is, fixing a roster that had turned completely over in a little over a year is a herculean task. In the PLL, teams can go from the bottom to top quickly, and rebuilds don’t take several seasons. We’ve seen that before. But it’s clear that this Chaos group will need more than a season to get back to contender status.

The best thing Brennan O’Neill does is draw attention

As noted, in the early goings of things, the Outlaws struggled a bit against Utah. Brennan O’Neill was matchup up with Graeme Hossack, one of the leading DPOY candidates right now. O’Neill tried the matchup early, and rightfully so. O’Neill has his best games when he’s aggressive early and starts himself rolling. But for his aggression, he didn’t have a ton to show in terms of winning off the dodge. O’Neill likes long, sweeping dodges to his left across the top. He took a few runs that way against Utah. Most of the time, it’s beneficial to the offense. O’Neill can get to a dangerous spot on the field, or draw a slide and unsettle the defense. Against Utah, the benefits just weren’t there. Hossack pushed O’Neill out to near the arc on his dodges, and Utah was slow to slide to support their top defender. It resulted in the defense hold matchups, or Brennan maybe firing a shot across his body from 14 yards, which even from O’Neill is an easy clean save for Brett Dobson. Denver shuffled personnel and started using him in different ways as the game went on, and it did more than spark the offense, it strapped it to a rocket ship. In a nicely designed play by Jeremy Boltus out of a timeout, O’Neill was used as a picker inside for Wisnauskas. He set a great screen, Wisnauskas ran off it, and because Utah didn’t want to switch O’Neill’s matchup, it was an easy dish and dunk from Kavanagh to Wis. While Bernhardt dodged out of the box downhill, O’Neill flashed into the middle or found a spot up shooting angle near the two point arc. Denver shut out Utah over the final 19:55 of game clock. In that time, they went on an 8-0 run. Brennan O’Neill assisted one, and didn’t score any, of those eight goals. But watch the game back, and see how much he moves to create space, to draw attention and eyes of the defense, and impacts schemes without having to lean on being a dodger.

The Whips offense has the highest ceiling in the PLL

Putting up a 20 piece will get you some attention. The past few weeks, the Whipsnakes offense has been “we know TJ will produce, let’s see what we can manufacture elsewhere”. Chaos defenseman Jack Rowlett locked down Malone, so surely that would limit the Whips offense, right? Reader, it did not. Aidan Carroll was moved to attack, a move that Coach Stagnitta said was last minute, making the decision to do so at breakfast on game day. The thinking was that Carroll at attack means he wouldn’t have to worry about getting beat in the sub game, getting back on defense, or other things and let him just focus on his game on offense. Carroll had four goals in the second quarter alone after moving to attack, finishing with five goals and two assists against Carolina. Matt Brandau was played at midfield as he had shown himself to be more comfortable tracking back on defense and in subbing. His play in two man games with Carroll, and dodging shortsticks on his own, was excellent all weekend. Brandau had six points all of last year with Philadelphia. He had eight points over the course of the Whipsnakes home weekend. Levi Anderson was back in the lineup this week and scored five goals. Stagnitta said that they’ve been easing Anderson back into the lineup since he came off such a long indoor season, but I’d be surprised to see Anderson not dress weekly going forward. With the Whips, the young offensive core is scary. Malone will be in the MVP conversation, Carroll and Brandau both broke out in the home weekend. Stagnitta said Anderson and Rambo have both been true professionals about Anderson’s move into the lineup, and that Rambo is probably Levi’s biggest fan. The torch has just about completely changed hands with the Whips. All four of those high scoring players are in year one or year two.