Connor Fields chasing Junior, the Chaos on the clock, and it's the Redwoods title to lose. Week one PLL overreactions.

It’s the Redwoods title to lose

Turnarounds can happen quickly in the PLL. Teams can rise (and fall) in the standings on a year to year basis. In week one, the Outlaws and their triple Tewaaraton attack were the favorites against a rebuilding Redwoods team. Pannell gone, Chris Gray retired, Owen Grant traded, a wheeling and dealing front office led by new GM Joe Spallina brought us to an opening day full of question marks for the Woods. Sam English, the number three draft pick, isn’t with the team yet as visas for Canadian rookies get worked out. Last year’s starting netminder, Jack Kelly, is on the PUP list, meaning relatively unproven Chayse Ierlan would start in the cage. The offense from a year ago wasn’t working, and needed a jump start. And it got one. In fact, it got two. Their names are Andrew McAdorey and Chris Kavanagh. The pair of rookies combined for nine points in a 15-12 win over Denver, including six goals. Their six goals came on seven shots. A youthful looking Dylan Molloy had a hat trick. McAdorey played with a speed that was completely absent from this team a year ago. He has a mini-me out there with him in Josh Balcarcel, a Marist alum who has seized his opportunity as a training camp add. He played his way onto the 19 man with speed and elusiveness, and had two points. The approach to rebuilding the offense appeared to be “just add a ton of weapons to this roster” in the offseason, and then let the cream rise to the top in training camp. And it has. Anthony Kelly got his first win as a head coach, Chris Bocklet made an early impression as an OC, and the Woods were sharp with motion and ball movement.

Connor “John Grant Jr” Fields is upon us

The Archers attackman had five points, including four goals, in the opener for Utah. He led the team in touches. Two goals assisted, two unassisted. Last year he had 32 points and shot 35%. Fields last two outdoor seasons have been particularly excellent. There are routine highlight goals, he’s more of a matchup problem, he’s on an offense that features a plethora of options both to feed and receive feeds from. Fields is also fresh off an MVP season in the NLL. He was third in the league in scoring with 123 points, and had 148 loose balls to boot. He’s playing at a level lacrosse fans rarely see. The only player to win MVP indoors and outdoors in the same year is John Grant Jr. He won it indoors in 2007 with Rochester Knighthawks, and won it outdoors with the Rochester Rattlers. Gary Gait also won MVP of both leagues, but never in the same year. Connor Fields has a chance to accomplish a John Grant Jr sized feat this year, and his campaign is off to a hot start.

The Carolina Chaos are on the clock

The expectations for Carolina are low this year. A new front office, a boatload of roster turnover, it’s perfectly reasonable to look at this club and pick them to finish at the bottom of the standings. And if you were watching them over the weekend in the opener against New York, you might say they’re on the way there. They were down 4-0 in the game’s first four and a half minutes. But they spent the remaining three plus quarters hitting everyone with a massive Lee Corso “not so fast my friend”. The defense remains excellent. Jack Rowlett held Jeff Teat to one goal and no assists, even though Teat led the Atlas in touches. Troy Reh bought Xander Dickson a field level seat and turned him into a spectator. Blaze Riorden made 12 saves. Even though they essentially spotted New York a 4-0 lead, Carolina lost this game by a goal 8-7. Seven goals is not a ton, but Liam Entenmann had 16 saves, some of the spectacular variety that are likely goals against anyone else. While they were much maligned for drafting two poles on draft night, Chaos leadership deserves credit for adding Jackson Eicher post draft (five points in his rookie debut). The offense is young, and has a new coach, which will almost certainly lead to some inconsistent play and plenty of learning moments. The Chaos will need to figure things out at SSDM, as both Glicini and Resch showed their age in week one. The Chaos will probably still be a trendy pick to finish near the bottom of the standings because of both of those realities. But they’ll be in every game all year. And if your offense isn’t dialed, the Chaos defense will still eat you alive.

The best way to get better is to get healthy

Between free agency and the draft, it’s easy to get hung up on new additions to a roster. The draftees and signees will be the guys who make the team better and have the major impact. It relegates an important group of players to being an afterthought: the guys coming off PUP or IR. Boston got Jack Kielty back and Denver got Logan Wisnauskas back, both missed all of last season. Wisnauskas had a hat trick on four shots, plus an assist, all on just 15 touches for an efficient and impactful night. Kielty had a highlight moment with a great check that took the stick out of Jeff Teat’s hands. Both players looked comfortable, picking up where they left off, and could be primed for massive seasons. The Denver offense had moments where they were clearly still figuring things out. For a team that loaded on offense they had too many “it’s my turn to dodge” moments, rather than playing well as a unit. But with every passing week they should get more comfortable and more dangerous. The Cannons pole unit essentially added Owen Grant and Kielty to last year’s group, giving them one of the best in the PLL. Kielty, like Garrett Epple, is fully capable of guarding the opponent’s top weapon every week. With two defenders like that, it means someone’s number two attackman is going to have a very bad time every week.