Mikey Boehm took someone's job, who needs CJ Kirst anyway, and it's New York's title to lose. PLL Week 1 Overreactions.

Philly doesn’t need CJ Kirst anyway

The Waterdogs overcame a fairly slow start to win 16-14 over Maryland in their opener. The put up nine goals in the second quarter. They hit a trio of two pointers in the third. Maryland was able to battle back a bit in the fourth quarter, but the middle section of this game showed fans just what Philly can be capable of. And therein lies the rub. Philly has some personnel issues to sort through each week. They have to play two of Michael Sowers, Kieran McArdle, Jake Taylor, Zed Williams, or CJ Kirst at midfield, a less than natural fit. Williams ran out of the box while he was a Whipsnakes, and he did it for Philly in the opener. He hit a two pointer, and was efficient with his touches, showing that he doesn’t need to be at attack to have a positive impact. In week one, the attack logjam was a moot point. CJ Kirst is still with the Toronto Rock, now playing for an NLL title. That leaves just three natural attackmen and a load of depth at midfield. And it looked great. The Dogs had seven different players with multi point games, eight players with multiple shots, seven players with double digit touches on offense, and half their goals were assisted. The pieces all nicely fit, they flowed, they were creative when they needed to be and within the scheme when they needed to be.

Brennan’s cold start is part of the plan

The Denver Outlaws had a golden opportunity to grab a win on Saturday in Utah. The Archers had played the night before and were on tired legs, their offense was stagnant most of the night, Brett Dobson wouldn’t be in cage as he wrapped up his NLL campaign, and Denver was not only fresh but was able to get Jared Bernhardt and Brennan O’Neill into the line up. However, Denver only managed seven goals. Nick Washuta played well, but it was a tough shooting night for Denver, specifically O’Neill. He took 12 shots, only one went in (a two pointer), good for an 8% night. That shooting night, while also leading the team in touches, might raise some eyebrows. Fear not, Outlaws fans. We’ve seen it all before. O’Neill’s first four games last year saw him go 2 for 9, 3 for 10, 1 for 9, and 0 for 10. That’s just under 16%. After that, over the next five games, he was 33% or better every game out. That 0 for 10 game last year cmae in June against the Archers. When they met again in late July, O’Neill shot 40% and had six scoring points. Shaking off the NLL season and an ankle injury can lead to a slow start, but don’t be concerned yet.

Mikey Boehm took someone’s job

We are in uncharted waters for PLL ball right now. The schedule was pushed forward to early May in 2026, leading to a large number of players unavailable for teams as they wrap up indoor seasons and coaching campaigns. There’s two sides to the coin there when it comes to team personnel. On one side, every PLL team is missing at least one key starter from a year ago, so basically nobody is at their (expected) full strength roster right now. On the other side, teams fill those roster spots with names from the player pool or guys who have been fringe roster players in the past. The long term prospects for most of these players aren’t great. It’s clear they are there until the stars return, then who knows what could happen. One such player is Mikey Boehm for the Redwoods. Everyone would expect Chris Kavanagh and Ryder Garnsey to be at attack for the Woods, but until they return from the NLL and coaching respectively, there are spots open. Boehm took one of those spots in the season opener on Friday night and stole the show. He led all scorers in the game with five points. He either scored or assisted the Woods’ first three goals. He had a SportsCenter worthy around the world finish at GLE. He was, by far, the team leader in touches with 57, and had just one turnover. His three goals came on four shots. He completed more passes than Dylan Molloy and Andrew McAdorey combined. If there was any feeling that he was a temporary player, a fill in for the first couple weeks, he spent the entire 48 minutes of this game changing Anthony Kelly and Joe Spallina’s mind. When it’s time to make room for the stars to return, it should be someone else, not Boehm, that gives up their spot.

It’s New York’s title to lose

The defending champs were a little slow out of the gate (like everyone this weekend), but when that momentum started rolling they looked as deadly as ever. No Jeff Teat, no problem. The beat Carolina 16-12, and that’s with Austin Kaut making 16 saves for the Chaos. New York was opportunistic and punished mistakes. A slow closeout to Bryan Costabile at the arc became a two pointer. Clean saves from Liam Entenmann became transition scoring chances, and there were plenty of them as eight of Entenmann’s 18 stops were clean. Costabile saw a shortstick early for a lot of the game and attacked like crazy, a reason he finished the game with six points. Xander Dickson had a hat trick in his first game back from a scary lower body injury in last year’s title game. Connor Shellenberger did his QB thing, and finished with more assists than shots taken. The secondary threats are monsters. Levi Anderson, acquired in a draft deal in exchange for the literal last pick in the draft, had seven points. A pair of twos, a pair of goals, and an assist. And he did all that with five shots on 16 touches. On top of that, the Atlas are missing Jeff Teat, Danny Logan, and Trevor Baptiste, arguably the best players in the world at their respective positions. The defense will also add Alex Ross after Penn State’s postseason ends, whenever that may be.