PLL Team Chemistry Still Taking Shape Ahead of Utah Weekend

In a professional league that starts a week after the end of the college and NLL seasons, it’s common to find that a lot of the Premier Lacrosse League’s rosters don’t fully take shape until the end of the year.

Notably, the Utah Archers’ top midfielder, Tre Leclaire, didn’t hit the field until July 11 because of a thumb injury that occurred during the NLL season. For the Carolina Chaos, rookie Owen Hiltz has emerged as their top scoring option, but he couldn’t play until the fourth week because of a visa issue.

The point is that many of these teams are still searching for their identities even after the midpoint of the year because their personnel is rarely set in stone.

Last year, that was the Maryland Whipsnakes.

They won three consecutive games at the end of the year before making a run to the PLL championship game while looking like a completely different team than the one that started the year 2-4. The main exception to this has been the New York Atlas, which has successfully found a way to remain consistent for the past two regular seasons.

With just three weeks left in the regular season, there are still pathways for a few teams to make that type of run. Despite losing a nailbiter to Utah last week, the Chaos showed they have the ability to build that type of steam — if they can start playing four complete quarters.

Carolina has outscored its opponents by a combined 10 goals in the second halves of its past three games. The Chaos have at least doubled their opposing team’s goals in each of those games.

As Carolina defender Jarrod Neumann put it bluntly after the 12-11 loss to the Archers on Friday, “We haven’t played a full game this year. We haven’t put it together yet, and I think that’s a scary thing. That’s all I got to say about it.”

He’s right. They could be a force if the rest of the Chaos offense can rally alongside Hiltz, who has emerged as a dark horse Rookie of the Year candidate. Despite playing just four games, Hiltz leads the Chaos in points (17), and that’s not necessarily a knock on the rest of the team, as the rookie has more points than players like Tom Schreiber and Ryder Garnsey, who have played a full season.

If the Chaos are going to make a run to end the year, they’ll need someone else to step up and insert themselves early and often. Jackson Eicher, another rookie attackman, fits that bill. Since scoring five points during an excellent pro debut against the Atlas, Eicher has been an afterthought.

He has only found the back of the net on six occasions while turning the ball over 12 times. If Eicher can join Hiltz and Ross Scott as the leaders on offense, not only could Carolina be a dangerous team in September — it could emerge as one of the best up-and-coming young teams in the league.

Carolina doesn’t have the most favorable schedule to end the season, with Philadelphia (4-3) on Saturday before facing the Outlaws (5-2) and then closing the season with another tilt against the Archers (3-4) in Boston. The Waterdogs, though, are coming off their worst performance of the season, and the Chaos have already proved to be a match against the Archers.

Lastly, there should be no reason to count out a team with Blaze Riorden in net. 

In the Eastern Conference, a young attack duo has emerged and started to rearrange the standings. Whipsnakes attackmen TJ Malone and Matt Brandau combined for 10 points in their 10-7 win over the Waterdogs last week to leapfrog the Cannons.

The pair displayed remarkable chemistry on their power play unit and in the fourth quarter. It could have something to do with Brandau moving in across the street from Malone in New York, but whatever it is, it’s working.

“TJ is a phenomenal lacrosse player,” Brandau said. “He does the right thing. He knows where the ball needs to go, and it’s a blast playing with him. We’re talking a ton off the field, we're talking a ton on the field, and as the chemistry grows, I think we’re going to start seeing the fruits of that connection a little bit more.”

The Whipsnakes also have two of the most crucial positions on the field figured out with faceoff specialist Joe Nardella and rookie goalie Emmet Carroll, who has averaged a 64.7 save efficiency in his past three games.

Still, there are some doubts about whether Maryland’s offense can keep up with the league’s most potent teams, but it’s hard to count out a team that has the league’s top scoring defense and a head coach that’s been doing this for a long time.

Again, sometimes it just takes a while for things to come together.

“Matt Brandau played in maybe one game last year, maybe two in a completely different position,” Whipsnakes head coach Jim Stagnitta said after their win over Philadelphia. “Brad Smith had taken a year off. We have new pieces. We're missing guys. We have rookies who are in the lineup. It takes a little while for it all to come together.”

Still, after all this talk about the underdogs making a potential playoff run, there are two juggernauts who haven’t been mentioned. On Saturday, the Outlaws faced the Cannons while they were having their best offensive performance of the season, and it felt like it didn’t even matter.

Since Attackmen Brennan O’Neill and Pat Kavanagh moved in with each other, the Outlaws haven’t lost a game, winning five in a row. The duo won a gold medal together on the U.S. U21 National Team in Ireland in 2022 but have spent the majority of their careers competing against each other.

Now it’s come full circle and is paying off in a major way.

“I’ve always had that respect for him,” O’Neill said. “Now that we’re teammates, it was seamless, and our bond has been growing more and more, especially being roommates, getting to know each other. At the end of the day, we have the same common goal. We want to win, and we want to put as many goals in the back of the net.”

While O’Neill and Kavanagh aren’t far behind, Jeff Teat and Connor Shellenberger are still the most productive attack duo in the PLL right now, and New York also hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.

The Atlas will face the Whipsnakes on Friday before playing the Outlaws on August 2 in a flexed matchup on ABC, which will be Denver’s last game of the regular season. Maybe these two sides will continue their dominance into September, or a new team will emerge, but it’s still too early to write anyone off.