It's Time To Start Worrying That The Premier Lacrosse League Is Addicted To Overtime
There have been 9 games played in the PLL so far this year. Out of those 9 games, 7 of them have been decided by just 1-goal and 5 of those games have gone to overtime. Just think about that for a second. I’m not much of a math wizard or anything like that, but that means that over 75% of the games right now are just 1-goal games.
Now most people out there will look at that and tell you that it’s a great thing for the sport. They’ll say how much they love the parity of this league and how pretty much every game has come down to the wire so far. But there’s a dirty little secret hiding behind those numbers. There’s an underlying issue that needs to be addressed sooner than later, before this thing really gets out of hand. And that issue is the idea here that maybe the Premier Lacrosse League has become addicted to overtime.
When the first two games in league history both went to overtime on June 1st, we thought it was just a little quirky and awesome. Then we had another overtime in week 2 and we thought it was still just a funny coincidence. But then this past weekend in Chicago, we had both of the Saturday games go to overtime again and now I think we have a serious issue on our hands. The league is addicted to overtime, and they’ll stop at nothing to continue chasing that high.
First on deck we had the Chaos taking on the Redwoods. The Redwoods built up an early lead but just like pretty much every lead we’ve seen so far in this league, it quickly went away. And after a few back-and-forths, we headed to overtime where Josh Byrne called game.
Up next we had the Archers taking on the Whipsnakes. Both of these teams went into the weekend as the only undefeated teams remaining in the league so obviously we knew that this one was going to be tight. The Archers won in overtime in week 1. Then they held on in week 2 to beat the Redwoods by 1 in regulation. The Whipsnakes had won both of their previous 2 games in overtime already. So why would you ever expect anything different out of this week in Chicago?
For the 2nd week in a row, it was Ryan Drenner delivering the OT dagger. And something to keep in mind this time around is that he did it in a pair of Yeezy cleats.
“Look good, feel good, play good” has never been proven more true than it was right there. I mean as soon as we broke that news, you should have immediately went to your bookie and put your entire life’s savings on Ryan Drenner scoring in overtime this week. And now thanks to some elite footwear, the Dripsnakes are the only undefeated team left in the PLL.
Then we get to yesterday’s matchup between the Atlai and the Chrome. Neither of these teams had found themselves in the win column yet this season but the Chrome lost both of their games in overtime. So you figured that they’d be due for a win. Especially with how they came back in the 2nd half to take the game over.
Down 8-5 at halftime. Immediately stormed back in the 2nd half. Took the lead. You figured that it was finally time for the Chrome to get one. But you figured wrong because with under a minute to go, Connor Buczek scored his 4th goal of the day to give the Atlas the win.
A little unfortunate that we were just 50 seconds away from going 3-for-3 in overtime games this weekend. But yeah, 3 games on the weekend and all of them came down to just 1 goal. Bottom line is that if you’re not watching the PLL right now, you are a certified jackass.
And oh yeah, before we wrap things up here I just want to talk about the “fighting” real quick.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that I absolutely love this shit. And I guess it also shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that there are a ton of dorks out there who have been bitching heavily about fighting being accepted in the PLL. Which blows my goddamn mind. I mean it’s pretty much the same argument that the dorks on Hockey Twitter try to make about taking fighting out of the NHL. It’s a bunch of people who have absolutely nothing to do with the game being played acting as if they should be the moral authority on the matter and tell the players how they should or should not behave themselves out there.
These are the best lacrosse players in the world. And they’re all the best lacrosse players in the world because they are ultra competitive people. And they’re currently playing in a league where 75% of the games come down to just 1-goal. So obviously the tensions are going to be high. Obviously things are going to get a little chaotic out there. And sometimes when you get a bunch of extremely competitive athletes out there who want nothing more than to get a win, some fists will be flying. It’s not like these guys are going out there every week just looking to get into a fight. But sometimes that just happens and it happens across all sports. So for a bunch of assholes to just sit on Twitter saying that it doesn’t belong in the game, politely go fuck yourself. Because it’s not up to you to say what can or can’t happen in the game because you’re not playing in the game. If these guys want to protect themselves and take matters into their own hands, they’re a bunch of grown ass men who should have the right to do that.
And then you get a bunch of knobs saying shit like “well think about the kids”. Uhhhh hey, asshole. What do you think is going to happen? Do you really think that youth lacrosse from now on is just going to be a UFC match with a little bit of lacrosse sprinkled in just because one punch was thrown this weekend? The kids are going to be perfectly fine. And if anything, Nick Ossello and Blaze Riorden set a great example for the kids this weekend because immediately after they game, they both tweeted about having respect for the other player and how sometimes things just get a little out of hand.
That’s the example that we should be setting for the kids. You get in a little scrap on the field and then it’s done with. There’s no carrying over that aggression after the game. You get it out of your system, you have a mutual respect for one another, and you move on. That’s exactly why fighting belongs in the game. That’s a lesson that extends well beyond the lacrosse playing field. So if you actually cared about the kids instead of just being a little triggered woke boy, you’d realize that they would learn a helluva lot more from guys like Nick Ossello and Blaze Riorden than they would ever learn from some jackass on a keyboard crying about how one punch is going to completely ruin a game.
Just my two cents.
Update: We just had Nick Ossello on today’s episode of The Crease Dive to breakdown everything about the donnybrook. You can give it a listen right here on iTunes.