Go grab a cup of Tim Hortons, throw on your best denim, and slug down some maple syrup because the Premier Lacrosse League is heading to Canada this weekend. The boys are heading up to Hamilton, Ontario for week 9 of the PLL season. Only 2 more regular season games to go and plenty of playoff implications on the line here. I’m not sure if the exchange rate between win in Canada is the same as a win in the United States, so that could also make things interesting this weekend.

Anyways…to get us ready for week 9 up at Tim Hortons Field, we brought back recurring guest and good ol’ Ontario boy Joel Tinney. The Tinman talked to us about getting a chance to play professional field lacrosse in the motherland for the first time, and about what kind of celly he’s ready to breakout this weekend whenever he stuffs some rubber in the back of the net. No word on whether or not there will be any hidden ball tricks in the game plan for this weekend but I have to imagine it’ll at least be on the play sheet for out of a timeout.

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Do it, Joel. I beg you. Please.

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PLL Week 9 Preview // Hamilton, Ontario // Tim Hortons Field

Chaos (6-2) vs Archers (4-4) // Saturday, 12:30pm ET // NBCSN

At this point the Chaos are the only team who have officially clinched a playoff spot. So you’d think that maybe they would take these final 2 weeks of the season a little easy to make sure that they’re healthy and ready to go once the playoffs actually get going. But considering their team is loaded up with Canadians and then also loaded up with former Albany guys, these next two weeks are pretty much home games for them. Which sucks for a team like the Archers, who still need a little help to get into the playoffs. If the Archers win both of these last two games, they’re in. But if they drop this game on Saturday to the Chowse, they’ll need a little help with either the Atlas or the Redwoods to lose a game.

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So really what the Archers need to hope for here is that the Chaos have a bunch of friends and family in town this weekend, and that the boys decide to have just a little too much fun during their homecoming. Honestly it would probably be best for the Archers if this was the Sunday game because then they could hope all the Chaos guys go out on that Saturday night. Being the first game on Saturday is a pretty tough draw because now the Chaos can just have all day Saturday and all Saturday night to have themselves a weekend back home once they lock up a top 2 spot with a win.

Jordie’s Pick: Chowse

Atlas (3-5) vs Chrome (2-6) // Saturday, 3:30pm ET // NBC Sports Gold

The Atlai may not have as many canucks on their roster as the Chaos do, but they’ve got Joel Tinney and Chris Cloutier as a couple of hometown boys at attack. Cloutier has been pretty busy leading the Six Nations Chiefs to the Major Series Lacrosse finals this summer so he hasn’t been in the Atlas lineup in a few weeks. So the combo of getting to play at home and also needing to make up for some lost time has me thinking we see a big day out of 45.

This game right here will pretty much decide the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention. You lose this game and you’re done. Even if either of these teams end up winning the next 2 games here, they still need some help to get into the playoffs. So it’s not a “win & you’re in” type of scenario. But you sure as shit don’t want to be the only losers in Albany during week 10 who have absolutely no shot at the playoffs. So there’s a lot riding on this one and I think breathing in that Ontario air is going to play of major role.

Jordie’s Pick: Atlai 

Redwoods (4-4) vs Whipsnakes (5-3) // Sunday, 6pm ET // NBCSN

The Dripsnakes could have clinched a playoff spot on July 27th in Denver, but they lost that game 13-12 against the Chaos. Then they could have clinched a playoff spot on August 10th in San Jose, but they lost that game 20-16 against the Chrome. Even after losing those last two games, they have a 99.9% chance of making the playoffs. I don’t know how much you guys know about math but 99.9% is just about as high as you can get. These guys could even lose their final 4 games of the season and have a spot in the playoffs as long as they have a higher score differential than the Atlas.

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But it’ll probably just be easier for them to win this game on Sunday against the Redwoods. I may not be a head coach in the PLL but I still think it would be a good idea to just win games instead of trying to go out there to lose all of them. Seems unconventional, I know. But sometimes you need to think outside of the box to be great.

Jordie’s Pick: Whipsnakes get their Drip back

Now go out there and have yourselves a weekend, folks. I love you all. Even the haters.

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