Premier Lacrosse League 2020

Today marks the start of the Premier Lacrosse League Championship Series. Due to COVID, the league has coordinated a round robin tournament to take place over two weeks this summer in Salt Lake City.

It seems there isn’t a lot of interest in lacrosse on the board, but even beyond the game, the league is really cool to follow. A lot of innovation and freedom for players to express themselves. Overall, a lot of fun.

 

Where other leagues have equivocated or followed the money, and in a sport where economic and racial disparity has always been pervasive, the PLL has never wavered in their efforts towards being inclusive.

 

One cool thing the league has done is a wide network of field mics and having players mic’d up. They catch a lot of the in-game banter, which is fun, and do player interviews while the game is happening. It’s cool to interview a player immediately after they score or a big hit or listen to the defense making calls on slides, picks, etc.

 

The Hoodie making an appearance.

 

This is why it's fun. Mid-game interview, talking shit, while you are standing right next to the guy you are talking about. And it's from a rookie directed at the reigning best goalie in the league.

 

Highlights from opening day. And yes, I realize I’m the only one in here, but hoping some of these clips can pique some interest.

 

Only one game on the docket for today - Waterdogs vs. Atlas. Expansion team against the team who has the league founder playing. Cool purple jerseys taking on cool blue jerseys. My favorite player, Connor Kelly, against a few cool personalities on the Atlas squad.

I believe it’s being televised nationally on NBC, hopefully some new potential fans are tuning in!

 

My Waterdogs went down today after leading the entire way, but at least CK40 had a few goals.

Highlights below, including some big hits and awesome rips.

 

Games continuing every day on NBCSports. Two tonight, three tomorrow. Normally, I don’t pay any attention to the Barstool crowd, but this Jordie guy has been a consistent lax fan. And he’s calling out Epple, who is a total dbag, fake tough “enforcer.” Oh, and Epple is a right-wing idiot off the field, too.

the guy getting trucked is the one who was talking a big game the other day.

 

Follow up to Epple's clown show

PLL Suspends Garrett Epple One Game For Unsportsmanlike Cross-Check on Matt Gaudet

 

A lot of lacrosse action tonight.

ESPNU is televising Culver Academy against Boys Latin, two national powerhouse high school programs right now.

NBCSports has a PLL doubleheader tonight at 7 and 9.

 

Today was the last game of group play and the playoffs start on Tuesday. My Waterdogs will be taking on the Redwoods.



In addition, Method Man has provided the leagues official hype song. I had no idea he played throughout high school, but they did a cool interview with him yesterday mid-game where he talked about it.

 

Lacrosse has some dope logos.

 

I'm just happy someone else popped in so I don't have to feel guilty about replying to myself every time! I know you mentioned elsewhere that it had been a while since you've paid attention to the sport, but the third game tomorrow at 10:30 is televised and would be worth checking out. The Archers have a stacked attack unit led by likely ROY Grant Ament and the Atlas have a lot of big names you might recognize, like Paul Rabil, Trevor Baptiste, and Rob Pannell.

The logos are pretty cool, but what I really like is that since the teams aren't city-based, you really can pick whichever team you like most rather than feeling a geographic bias/obligation. Also, a lot of the teams have a strong college tie-in, for example, the Whipsnakes have a lot of Maryland players, Atlas has a lot of Hopkins grads, etc.

Playoffs start tomorrow and continue through to the championship on Sunday afternoon. The Whipsnakes are the reigning champs and #1 seed, and they have an insane goal differential. It seems like they will cruise straight to a second championship, but still a lot of games left to play.

 

Is there an easy way to stream it?! I'll watch and start chatting in here, hopefully it drums up some interest.

 

all of the games are streamed on NBCSports Gold, but it's a $20 package. Made a lot of sense before the season to be able to watch every single game commercial free, but $20 now for 6 games might not. Maybe they'll offer a new playoff package for cheaper - if so I'll drop it in.

That said, you can watch one game tomorrow on NBC sports, likely one or both of the semis, and then the championship on NBC, so you should definitely be able to catch some no cost in the coming week.

 

Going live on NBCSports right now, Atlas vs. Archers. If you’re not watching anything else, give it a shot!

 

Semifinals tonight. Currently towards the end of the first quarter in the Chaos/archers game, and then whips/redwoods go off at 1030EST on NBCSports.

 

absolutely filthy

 

Today’s the day - championship at 12:30 nationally televised on NBC. Congrats to the league on an entirely COVID-free experience and being the first professional sports league to boast that claim. (I hope I didn’t just jinx it...)

 

At halftime, we are looking at 4-2 with the Chaos out front. Despite being brutalized on face offs, the Chaos are getting great goalie play and have silenced the best offense and 2 of the top offensive players in the league.

Extremely low scoring, which probably isn’t great for trying to rope in casual fans, but still high quality ball.

 

After being down 6-2, the Whipsnakes went on a 10 goal run to win the game 12-6. Zed Williams went off netting 4 points in the span of, like, 3 minutes. He finished with six goals, led the league for the series, and won MVP of the game. Chaos midfielders were non-existent all day and the Whips controlled the transition game.

Overall, I think this game was average. Not the best representation of the sport for a national audience, but people definitely got a taste about what’s great - fast paced, big scoring runs, great goalie play, exciting. Unfortunately, it didn’t ratchet up to that until midway through the third quarter and it wasn’t coming from both teams.

The past two weeks have definitely been great for the sport, though. High level lacrosse every day, most of it televised nationally, and a lot of double and even triple headers. With so few other options for live sports, exposure had to have been good. Most importantly, an example for other leagues about how to thrive in the COVID era.

 

HUGE news in the lacrosse world this past week. The more established professional league with 18 years under its belt was absorbed by the two season old upstart. Major League Lacrosse is no more, Premier Lacrosse cements the future of the game.

 

Sharing this 1) because it’s important and 2) to highlight the shift in the sport, from the top down, to become more inclusive. The Charlottesville polos and khaki crowd does exist, but it’s the “good guys” calling the shots.