MLL Tilt: The Outlaws Crush the Blaze

I never watched a ton of Major League Lacrosse, mostly cuz I would miss the games when they were on ESPN2.

Then I discovered Lax Sports Network…

…and everything changed.

The LSN site is great.

You can watch all MLL games at any time.

Plus it has a bunch of other cool content - still need to dive into all that.

That’ll happen eventually, and of course, I’ll report back…

The first game I watched was Atlanta at Denver.

But before I dive into the game, here’s a summary of the MLL.

There’s 9 teams:

Denver Outlaws
Ohio Machine
Rochester Rattlers
New York Lizards
Florida Launch
Chesapeake Bayhawks
Charlotte Hounds
Atlanta Blaze
Boston Cannons

Denver attracts the largest crowds and averages 9,530 people per game.

Charlotte attracts the smallest crowds and averages just 1,434 people per game.

There’s a 2-point line.

There’s a 60 second shot clock. Makes for a lot more offense.

The regular season is 14 games. Then the playoffs.

At least in Denver, music plays over the PA system the entire game.

Other than that, it’s normal lacrosse...

Most of the best players from college play in the league, so it’s fun to still watch all those guys run around.

I watched this game on replay…

Originally, I thought it was gonna be close one, but Denver dominated the entire time.

The Bocklet family is really impressive.

Mike Bocklet plays for Denver. He was in the MLL back in the day, took a break, then joined on with Denver after tearing it up in an open tryout.

Mike Bocklet had 6 goals in this game.

Mike’s brother, Matt, is a defenseman on Denver.

And Mike’s other brother, Chris, is an attackman on Atlanta. He had 2 goals in this game.

Talk about an athletic family!

Going into the game, Matt Kavanagh was Denver’s leading scorer. I remember him when played at Notre Dame. Not surprised at all, that he’s found success in the MLL.

The takeaway from this game…

I saw something I’ve never seen in a lacrosse game.

Jack Kelly, the Denver goalie, scored on a full field shot. He literally fired the ball from his own crease the entire field. There was only 1 second left in the 3rd quarter, and Adam Ghitelman (the Atlanta goalie) held his water bottle as the ball went right past him.

Nuts!

At the time, Atlanta had a little momentum going. That goal quickly killed any of that.

Remember it was a 2-pointer!

Everyone in attendance was promised free Chick-fil-a after that goal.

Scott Ratliff is the long-stick middie for Atlanta. He plays a ton of offense. Not sure if this is a good thing or not, as he pretty much just stands at the top near the restraining line the entire time.

Ratliff does do lots of good things, and I’ll probably see him later in this MLL season.

Casey Powell was the color commentator. At one point, he talked about the 10,000 rule. He stressed that all the best players grew up with their sticks - never putting them down.

Looking to get similar stick skills… then I suggest you start doing the same.