Playoffs?! Here's Your Full PLL Quarterfinals Weekend Preview And Picks
I gotta be honest. It feels like this PLL season started a hundred years ago. Maybe it's the fact that there were so many bye weeks on the backend of this roster. Maybe it's because last year's season was only 2 weeks long. But it just feels like June 4th at Gillette was a lifetime ago.
But here we are. The regular season has wrapped up. The Waterdogs have the 1-seed and a bye to Philly for the semifinals in September. The Chrome's season has unceremoniously come to an end. And the other 6 teams in the league all go to battle this weekend in Salt Lake City.
So if you're tired of watching meaningless preseason football games or boring baseball games where the Phillies do nothing but disappoint the shit out of you, it looks like you're in luck. Because you'll have some playoff lacrosse to watch on TV this weekend with everything on the line. And by everything, I mean a trip to the greatest city in the world to play in the semifinals on September 5. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lax capital of the world, baby. But before we get to Philly, we've got 3 quarterfinal matchups this weekend. You can hear all about them on this week's episode of The Crease Dive.
Listen to The Crease Dive's PLL Quarterfinals Preview here on Apple:
Listen to The Crease Dive's PLL Quarterfinals Preview here on Spotify:
Weekend TV Schedule & Odds:
Friday, 8:30pm // NBCSN // 3 Archers (-210) vs 6 Chaos (+160) // Total: 23.5
These two teams split the regular season series. Chaos took last week's game 11-9. But the Archers put a pretty solid beatdown on the Chaos in week 2 12-8. Obviously the biggest story heading into this game will be the Connor Fields revenge factor. He was an MVP finalist with the Chaos in year 1. Then last year in the bubble he found himself stuck on the bench. Then the Chaos traded him this past offseason to the Archers for Ian MacKay. The move worked out for both teams, but the last thing the Chaos want to see is Connor Fields playing pissed off tonight.
Saturday, 3:30pm // NBC // 2 Atlas (-186) vs 7 Cannons (+145) // Total: 25.5
Much like the Connor Fields revenge game, this is going to be the 3rd chance that Paul Rabil gets at revenge against the Atlas for trading him away this past offseason. The only issue is that in the previous 2 attempts, the Atlas have come away with 1-goal wins. They had an 18-17 win over the Cannons in week 3 when that sick bastard Jeff Teat went off for 7 goals and 9 points in his debut weekend. Then they won 13-12 in week 7.
Personally I think this young Atlas offense just has way more of a kill switch than the Cannons. They're playing with a ton of confidence, Ben Rubeor has the boys dialed in, and the Atlas actually own the the Cannons' 1st round draft pick next year. So nothing would be better than ending their season AND taking that 2nd overall draft pick in one devastating blow.
Saturday, 6pm // NBCSN // 4 Redwoods (+100) vs 5 Whipsnakes (-127) // Total: 24.5
A rematch of the inaugural championship game in 2019 where Matt Rambo scored the OT winner for the Whipsnakes. The only team who has won a championship in the PLL so far. And unfortunately for the Redwoods, Matt Rambo is all the way back after missing most of the season with an injury.
The two teams split the regular season series with the Redwoods winning 13-7 in week 5. But that was against a Whipsnakes team without Rambo in the lineup. With #9 back in the mix last weekend, the Shipsnakes won 14-12. So considering they're the only team to win a championship so far and the most dominant player in the league is back, you'd have to go full galaxy brain to bet against the Whips here.
Jordie's Picks (Last Week: 3-0)
Last week we took Chaos +2.5 over the Archers and they won outright, Cannons ML over the Chrome, and then took the over 23.5 in the Whipsnakes vs Archers in a game that finished in OT with a final score of 15-14. Just a nice little 3-0 week where we didn't even have to sweat for even a moment. If I know gambling like I think I know gambling, that means I'm obviously going to stay hot and in no way is water going to find its level again or anything…
So for this week, I like Over 23.5 in Archers vs Chaos. You've got Will Manny and Marcus Holman playing in Salt Lake City, so you know the Archers offense is going to pop off. The Chaos love to launch some 2 bombs. No Cloutier for the Chaos offense is a tough blow but I can see this game ending like 15-12.
Give me Cannons +1.5 at +100 against the Atlas. I think the Atlai still come out on top of this one but both of their previous matchups were 1-goal games so if you're going to get even money anywhere on this weekend, I think the Cannons taking this game to the final possession is the way to go. But I'm still rolling Atlas outright.
And in the final game…well…I'd personally stay as far away as possible from that one. The only thing I'm somewhat comfortable in would be Whipsnakes ML against the Redwoods but this is the biggest toss-up game of the weekend.