Remember the Boston Blazers? They were a lacrosse team in the NLL for three years. They went to the playoffs every year and lost in the first round- twice to Buffalo and once to Orlando. They had lots of great players, like Dan Dawson, Casey Powell, Josh Sanderson and Anthony Cosmo.

Then this September, right before the NLL draft, we heard that the Blazers were leaving. They wouldn't say that they were folding. We all kind of assumed that they were, because every NLL team that has suspended ended up folding for good.

The Blazers had said in their letter back then that they have started a six month plan. It has been now eight months since the Blazers have folded. So, has there been any progress in their search?

First, what are they searching for? First, they wanted to relocate the team to a new home facility. But would there be a new ownership group? According to my sources, there is a potential ownership group, and the league knows about it, as it has passed through the league front office.

One thing that is not clear is if this potential owner wants to keep the Blazers local. The deadline to inform the league was supposed to be Friday, but today it was extended, though I do not know how long that extension is.

The Boston Blazers might come back. Stay tuned.

Jovan Miller, former star at Syracuse and current midfielder for the Charlotte Hounds, has agreed to do a weekly blog for In Lax We Trust with his thoughts on the Hounds, MLL and the world of lacrosse.

I was thinking about what I should write about for this weekend after going up to the Final Four (Congrats to Loyola, Dowling, and Salisbury) in Foxborough, MA, and I thought about being a kid again. I think as you continue to get older, you find yourself reminiscing about the things that used to be and how things were.

The whirlwind of life begins to speed up when you leave college and it seems like you're always trying to slow down the things around you so you have recollection of these moments in the future.

The truth is that there is no rewind button on life and the best way to capture moments is to make more of them. We have been blessed with a new day regardless of you're feeling, you have the option of making the day given to you a successful one. When you were a child little things could alter your day like spilling ice cream on your new shirt.

When you get older you have "grown up" problems like bills and jobs. I think we all wish to be young again, but appreciate the bad days and make the best of the situation given to you.

Jovi Nation #7 signing off!

After a week off from MLL action, tomorrow night the undefeated Boston Cannons will face off with the Rochester Rattlers. Last time these teams faced each other, it was opening day and the Cannons won 15-3.

The Rattlers are a different team now, with Ned Crotty, one of the best players in the entire league back in action. The Cannons roster is also bolstered, with Matt Poskay, Kevin Buchanan and Brad Ross playing.

In the last game between these teams, Ari Sussman had four goals to steal the show. His playing time is less with so many elite players back, but he remains on the roster at the attack position.

Joe Walters and Joel White are also back for the Rattlers after their NLL counter part, the Rochester Knighthawks, won the Champions Cup. They add a boost to the Rochester lineup in their first game back with the Rattlers.

Some other new faces are with the Rattlers from the college ranks, like Carter Bender from Hartford, Kevin Drew from Syracuse, Roy Lang from Virginia and Mike Manley from Duke.

Rochester is 1-2 on the season, defeating the Chesapeake Bayhawks and falling to the Ohio Machine in their schedule. This time they are facing the Cannons at home, a big advantage compared to having to play in Boston. It is their first home game of the season, so the Cannons will have to face the crowd as well.

Game time is 7pm tomorrow night and the game can be seen live on TV on the CBS Sports Network.

After a week off from MLL action, tomorrow night the undefeated Boston Cannons will face off with the Rochester Rattlers. Last time these teams faced each other, it was opening day and the Cannons won 15-3.

The Rattlers are a different team now, with Ned Crotty, one of the best players in the entire league back in action. The Cannons roster is also bolstered, with Matt Poskay, Kevin Buchanan and Brad Ross playing.

In the last game between these teams, Ari Sussman had four goals to steal the show. His playing time is less with so many elite players back, but he remains on the roster at the attack position.

Joe Walters and Joel White are also back for the Rattlers after their NLL counter part, the Rochester Knighthawks, won the Champions Cup. They add a boost to the Rochester lineup in their first game back with the Rattlers.

Some other new faces are with the Rattlers from the college ranks, like Carter Bender from Hartford, Kevin Drew from Syracuse, Roy Lang from Virginia and Mike Manley from Duke.

Rochester is 1-2 on the season, defeating the Chesapeake Bayhawks and falling to the Ohio Machine in their schedule. This time they are facing the Cannons at home, a big advantage compared to having to play in Boston. It is their first home game of the season, so the Cannons will have to face the crowd as well.

Game time is 7pm tomorrow night and the game can be seen live on TV on the CBS Sports Network.

For more on lacrosse, visit out blog In Lax We Trust

Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday to kick off the summer. Yet again for the 5th summer in a row I was on the road with my good friend and StickHorse teammate Julian Malizewski (Niagara Hawks). This weekend our journey started Thursday night with a smooth ride up to Rochester to see another StickHorse and Can/Am player Ryan Maciazek (Newtown Golden Eagles). Ryan was kind enough to open his home to me all weekend and it was awesome to be able to spend Memorial Day with him and his lovely girlfriend and former Buffalo Bills Cheerleader Ms. Stefanie.

One of the coolest things about box lacrosse is the number of friends you make across the country and in my case I have been blessed to even make some friends overseas. Travelling allows you the opportunity to share in experiences with these guys that most other people cannot understand so any chance to hook up with your boxla brothers is always a good time. Also, if you don't know about the Western NY staple that is "Kan Jam" I highly suggest you check it out.

Friday night found all 3 of us StickHorses in action as Julian's Niagara Hawks defeated the Pinewoods Smoke 13-5 in the home opener for the Hawks in Fort Erie, Ontario. Ryan's team the Newtown Golden Eagles won a huge game Vs. the Six Nations Slash Saturday night 7-6 to take 1st place, with Ryan putting up two assists and our other good friend and a guy I believe who should be playing pro-indoor lacrosse somewhere - Josh Kaperzak netting two goals.

For me Friday night was my first home game in a Rochester Greywolves uniform as the legendary Onondaga RedHawks made their way to the Sports Centre at Monroe Community College. My goaltending partner Mike Matteo received the start Friday night, and he was up to the challenge stopping a flurry of shots in the 1st period which ended with the Greywolves leading 4-2 after 1. The 2nd period went the way of the RedHawks as they were able to get hot and go on a run to take the period and the overall lead in the game 9-4 after 2 periods. The onslaught from the RedHawks continued and midway through the 3rd I made my way into the net with the score of 13-5. Each squad traded a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes with the RedHawks getting the win 15-7. The score seems much more one sided then the game actually was, and although we were not very happy with the result, there were a lot of positives that we took from this game to build upon. For me personally it was on honor to finally play against the RedHawks in a regular season game, as anyone who knows the history of box lacrosse knows of the legendary players from the Onondaga reserve and the impact they have left on the game.

Continue reading this post »

Jerry Cransick from ESPN reports that baseball officials from around the league are convinced that free agent right handed pitcher Roy Oswalt will sign with the Texas Rangers this week.

Oswalt has thrown bullpen sessions for the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies, but during the off season he had been adamant about joining either the Rangers or the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cransick's report had a quote from a baseball official, saying that another team in the league would have to greatly outbid the Texas Rangers to prevent Oswalt from signing there.

Oswalt spent most of his career with the Houston Astros and is from the south, so he would prefer to pitch there. The Rangers did not have as much of a need for pitching this off season, but they do now with Neftali Feliz on the disabled list. Other teams interested are the Red Sox, Phillies, Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers.

With Loyola defeating Maryland today, the NCAA lacrosse tournament concluded. And once again, the attendance was less than desired. For the fifth straight season it has gone down, and this season it was the lowest since 2002 in Rutgers.

This season it was held in Gillette Stadium in New England, the home of the NFL's New England Patriots. New England is a growing lacrosse market, with more and more high school teams, the Boston Cannons championship, and other factors.

Boston University will be going Division one, and the University of Massachusetts was one of the best teams in the country this season. New England seemed like a natural place, so why was it so bad?

Maybe it wasn't. When it was in Baltimore, the attendance was going down as well. There is the possibility that it would have gone down if it stayed there this season. Is there the possibility that interest is just reciting?

Next season it is in Philadelphia, where we saw success for the US Lacrosse convention this past winter. A newer lacrosse market, maybe it will see some success.

Follow the jump for more on the declining attendance.

Continue reading this post »

Apparently every team, organisation or work group goes through 4 phases of group dynamics according to a psychologist at Ohio University name Bruce Tuckman. As a social scientist myself, I am not convinced that social groups experience things the same way every time. There is a fundamental difference between ‘'natural sciences'', ‘'life sciences'' and ‘' social or human sciences''. A law can apply to physics but there can hardly be any ‘'laws'' in social sciences. Here's an example: how can we be sure that a social phenomenon really affected the way a society developed? How can we be sure that the Second World War forged the world in a unique way when there's no other ‘'world'' that we can compare it to?

Let's get to the point here... Even though I'm not the biggest fan of the so-call social dynamics that would apply every time in every group, the Storming phase, or at least something very similar, of Tuckman's model kind of happened to the Voyageurs last weekend.
Two weeks ago we beat the Montréal Phoenix 16-6 missing our top 3 scorers.

This past weekend, we lost to Montréal 4-5 with our full squad! We didn't find any lame excuses we just got outworked, plain, simple and painful. I didn't play that game so I got to see what happened on the bench. Guys were yelling at each other, were getting frustrated, you know, the usual stuff.

On Saturday we played the Caughnawaga Indians, the team with the best record so far in the T.N.L.L. division. We won that game 10-6 even though we faced a hot goalie in Alex Fortier for the first 45 minutes of the game. I did play that game so I cannot really tell what happened on the bench, but the vibe was certainly different. We outworked them and it paid off.

Prior to that game we set ourselves goals to achieve. One of them was that we needed to outwork the opposing team every shift of every game, win or lose. I think that really helped us against the Indians who took the lead 2-1 after the first period.

I hope this wasn't too boring. I can hardly speak about lacrosse without making any references to my work and vice-versa. I'm a nerd and I fully accept it.

Until next time.

Vince

There were three games of Quebec Senior Lacrosse League action on this Memorial Day Weekend, where we saw the Vermont Voyageurs, Kahnawake Mohawks and Montreal Phoenix pick up wins.

Vermont defeated the Caughnawaga Indians, 10-6. Ethan Farrell had three goals while Greg Rogowski scored two goals and continues to light it up since he signed with the Voyageurs. They also had multiple point games from Brandon Dube, Andrew Kirkaldy, and Jake Rick.

Vincent Talbot played the entire game in net and made 29 saves while giving up six goals. The Indians saw Alexandre Fortier play 56 minutes in net, where he gave up all ten goals and made 55 saves.

Nick Angus, Thunder Jacobs and Natie McComber each scored two goals for the Indians in their loss.

The Mohawks defeated the Cornwall Island Redmen by a score of 11-6, but there was no available box score. The Mohawks moved up to 4-2 and remain in the lead for the east division.

The Montreal Phoenix found a 11-10 win over the Snake Island Muskies as well on Saturday afternoon. Tim Bergin had four goals and two assists for the Phoenix while they also got three goals from Shane Davidson and two from Jean-Guillaume Thouin.

Brett Perras played 53 minutes in the game and gave up five of the goals, while Chris Chuback played just seven minutes and also gave up five.

Joe Collin Hall had five goals for the Muskies while Curry Rice had two goals. Peter Paul played the entire game in net and made thirty seven saves.

The Baltimore Orioles announced yesterday that they have signed center fielder Adam Jones to a six year deal worth $85.5 million. There is also no option for a seventh year according to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun.

There is no-trade provisions in this contract for Jones. Jones will start out the deal making $8.5 million next season, and in the last year of the deal he will be making $17 million.

This is the second largest deal for center fielders with Matt Kemp leading the way. The Dodgers center fielder is currently on the disabled list, but was on fire to start the season.

Jones was acquired by the Orioles from the Seattle Mariners in 2008. He was acquired along with former closer George Sherrill for left handed pitcher Erik Bedard. At the time, Bedard was one of the best pitchers in baseball while Jones was a top prospect for the Mariners.

For the second year in a row, the Maryland Terps will be in the NCAA Lacrosse Championship game. They defeated the Duke Blue Devils yesterday afternoon for the second time this season to advance. Maryland also beat Duke in the semi-finals last season.

Their opponent will be the Loyola Greyhounds, who defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and have lost just one game all season. Their win along with Maryland's will make this an all Maryland Championship game.

Maryland is an unseeded team while Loyoloa was the top team in the country and the top seeded team in the tournament.

Nick Amato will be in net for the Terps, who made ten saves on the Devils, while Jack Runkel made fifteen on the Irish. Drew Snider will be a player to watch on the Maryland side, with four goals last game, along with Joe Cummings, who had a goal and an assist. Cummings will be playing on the MLL's Chesapeake Bayhawks.

For Loyola, Eric Lusby dominated all day with five goals. He also had one assist. Mike Sawyer led them all season with 50+ goals, but he had just one assist last game as Lusby stole the show.

One thing to watch is the fact that Loyola won one out of fourteen face offs against Notre Dame, and Maryland won thirteen out of twenty eight. Both of them didn't do great, but Loyola is at the obvious disadvantage if they continue that.

Both teams did not take advantage of any of their man up opportunities, but we know that they both have offensive weapons capable of doing well in that situation.

My key player for Maryland is Snider. He stepped up in a big game and has been one of the best players for the Terps. For Loyola, I would say Lusby, but I think the play of Runkell in net will be a key.]

The game is tomorrow at 1pm and will be on ESPN.

According to Ken Rosenthal from FOX Sports, the Minnesota Twins might be interested in trading first baseman and the 2006 MLB MVP Justin Morneau. Morneau has suffered from back injuries and a concussion in the past three seasons.

Morneau is owed $14 million dollars this season and next season as well. . Morneau has a no trade clause, so he would have to approve a trade.

A team that might be interested is the Philadelphia Phillies, as they are without Ryan Howard and they have been talked about as being interested in Kevin Youkilis.

Rosenthal says that the Twins might also be looking to move closer Matt Capps, starting pitcher Carl Pavano and center fielder Denard Span, but Rosenthal says that Morneau would draw the most interest.

According to Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports, the Arizona Diamondbacks and catcher Miguel Montero have agreed to a five year contract extension worth $60 million.

It is the richest deal in the history of the Diamondbacks and it will be announced in a press conference tomorrow afternoon. It does not give Montero any no trade or no movement protection.

Montero and the Diamondbacks have been discussing a possible extension over the winter, through spring training and until now. Now they have locked up one of the best catchers in Major League Baseball for the next five seasons.

Montero made the all star game for the first time last season and he also led the league in percentage throwing out base runners. He is one of the best fielders in the entire league, and his hitting ability is very solid and will continue to improve over the period of these five years/

Last night in some Quebec Senior Lacrosse League action, the Kahnawake Mohawks defeated the Snake Island Muskies, 12-7. The Mohawks now sit atop the east division at 3-2 while the Muskies fall to 0-3, in last place in the west.

Karakwanoron Two-Axe scored three goals to lead the Mohawks and also picked up two assists. Joe Frank Thomas also picked up two goals in the game. Also with multiple point games were Gregory Diablo, Al Jones, Mark Kirby and Chad Norton.

Bluecloud Lahache played thirty minutes of the game and gave up three goals while Justin Delormier played the other thirty minutes in net and surrendered four goals.

For the Muskies, Collin Joe Hall led with two goals. Raweras Mitchell also picked up two goals on the night for Snake Island. The rest of their goals came from Ryan Jacobs, Karlwate Mitchell and Curry Rice.

Peter Paul played the entire game in net and gave up all twelve goals. The QSLL website did not list the amount of saves in this game for either side.

Tonight the Vermont Voyageurs will take on the Montreal Phoenix. The Voyageurs are 3-1 and in second place in their division behind the Mohawks, while Montreal is 1-4 and is in last place in the division. Game time is 8pm.

Jovan Miller of the Charlotte Hounds will be doing a blog every week on In Lax We Trust. This week, the Hounds and Major League Lacrosse are taking off Memorial Day Weekend. But that doesn't mean there is no lacrosse.

So this weekend will be one of the most difficult weekends I have had in quite some time. For the first time since 2009 I will be attending a Final Four. Foxborough, MA is the best of both worlds for me. It was where my Cuse teammates took down a determined Paul Rabil- led Hopkins team in 08', and in 09' where the "miracle" happened (Thanks Nims, miss you kid) against Cornell.

Two unforgettable years, BUT it is unfortunately the venue where I would play my last game in a Syracuse Orange uniform thanks to the "Big Cat"(Grant Catalino) and of course 12 stall calls (I had to say that part!). It is especially difficult not to see the Cuse there, but nonetheless I think it is still the Mecca of lacrosse.

I remember when I attended my first Final Four in 04' when The Orange brought it home after barely getting into the playoffs. You never think that four or five years from that moment that you'll be wearing the uniform and there's 40+ thousand screaming for you. This Final Four will be something to remember based on the teams involved. This is the first time since 1975 that a team named Syracuse, Virginia, or Johns Hopkins was not in the Final Four.

I could remember not going to sleep until after 3am in my excitement, or listening to "The Champ is here" by Jadakiss as we were getting ready for the games. What an experience it truly was. Its great to watch the kids playing mini-lax in the middle of the parking lots representing their favorite school.

Well I guess I'll hopefully see some of you guys up there!!! Jovi Nation signing off!

The Vermont Voyageurs split in their games this weekend, and are now 3-1 in their season. This weekend they fell to the Kahnawake Mohawks and they defeated the Montreal Phoenix.

In their Saturday loss to the Mohawks, a 12-9 defeat, Mark Kirby led the Mohawks with a hat trick. Deer Kanitat also had three assists on the night. Their goaltenders, Bluecloud Lahache and Derek Collins, split their time. Lahache played 22 minutes and made 14 saves while Collins played 38 minutes and made 21 saves.

For Vermont, Evan Roberts had the hat trick while Greg Rogowski, in his first game as a Voyageur, had two goals. Trevor Wagar also had three assists to lead in that category.

Vincent Talbot played all but four minutes in net in this game, making 21 saves. Patrick Porier played four minutes, making one save and allowing three goals.

In the win over Montreal, by a score of 16-6, Rogowski scored six goals to lead them to their victory. Matthew Vozzollo also had five goals, so those two combined for eleven of their sixteen goals. Talbot played this entire game in net, making 18 saves and allowing six goals. Tim Bergin led Montreal with three goals.

Vermont leads their division with 52 goals for. They trail just the St. Regis Braves in the league, and they have 65 goals. They have the third best goals against at 31, behind the Cornwall Island Redmen and Snake Island Muskies.

We already saw the National Lacrosse League create a Twitter account to update their side of the labor story, @NLLCBA. Afterwards, tweets were sent out by NLL agent Chaka Bainbridge and Colorado Mammoth goalie Chris Levis reminding the public that the account was just one side of the story.

This off season the NLL and PLPA will have to go through a process to work out the CBA, and it appears that the PLPA is not going to take the NLL informing just one side of the story. The NLL CBA account has said over the past three days that they are awaiting a response from the PLPA and that they sent their proposal 98 days ago. Here is what the @PLPALax had to say about that.

no one has opted out of the current contract. If the league decides to opt out we will begin the process of assembling players concerns

— PLPA (@PLPAlax) May 23, 2012

PLPA and NLL were negotiating to settle grievances before an arbitrator not negotiating a new CBA

— PLPA (@PLPAlax) May 23, 2012

The PLPA has always supported revenue sharing as a means to long term stability for the NLL

— PLPA (@PLPAlax) May 23, 2012

It is not known who is actually running this account, but thus far they are following InLaxWeTrust along with other media outlets and reporters, and several players in the NLL, including Levis, who has also retweeted each of these tweets (along with the InLax Twitter account).

Of course, most of these tweets are in reference to what the NLL CBA has said, especially the last one. The NLL CBA account has talked about such as revenue sharing, and the PLPA addresses this in their last tweet today.

Keep watching as both accounts will be keeping us updated with their side of the story, and of course more stuff can always come out that they do not make public.

Chazz Woodson has only nine points with the Ohio Machine this season, but already he has made a splash with the expansion team. He has two plays on ESPN's SportsCenter top ten plays of the day, something that lacrosse fans know is hard to get on.

"So far the season has been a lot of fun." said Woodson "I came back to MLL this year for two reasons. The first was that I wasn't happy about the last two years of my MLL career - Injured in '09 playing only half the season. Injured, traded, and deacitvated in '10, playing only half the season. When I was with the LA Riptide, I was sort of just coming into my own. I was playing well, and enjoying myself. After LA folded, the next couple of years were pretty bummy for me, and I felt like I had a lot more to offer than I was able to - for various reasons. The second part was the opportunity to play with the guys on this team. A bunch of the guys on the team, I've already played with. They're guys that I really enjoy being around, and guys that I've built some pretty good friendships with. At the end of the day, that's what lacrosse is about."

The Machine are an expansion team, new this season. They had over 6,000 fans in their home debut on Saturday. "It's a team first atmosphere." Woodson explained. "It's an unselfish group that doesn't care about who gets the points, who gets the credit, who gets the spotlight. It's a talented team that is dangerous at all positions. And it's a team that, from top to the bottom, enjoys being around each other. Chemistry in this league is extremely important. And we're starting to develop that. We're a confident team, but a team that understands that it takes work to win in this league. We trust that everyone is working throughout the week so that Saturday rolls around and we're ready to go. Again - team first."

Woodson was very adamant about the group with the Machine, and how they are "team first". He says that is what he has enjoyed the most about this season.

"As cliche as it may be, my favorite part of this season is just being around the team. Fun bunch of guys. No ... Let's keep it PG and say, jerks ... There are plenty of those throughout the league, but we're a pretty jerk free team. I've gotten to spend time off the field with guys that are my best friends in the league, and I've gotten to know guys pretty well that I didn't know at all prior to the start of training camp."

What is next for Woodson, and the Machine? "I'm always a little uncomfortable with predicting things. But I'll say this. If we continue to build on what we've done so far, we're going to be tough to beat. It's not unrealistic that we could be 3 - 0 right now. But seasons aren't built on "coulds." There are still a lot of games to be played, but they each are played one at a time. In a one game season, I like our chances."

Mike Stone (who was my prediction for break-out player of the year) already has three hat tricks this season in the Boston Cannons 4-0 start. Last week the Cannons defeated the previously undefeated Denver Outlaws to take the top record in Major League Lacrosse.

Hey everyone! I'm excited to be contributing a weekly blog here, and look forward to posting about games, preparation, and anything else you'd like to hear about. I guess it makes sense to start this blog with a little intro, so here goes.

I grew up in Wellesley, MA about 20 minutes West of Boston. I started playing lacrosse in 5th grade when my town got a youth team, and got to Wellesley High School at a time when our lacrosse program had a strong turnaround, going from 4-16 my freshman year to 22-2 my senior year. Shows you the impact that a youth program can make on a high school team! After high school I went to Middlebury College, graduating in 2009. Although I have to say I wanted to play D1 lacrosse when I was in high school, I couldn't have been happier playing D3 at Middlebury. I loved my experience there, and played on some great teams with talented teammates and coaches.

I was drafted to the Boston Cannons for the 2010 season, and instantly realized how competitive the MLL is! I was lucky to get in a few games my rookie season, but it was eye opening to see how talented the MLL rosters are. Last season was a really great experience winning the MLL Championship. I went to 2 state championships in high school and made it to the NCAA semi-finals at Middlebury, but I had never won a championship before winning with the Cannons last year. So far this MLL season has been off to a great start for the Cannons. We are 4-0 going into a bye week this week and the team has been playing well. Next up is Rochester on June 1 and we're hoping to keep our momentum going.

Now that we're all caught up, I'm looking forward to posting about specific games and this season's events going forward! Enjoy the NCAA Championship this weekend.

This week I have decided to give in on some of the opinions I have been stubborn about. Maybe the Lizards and Rattlers are better than I give them credit for, and maybe the Charlotte Hounds are not as good. Well, let's take a look at the power rankings for the week.

1. Boston Cannons- How can the Cannons not be here? They are 4-0 and have beaten the best competition to get there. They went into Denver, who was also undefeated, and won. The Cannons are easily the most dominant team in the league.

2. Chesapeake Bayhawks- The Bayhawks have gone overlooked with the dominance of the Cannons and the surprise of the Outlaws. But none the less, they are in second place and playing some pretty good lacrosse.

3. Denver Outlaws- The Outlaws have surprised me a lot, but I don't see them going away for a while. They play tough, and have veteran players who have been through it before.

4. Rochester Rattlers- I've come around on the Rattlers. I still consider them a rebuilding team, but I can't rank them below some of the teams I have been in the last few weeks. They are playing pretty good right now.

5. Long Island Lizards- The Lizards have gotten a good win this season, but I'm not sold on them still. I pushed them up because of the performance of other teams, but they have some problems in the present and in their future.

6. Hamilton Nationals- I do not want to give up on the Hamilton Nationals. After this week (a bye week) they will have back Stephen Keogh and Cody Jamieson. That should make a big difference for their offense.

7. Charlotte Hounds- Once Charlotte has a guy who can take face-offs, they will win games. Everyone they have tried has failed. They have won just one game all season, and if they could win draws, they would have more of those W's.

8. Ohio Machine- Ohio overall, they are not a bad team, and they just got their first win, I just do not see them as a playoff team, even ahead of Charlotte.

A few months ago, we heard about the Indy Swagger lacrosse team, who would be joining the Midwest Lacrosse Association this August for the league's second season. Yesterday, In Lax We Trust learned that the Swagger had to postpone their debut until the 2013 season due to small levels of player interest.

"The fact is the current adult lacrosse population in the Indianapolis is too small at this time to support a competitive box team." said Ken Levinberg, the owner of the Swagger. "The Indy Swagger is dedicated to bringing a high level of Box Lacrosse to Indiana but to do so we will have to seek players outside the state."

Earlier this week we did hear about some expansion in the MILA, with the Colorado Sabertooths joining the league. I will have a feature on the Sabertooths later on in the week.

The Sabertooths will be a part of a new western division, so we should hear about more expansion in the near future with the season ready to kick off in a little over two months.

Yesterday, the National Lacrosse League released a Twitter account called @NLLCBA. We know that the league will be going through a labor negotiation process, with the season ending this past Saturday night with the Rochester Knighthawks as the NLL Champions.

The first tweet came yesterday at 10:47 am, saying that the NLL CBA agreed upon in October of 2007 was to span over seven seasons. The next tweet explains that other side can opt out this year, or next year. Here are some more tweets from them.

Parties have agreed that deadline for making decision on opt out is 15 days following decision by arbitrator on pending grievances.

— NLL CBA (@NLLCBA) May 21, 2012

The issues before arbitrator are related to scope of Commissioner's authority in rejecting promotional contracts deemed excessive.

— NLL CBA (@NLLCBA) May 21, 2012

It would go on to say that there is no current timetable for this, but it is expected to be in June, which begins in nine days. The account later went on to say that the NLL and PLPA met in Buffalo during the all star game and the NLL made a proposal about a luxury tax. Baseball fans will know all about what that could entail.

They say that the PLPA required financial info from the NLL and they gave it to them in March. They go on to say that they gave them more financial info than any pro sports league (and they point out that includes the MLL) and have yet to receive a counter proposal.

After all of this, we see an interesting point from current Colorado Mammoth goaltender Chris Levis:

@InLaxWeTrust @NLLPR @NLLCBA: Thanks for the updates.Lets keep in mind it's one side of the story...

— Chris Levis (@LevysSports) May 21, 2012

Two weeks ago I was at the Voyageurs' training camp talking with Jeff Culkin the GM and owner of the team. He told me ‘' I think our split team could have beaten our regular team from two years ago''. I laughed and agreed. He was there four years ago, and so was I. I remember the first phone call I got from Jeff back then. ‘'Hi Vincent...um... I don't speak French...would you like to come to Vermont and play goalie for us?'' It was the beginning of my voyage with the Voyageurs.

Everywhere you look in the lacrosse world you see new teams joining leagues with similar goals; developing new players from the area they are based from, growing the game in the region, etc. I think it would be safe to say that at least half of those teams fold after a couple of years, even at the highest level. There is a fine line between building a successful lacrosse program and failing to achieve it. Why didn't the Voyageurs fold after the first two seasons? Part of it is luck, or hazard. Most of it though is due to key elements and timing.

Also, strong management. Jeff Culkin and Mike Dee never gave up on what they wanted to accomplish. It is so easy to quit when everything is falling apart. Why wouldn't you quit when everyone else does? It was and it still is a big risk for Jeff and Mike to run this team. They have done tremendous work for the growth of box lacrosse in the U.S. and I can tell you that it's only the beginning! Leadership on and off the floor. You can have strong management and all the leadership you want in the front office but you will still need players that are committed. Trevor Wagar, our team captain, is the example of that.

We are now 3-1 this season, coming out of the 1-1 weekend. I think we are in a very good and competitive spot. Every team is strong this year and there won't be any easy games. We are in it to win it.

À la semaine prochaine mes amis.
Vince.

Going into this Major League Lacrosse season, I would have said that there were three teams in the process of rebuilding. The Long Island Lizards, Rochester Rattlers, and the Denver Outlaws. Denver is a team that has been a perennial disappointment, never winning an MLL title.

They have finished as the second seed in the MLL playoffs for two seasons in a row. They fell to the Long Island Lizards two years ago and the Hamilton Nationals last season. The Nats were on a tear last season, and I would say that they were favored anyways, but it seems like that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Brian Reese, their GM, left for the Chesapeake Bayhawks. They traded Drew Westervelt to the Bayhawks, Billy Bitter to the Charlotte Hounds and Max Seibald to the Lizards. And yet, the Outlaws are tied for second place in MLL.

They fell to the 4-0 Boston Cannons at home this week, but quietly, the Outlaws look like one of the best teams in the entire league. They are tied for second with the Chesapeake Bayhawks, and are second in the league in goals scored behind just the undefeated Cannons.

Jeremy Sieverts has been the leader with 17 points for Denver. He had only three other games of MLL experience in his career, and those were in Chesapeake in 2010. In those three games he had four goals, two of them two point goals.

Terry Kimener has been a big piece for the Outlaws as well with 14 points. He played six games last season, and just 36 games over all in his career since 2008 in MLL. His career high in points 2008 with 22. He has never had more than the 14 this season in any other year in his career.

Josh Sims has 12 points this season, the second most in the past five seasons. He last played in the MLL in 2010 with the Chicago Machine, where he had 15 points in seven games. In eleven games with Denver in 2006, he had 37 points, his career high.

Denver has seen several players step up when they need to, and this is why the Outlaws are surprising the world of Major League Lacrosse.

The NCAA lacrosse tournament is almost complete, as the final four will take place in Foxborough, Massachusetts this weekend, Memorial Day Weekend. With the matchups set, let's take a look at the history of these teams this season.

The number one seeded Loyola Grey Hounds will be playing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who knocked off the defending national champions Virginia Cavaliers. Loyola actually has not faced Notre Dame at all this season, so this will be a new match up completely.'

Loyola has beaten top teams like Denver (three times, including yesterday in the tournament), Duke, Fairfield, Cansius and Ohio State. Some other teams are Towson and UMBC, not great teams but teams that are pretty good.

Notre Dame has faced a bit of a tougher schedule. They have defeated teams like Duke, Hofstra, Drexel, Denver, Ohio State, Georgetown, Syracuse, Yale and now Virginia. They have lost to St. John's and Penn State.

The other match up in Massachusetts will be the Duke Blue Devils against the Maryland Terps. Maryland defeated Johns Hopkins this round in a bit of an upset to get to their second straight Final Four. If they win against Duke, it would be their second straight Championship game.

The Terps have faced Duke twice this season and they split. Maryland won against Duke in their third game of the season, 10-7. Duke won against Maryland during the ACC Tournament, 6-5.

Some of the teams that Maryland has defeated include Georgetown, Villanova, Navy, Johns Hopkins, and Lehigh. They have faced some tough losses as well, including North Carolina, Virginia and UMBC,

The Blue Devils have seen wins against teams such as North Carolina, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Brown, Virginia and Syracuse. They have lost to Denver and Loyola.

In Lax We Trust has partnered with Odor Gladiator in an exclusive contest in the next month. If you go and like the Odor Gladiator page on Facebook, you will have a chance to win an exclusive In Lax We Trust edition with Odor Gladiator.

Odor Gladiator is the premier product for deodorizing your lacrosse bag, and you could win their limited edition of an InLax OG just by liking their Facebook page, along with the In Lax We Trust Facebook page.

OG has been a partner with the North American Lacrosse League's Kentucky Stickhorses, a team and a league that us here at InLax has covered since their existence has been announced.

The InLax edition of this OG will be orange and black, the official colors of our website and the radio network. It costs $14.95 to buy one of these, so it will be worth your value to win it completely free just for liking their page and ours.

This contest will end once Odor Gladiator gets 50 new likes on their page, so make sure you go and like it today for a chance to win it and show your support of In Lax We Trust!

It was a battle in which only one team could remain on top. That team would be the Boston Cannons, who took a 17-10 win over the Denver Outlaws to remain the only undefeated team left in Major League Lacrosse.

Paul Rabil had his break out game for the Cannons, picking up eight points and taking the league lead for points on the season. Eight different Cannons players scored. They also saw hat tricks from Kevin Buchanan and Mike Stone. It was Buchanan’s second straight hat trick and the third straight for Stone.

Bill McGlone, a former Outlaw, also had a goal for the Cannons in his first game against his old team. Matt Poskay also picked up two as he continues to rack up the points.

The Cannons offense looks like the most dangerous in lacrosse, and looking at who they have on the field, it’s not too surprising. Denver had looked like the next best team in the league, but they couldn’t even stay in the game against the Cannons.

Chris Eck beat Justin Pennington and Stephen Robarge in face offs 18-12. The Cannons scored once on their two power plays while the Outlaws were not able to take advantage of any of their four man up opportunities. Boston had 31 shots on net while the Outlaws had 24.

Jordan Burke also made fourteen saves on the night for Boston as he continues to be an elite goaltender. He gave up ten goals on the night but the Cannons still have the best goals against in the entire league.

The Cannons next play in Rochester against the Rattlers, but have this week off as does the entire league of Major League Lacrosse for Memorial Day Weekend.

For more on lacrosse, check out our blog In Lax We Trust. Also listen to the MLL Post Game Show here.

It was a battle in which only one team could remain on top. That team would be the Boston Cannons, who took a 17-10 win over the Denver Outlaws to remain the only undefeated team left in Major League Lacrosse.

Paul Rabil had his break out game for the Cannons, picking up eight points and taking the league lead for points on the season. Eight different Cannons players scored. They also saw hat tricks from Kevin Buchanan and Mike Stone. It was Buchanan's second straight hat trick and the third straight for Stone.

Bill McGlone, a former Outlaw, also had a goal for the Cannons in his first game against his old team. Matt Poskay also picked up two as he continues to rack up the points.

The Cannons offense looks like the most dangerous in lacrosse, and looking at who they have on the field, it's not too surprising. Denver had looked like the next best team in the league, but they couldn't even stay in the game against the Cannons.

Chris Eck beat Justin Pennington and Stephen Robarge in face offs 18-12. The Cannons scored once on their two power plays while the Outlaws were not able to take advantage of any of their four man up opportunities. Boston had 31 shots on net while the Outlaws had 24.

Jordan Burke also made fourteen saves on the night for Boston as he continues to be an elite goaltender. He gave up ten goals on the night but the Cannons still have the best goals against in the entire league.

The Cannons next play in Rochester against the Rattlers, but have this week off as does the entire league of Major League Lacrosse for Memorial Day Weekend.

The Victoria Shamrocks opened up their season with a win last night against the Burnaby Lakers, 11-7. Victoria went up 4-3 after the first period and never looked back after that, outscoring the Lakers in all three periods.

Leading the Shamrocks to their first win of 2012 were two goal efforts from Jeff Shattler (Calgary Roughnecks), Matt Yager and Mike Pires. They also had three point efforts from Kory Kowalyk and Curtis Morwick.

The Burnaby Lakers scoring leaders were Matt Quintan, who had two goals to lead their team overall, and they also got points from Matt Beers (Washington Stealth), Scott Tining, Colton Clark, Shaun Dwaliwal, Dane Stevens, Mike Brascia, and Scott Jones.

Matt Flindell played the entire game in net for the Shamrocks, saving 43 shots and facing fifty from the Lakers. In net for the Lakers was Joe Bell, who face 31 shots and saved twenty of them.

The Shamrocks went one for one in their only power player while the Lakers had eight power plays and scored on just one. The Shamrocks play again on Friday when they host the Maple Ridge Burrards. The Lakers play on Wednesday against the Langley Thunder.

There are two more games in the Western Lacrosse Association tomorrow, as the Langley Thunder take on the Nanaimo Timbermen and the Coquitlam Adancs play the Maple Ridge Burrards.