FanLax Forum Poll

[OCanada]

Orfling Nice write up. I used to do something similar but don’t think that happens this year.

I moved Cuse into the top 4. There is a huge push to get back to the FF. Assistants left and as you pointed out they have probably the best 1s in the country and Scanlan will produce imo.

I dropped Duke relatively speaking because of the injury at attack, if it is indeed a season long injury that will hurt.

Hopkins is a puzzle to me too. The mids are smallish, the defense suspect. I expect Willians will play up top with Zinn. Zinn is the clearing middie if he can be a Del Drssel type and not wear down or they find another to clear it would help. Help arrives next year but that is next year

Navy and Hobart are my sleepers

[Typical Lax Dad]

Sad that a mere 8 hours after I entered my picks, I can't even remember the exact order. Top 5 for me was PSU, UVA, MD, Penn, and (I think) Syracuse.

PSU...best offense in the country. They're strong up the middle...very good goalie, FOGO, and attack unit. Losing Sabia at close hurts.
UVA...explosive athletes everywhere, deep offense, good FOGO. Not sold on their D. Think losing Conrad will be bigger than expected.
MD...second best offense in the nation, deep rope unit. Questions on D and breaking in new goalie. 50% at FOGO likely means Memorial Day Weekend.
Penn...big, strong, athletic, and deep. Gallagher is elite. Burkinshaw good replacement in goal. Will miss Mathias but there's good depth.
Cuse...best 1st midfield in the nation. Strong up the middle: Goalie, FOGO, and rope unit. Very good defense. Questions about attack.

I had some mix of Notre Dame, Yale, Duke, Ohio St, and Denver (that might be the exact order but Yale and Duke could be flipped)

Notre Dame...you know what you'll get in goal and on defense. Good first midfield line. Good attack. Depth and scoring are always an issue.
Yale...losing entire 1st midfield line will hurt. Brandau is the only attack who can create on his own. Ierlan covers a lot of warts. D fell off last year.
Duke...now with Robertson reportedly out, Duke has fewer established offensive players. Lots of replacement in the midfield and D. Average goalie.
OSU...big, strong, physical team. Great up the middle. Leclaire can dominate when he wants. Offense struggles at times due to lack of quickness.
DU...actually think they might be in for a fall off. Offense hasn't adapted to shot clock well. Few initiators on offense. Goalie always shaky.

After Top 10, I can't even remember. UNC was in the 11-15 range, as was Cornell, and Hopkins. I think I might have had Delaware up in that range.

Until proven otherwise, UNC is always my bet for "team results that don't match their talent" pick. Cornell has issue at FOGO and close D. JHU has Epstein and then a big who-else-burger. Deluca for Delaware could steal several wins all by himself. If they can get some scoring (they have a lot coming back), they can displace UMass and Towson atop the CAA. High Point might have been #15 for me. Lots back on offense. All D are multi-year starters. Good FOGO. Replacing Troutner might be impossible.

I like Hobart a lot. Fun offense. Scoring everywhere on the field. Princeton is a sleeper pick for me. If they can get anything at the FOGO, Sowers will destroy souls. Think they'll qualify for the Ivy Tournament and maybe move ahead of Cornell. Georgetown knows how to win, and I love Warne's madness. Villanova has great pieces but seems to fade late. I like Navy better than Army (too many losses on defense).

Most importantly...the season is here! Have fun, people.

Robertson out would be very unfortunate. His brother wasn’t healthy last season either but played through it. Had surgery a week before the 1st game and was never 100%. Hoping he catches a break.

[calourie]

Injuries are always going to be an x factor, as will be a team's capability to deal with them. Ament's recovery from foot surgery is likely to be a year long concern given the often delicate nature of the condition. Here's hoping he stays healthy and effective. Robertson's loss adds questions to an already somewhat suspect Duke attack. Haven't read any details as to the estimated length of his absence. Lower body (leg?) injury to Ignacio could impact OSU's play at FOGO even if he recovers quickly, though they do look to have a capable backup. Teams that go through the full season including preseason without injury in a sport with a significant amount of contact and lower body stress are indeed fortunate, and can often mean the difference between realizing their full preseason potential and not. The elite teams with rosters full of HS AAs are obviously going to have more options as regards replacements but team chemistry and therefore performance are always at risk when dealing with replacements. Wishing all as fun and healthy a season as possible.

[admin]

I might be in. Should be a Top 25.

Might or In?

He’s in.

DocBarrister (Wombat’s Conscience)

I need confirmation from the wombat himself.

[NElaxtalent]

Guess AF would now get more than my single vote (@ 25) if voting were Sun eve...

[DocBarrister]

I might be in. Should be a Top 25.

Might or In?

He’s in.

DocBarrister (Wombat’s Conscience)

I need confirmation from the wombat himself.

Exactly.

DocBarrister

[Typical Lax Dad]

Injuries are always going to be an x factor, as will be a team's capability to deal with them. Ament's recovery from foot surgery is likely to be a year long concern given the often delicate nature of the condition. Here's hoping he stays healthy and effective. Robertson's loss adds questions to an already somewhat suspect Duke attack. Haven't read any details as to the estimated length of his absence. Lower body (leg?) injury to Ignacio could impact OSU's play at FOGO even if he recovers quickly, though they do look to have a capable backup. Teams that go through the full season including preseason without injury in a sport with a significant amount of contact and lower body stress are indeed fortunate, and can often mean the difference between realizing their full preseason potential and not. The elite teams with rosters full of HS AAs are obviously going to have more options as regards replacements but team chemistry and therefore performance are always at risk when dealing with replacements. Wishing all as fun and healthy a season as possible.

Yes. I wish players could go injury free. I feel bad for players that miss time. Sometimes they can’t get that time back.

[The Orfling]

4 Duke It might be a year to early to have Duke in the top 5, but they've got an experienced defense led by the great JT Giles-Harris and some elite offensive options. The Blue Devil achilles heel may be at face-off, where the returner, Smyth, was at 52% last year. A great defense and goalie can blunt the impact of the face-offs, but in a close game not having a more dominant FOGO could be the difference. Still, coming out of the gate a team with Danowski at the helm gets the nod.

I don't think I would rank Duke so high. Danowski might get them there but I would probably start them more around #8

Duke did lose some players from the defense: Cade Van Raaphorst, Peter Welch and Jack Fowler, so I am not sure the defense is that experienced. They do bring in a couple of top recruits: Brower and Frisoli.
I have doubts about the offense being that outstanding. They probably need a major impact freshman season from Dyson Williams to be really good.
Face-offs look sort of average with Smyth, and Uppgren in goal is solid but not great.

Montgomery is very good.

Kudos to the Nostradamus of FanLax -- Cootstradamus? -- as Air Force notches the first upset of the season. Hats off to the Falcons for an impressive come-from-behind win. The effect of injuries on Duke's starting line-up was significant, it seems -- even playing against a truly inspired goalie in AFA's Braden Post, one more sharpshooter on offense would have made a big difference for Duke. On the bright side, Duke's new face-off combination of Ginder/Stein did well (21 of 30).

[NElaxtalent]

The effect of injuries on Duke's starting line-up was significant, it seems -- even playing against a truly inspired goalie in AFA's Braden Post, one more sharpshooter on offense would have made a big difference for Duke.

Fwiw AF was missing a returning starting D in Lombardi (& started 3-4 Freshmen, none in the Top 100) so hard to buy into the "poor Duke" spin.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

I’m going to pass. Too busy. Maybe next year.

This did conjure up memories of why I stepped away from the old LP poll. Editing, content modification, censorship.

Thankfully, that’s not a problem here.

Have fun folks.

[Matnum PI]

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Great to see most people do 25.

[HopFan16]

ICGrad should probably have his vote revoked

[ICGrad]

ICGrad should probably have his vote revoked

Hey now...why? I can't be the only person to have not voted for Hop.

ETA: oops; maybe I am. We'll see...if they win a few games, they'll make an appearance.

[HopFan16]

ICGrad should probably have his vote revoked

Hey now...why? I can't be the only person to have not voted for Hop.

ETA: oops; maybe I am. We'll see...if they win a few games, they'll make an appearance.

You put Dartmouth 13th? Or was that a mistake?

[ICGrad]

ICGrad should probably have his vote revoked

Hey now...why? I can't be the only person to have not voted for Hop.

ETA: oops; maybe I am. We'll see...if they win a few games, they'll make an appearance.

You put Dartmouth 13th? Or was that a mistake?

Yikes. Yeah, that was a mistake. I was having trouble with the form the night I voted; I could barely read the picklists (I think I even posted something to that effect a couple of pages back). Still I should have double-checked before submitting. My bad.

That said, as Emerson declared: Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, and I am nothing if not a hobgoblin. Dartmouth it is, until someone knocks them off.

(I meant to vote for Delaware, btw...)

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Ah, the fun part of the poll has started. The airing of grievances.

[Matnum PI]

(I meant to vote for Delaware, btw...)

I made the change in the spreadsheet and... It didn't move UDel in the rankings and D'mouth fell off the table.

[NElaxtalent]

I made the change in the spreadsheet and... It didn't move UDel in the rankings and D'mouth fell off the table.

Since we had a partial wknd of games & some voted before & others after, if it isn't a ton of work, is it possible to show the "after" group by itself? Be curious of the post-wknd consensus in comparison to Quint & the Coaches poll.

[calourie]

I made the change in the spreadsheet and... It didn't move UDel in the rankings and D'mouth fell off the table.

Since we had a partial wknd of games & some voted before & others after, if it isn't a ton of work, is it possible to show the "after" group by itself? Be curious of the post-wknd consensus in comparison to Quint & the Coaches poll.

I"m gonna guess the post-weekend polls are the five or so which have Duke out of the top ten and in most cases also include Air Force, at least that is my CSI-Fanlax smart bet.