Fast Takes with FastBreak: Chicago vs Toronto
In Chicago’s most recent series against the Cleveland Riff, they scored on their first six possessions and never looked back in a dominant sweep. While the results will likely not be quite as lopsided against Toronto, the Prowl will look to keep up this energy as they prepare for MLQ Championships in August.
Against Cleveland, Chicago brought a roster that was clearly prioritizing depth, missing several big pieces in the chasing game including Ryley Andrews, Darian Murcek-Ellis, and Emma Vasquez. In their absence, the younger players excelled. MLQ rookie Matthew Troy led the team with 11 goals and had 5 assists and 5 stops, and fellow rookies George Blackwell III (8 goals, 5 stops) and Dara Gaeuman (5 goals, 3 assists) also had excellent games. These players combined with the veterans to tie the MLQ record for highest score in a regular-season game with 295 points in game 2.
Unlike Chicago, Toronto did not see the same success in their last series, a 3-0 sweep against them by the Detroit Innovators. A series that started with a nightmare scenario that saw the Raiders Head Coach Sinan Keyder and two other cars stuck at border control never got better as the Raiders couldn't put together a complete performance for that first game. However, for games two and three, the Raiders had their full roster and the performance difference was immediate. Playing effectively to a tie game against the Innovators for about 13 min of game time before it got away from them showed that there is a ton of potential for the Raiders to get better. A large part of their struggles came from their inability to adjust their defense. Detroit was able to pick apart the 2-2 zone the Raiders ran, which will see an even tougher test against this well oiled machine in Chicago. However, Toronto has an 83% catch rate (⅚) which is the best in the entire league. Christos Kaldis and Savannah Campbell’s ability to catch quickly will be paramount for Toronto’s ability to stay competitive in this series.
This week, most of the regular rotation chasers return for Chicago, with the exception of Andrews (who will now have only attended one regular-season series). Chicago’s chasers should have a heavy advantage this series, and they will be looking to continue jumping passes and running the fast break as often as possible.
For Toronto, they will look to prevent being ran on without the services of Michael Wanless who is second on the team in stops. However, the combination of Nathan Reid, Bryan Melchior, and Joanne Lam will be key in being able to provide a stable point of attack against Chicago. It will still be difficult, though, as that would require them being able to break the high press of Chicago.
On the beating side, Chicago brought nearly all of their depth to continue working out who plays in big games behind Tad Walters, Nojus Ausra, and Caleb Williams. Jim Richert and Veronica Hoffamn stepped into much bigger roles for the Riff series, where both more than doubled their possessions played from the Minneapolis series and improved from 1.4 to 1.8 and 1.4 to 1.7 dodgeballs per possession respectively. While the Prowl beaters looked better against the Riff than the Monarchs, these two were able to dominate in a way the other non-starters weren’t.
Against the Raiders, Chicago is taking things a step further by rostering almost every beater except Walters and Ausra. Toronto’s beaters posted similar levels of dodgeball control to Chicago in their own series against Cleveland and will represent a better test of how Chicago’s beater depth will play out at Championships. Beating depth was a known weakness heading into the season with Matt Brown and Dany Yaacoub taking the summer off, but if the Prowl can maintain a beater advantage without Walters and Ausra, they should be feeling good come August.
However, this could be a boon for Toronto. Without the two most dominant beaters playing for Chicago, the experience of Brittany Taylor, Derek Taylor, Emma Sherwood, and Levi Medeiros could keep the series closer than expected. However the key will be to see what the combination of Piotr Makuch and Grace Davey can do for Toronto. They are two of three beaters for Toronto that have a positive plus minus with a minimum of 32 drives played.
Not to be left out, Chicago will be relying on depth in the seeking game this week as well. Along with Ausra, Chicago has not rostered Matt Melton, leaving Liam Zach as the only rostered player to have caught a flag in the past two seasons. After going catchless against Detroit, seeking was again looking like it might be an issue for the Prowl, who only caught 1 flag in the 2023 regular season. The past two series, however, have seen Chicago go 6 for 6 in flag catches with Ausra, Melton and Zach as the primary rotation. Zach will likely be joined in flag running this week by Melanie Rolfe, who has joined the other three in the seeker rotation at times, but who has seen significantly increased time as a chaser so far this season.
Prediction:
Chicago 3 - 0 Toronto
