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Carolina Chaos attackman Josh Byrne

Josh Byrne: The best powerplay passer in lacrosse

By Hayden Lewis | Aug 1, 2024

The Carolina Chaos have had many struggles on offense this season, but the one player who has stood above all is four-time All-Star Josh Byrne. 

The crafty Canadian goal-scorer has shifted his role in many ways this season, including his responsibilities on the powerplay. 

Byrne’s evolution on the Chaos’s powerplay unit from a scorer to an elite feeder has been one of the team's promising offensive themes. Part of the reason for Byrne’s shift on the powerplay is the loss of many veteran players from the unit, especially Dhane Smith, who was the team’s quarterback on offense.

Let’s dive into some of Byrne’s powerplay feeds:

Byrne is a master at using his head and stick to throw off defenders. The former Rookie of the Year has a lot of respect around the league because of the skill he possesses. The subtle fake passes and head fakes he throws open up many looks for him and his teammates. 

In the clip above, Byrne drew attention to a pole in the middle of the arc, Tye Kurtz running through the middle of the defense drew a defender, and the bottom left pole had to sluff out because Shane Knobloch has a heavy shot from deep. The box-and-one penalty kill unit shifted into a diamond because of the moving parts on the Chaos powerplay. 

Byrne saw the shift in the kill and picked a doorstep window to expose the diamond and find Kyle Jackson low for an easy finish. If you rewatch the clip, Byrne uses two different fake passes from crow hops to disorient the defense and draw the shift to the diamond look. 

In this clip, Byrne was staring at Sergio Perkovic, which relaxed the inside defense on the penalty kill. With the defense zoned on Byrne and Perkovic, the inside started to open up. The Chaos’s crease guy in this game was Kurtz, who excels at using very little space to release shots on the cage. 

The result of open space for Kurtz was a clean powerplay goal. 

Byrne’s ability to use his eyes to deceive the penalty kill unit is another reason why his passing game has elevated. 

This is one of my favorite looks from the powerplay this season. 

Take a moment to rewatch the clip. Byrne broke the penalty kill down from one effective fake pass. How did it all start? 

It’s pretty simple: The Outlaws overextended on the kill to respect Byrne’s offensive skill. The lefty remained calm and kept the ball in his strong hand but backed up to reset the look. After backing off, Byrne quickly fired a fake pass toward Knobloch, and the Denver defense had two poles work toward the inside to cover Kurtz. 

The fake opened up the doorstep feed and easy finish. 

What a surprise, another fake leads to a goal.

This look was a bit more unorthodox because it started from a partially unsettled look due to Perkovic having to extend to the midline to pick up a ground ball. 

When Byrne received the rock well outside the two-point arc, the first thing he did was test a fake pass to see what it would do to the defense. The fake drew a step from the California Redwoods' short stick and opened up a large hole down low for a skip pass.

What happens when Byrne opens up a window for a skip pass? Bullet feed down to the doorstep to an open teammate — in this case, it was Jackson again — resulting in a goal. 

Byrne has always used subtle fakes in his game to open up looks for himself off the dodge or to free up teammates. His ability to shift focus and use his fakes to create clean looks on the powerplay has been important for the struggling Chaos offense. 

This upcoming weekend against the Utah Archers in Baltimore, the powerplay will be paramount if Carolina wants to get back in the win column.

The Archers are the third-most penalized team in the league (19 penalties) and have the second-worst percentage on the kill (52.6%). Exposing the Archers' penalty kill will be a major key to success and can be the piece that helps the Chaos score more than seven goals against the stingy defense. 

If the Chaos powerplay can provide a goal or two, there’s a good chance the team can walk away victorious on Sunday.

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