Awesome

Regular season standings come down to the wire

The last two playoff spots were decided on the last weekend of the season, as Halifax and Ottawa played each other for one spot and Las Vegas and San Diego played each other for the other. There was even a scenario going into that weekend that the very last game of the season, between two teams not involved in the battle for those spots, could decide one of them. That didn’t happen but other than that, could you have written a better ending to the season?

Unexpected playoff results

I have heard some talk that the NLL should scrap the “one-and-done” playoff format in the first round and go with at least best-of-three series in every round. The reasoning includes this season, where the #1, #2, and #3 teams were all eliminated in the first round, and so they believe that this means we don’t have the best teams getting to the finals. Well technically they’re right – we have the teams that beat the best teams getting to the finals. This is kind of why we have the playoffs in the first place. If we don’t accept that this kind of thing can happen, why bother having playoffs at all? Give the Championship to the #1 team at the end of the regular season and there you go – the best team won.

The first place team, but not the Champions

I think the 2026 season is solid reasoning for keeping the one-and-done format, at least in the first round. We always say that anything can happen in the playoffs, and that makes everything more exciting.

Attendance

Buffalo led the way as always, averaging 18,290 fans per home game. That is insane. 19 out of 32 NHL teams averaged less than that in 2025–2026 – including the Buffalo Sabres in a season where they returned to the playoffs for the first time in a thousand years.

In addition to the Bandits, Calgary and Halifax each averaged over 10,000 fans per game. The Warriors and Mammoth were over 9,000, and Oshawa and Las Vegas both had lower absolute numbers but in terms of percentage of the arena capacity, Las Vegas is third at 91.2% and Oshawa is fourth at 90.0%. (First is Halifax at 97.6% and second is Buffalo at 95.9%.)

The Tom Borrelli Award

I can’t list the awesome things that happened this year without mentioning the Tom Borrelli award. I was nominated two years ago and ended up as a finalist, which was amazing. I considered that a sort of “thank you” from the announcers, broadcasters, players, coaches, etc. who used my stats site, and didn’t expect to be nominated again. But this year I was, and then was a finalist, and then I actually won the damn thing. This was unquestionably awesome, and I’m very thankful to those who nominated me, voted for me, and congratulated me when the award was announced. I am beyond honoured to join the ranks of the amazing media people who have won this award in the past.

However.

Ashley Docking does an excellent job providing analysis and she’s as knowledgeable about the game and the league as any male announcer. In addition, she is also great at interviewing players, asking meaningful questions. One thing that makes interviews fun to listen to is the rapport between the people involved. The best interviews aren’t just questions and answers, they sound more like a conversation. It’s even better when it sounds like a conversation between friends, and Ashley is great at turning any interview into just that.

Maki Jenner has had two groundbreaking years in a row, becoming the first woman to do colour commentary on an NLL broadcast in 2025 and then the first woman to do play-by-play on an NLL broadcast in 2026. And when she’s not up in the booth, she’s between the benches as the on-floor reporter. She’s really good at all three of those jobs and just like Ashley, she knows the game as well as anybody.

I feel like it’s time that a woman won this award and 2026 would have been an ideal time for that to happen. Honestly, there’s a part of me that feels bad because I got in the way of that.

Replays

This was the first year with the new review system in place. The league constantly referred to it as a “cloud-based” system, which just means “it uses the internet”. I’m not sure why that piece of information is necessary but anyway, I was happy with the system overall, and I think that replays in general were more accurate than in previous years. In addition, there were probably fewer reviews requested by coaches because they could watch the play from multiple angles on the bench before deciding whether to throw the flag.

Hall of Fame

The NLL announced on Tuesday that the NLL Hall of Fame is still a thing! They announced that eighteen people have been nominated for induction into the Hall of Fame, and eight of them will be chosen this summer. This is the first time they’ve done something like this; in previous years, they’ve skipped the voting piece (or at least not made it public) and just announced the people who will be inducted. I won’t go over the nominees or who I think should be inducted, but I’m sure it will come up sometime later.

Not Awesome

TD Coliseum

After a year in Mississauga during renovations on First Ontario Place, the Rock returned to the Hamilton to play in the newly renamed TD Coliseum. I wrote about it here but in a nutshell, I wasn’t too happy with the renovations. After a season of getting used to it, I think I’ve softened a bit in the sense that I don’t hate the place. But the seats are still narrower, the concourse is still dark, the sound is still messed up, and the food that sits under heat lamps for who knows how long is still very expensive. We no longer buy dinner at the arena when we go to games.

Replays

I mentioned the awesome part of the new replay system above, but there was still a problem. In a nutshell, many of them still took longer than we’d like. Some of them were completed very quickly, but we still had some that took 4–5 minutes. As I’ve said before (multiple times), I understand that the officials want to get every call right but there has to be a limit. If you can’t tell within two minutes whether a goal should count or not, you just have to call it inconclusive and go with the call on the floor. It’s possible that we might end up with the wrong call now and again but if it takes that long to decide, it’s not wrong by much and we won’t be (a) killing the flow of the game, (b) boring the pants off of the TV viewers, and (c) adding stress to the broadcasters who have to talk about the same play for five minutes while waiting for the call.

Hartley hit on Charbonneau

Rylan Hartley’s hit on Steph Charbonneau was certainly a Not Awesome incident during the 2026 season. I wrote about it here but once again, we had a goalie come out of his net to lay a huge hit on an unsuspecting player who couldn’t possibly have seen it coming. Considering the concussion problems that Hartley has had in the past, it’s a bit surprising that he wouldn’t have thought about that as he was about to hit someone with his back to him.

The hit didn’t end Charbonneau’s season, but it did seem to have a significant effect on Hartley. In the seven games before the hit, Hartley had a 10.13 GAA and an 80.2% save percentage over an average of about 51 minutes per game. In the eight games afterwards, he was 14.01 and 73.2% over about 39 minutes.

Season-ending injuries

Thomas Hoggarth has never been the top scorer on his team, at least not in the NLL. But any coach or teammate will tell you how important he is to the offense. The Thunderbirds lost Hoggarth in game 1 and while they clearly had a good season anyway, making it to the Finals, there’s no question they are looking forward to having him back next season.

I wrote about Colorado’s Ryan Lee’s struggles with injuries earlier this season as well. In 2026, he only played 4 games before being sidelined. In the four seasons from 2023–2026, Lee played 28 games and missed 47. On the upside, think about Colorado’s offense next season with both Lee and Eli McLaughlin returning to play with Jack Hannah, Andrew Kew, and Will Malcom.

Ryan Lee

Chase Fraser only played 6 games with his new team before injuries took the rest of his season away. As I said in Part I of this series, Fraser scores some amazing goals but his contribution to his team goes far beyond that.

Of course there were other players who were injured partway through the season and were lost for the rest of it, but these were likely the biggest names. Also the loss of Michael Grace in the playoffs certainly had an impact on the Swarm’s last couple of games but he may miss much or even all of next season, so that’s where the bigger impact will be.

Attendance

The Ottawa Black Bears have arguably the best lacrosse player in the world on their team. But it’s not enough to bring people in to see games. Sure, the team hasn’t had a lot of on-floor success, but they were in the playoff hunt until the last weekend of the season. The New York Riptide had even less success than the Black Bears, and Ottawa’s attendance in 2026 was lower than any of New York’s four seasons.

I’ve talked about the Saskatchewan Rush’s attendance a few times this season, how they were the darlings of the league when they came in, filling SaskTel Centre and leading the league in attendance in 2018 and 2019. But it turns out that that popularity was based on their success on the floor and once their Championship dynasty ended, the fans left and didn’t come back. Even last season when they started 10–1 and finished third overall, attendance didn’t change.

That description mirrors almost exactly the early years of the Toronto Rock. Championships all over the place, filling the arena every game, leading the league in attendance, then the success ends, the fans leave, and don’t return. Getting only 7,800 people for the first game of the Finals – THE FINALS – was really disappointing, especially when Halifax sold out game 2 in about three days.

The Wings

I’m running out of ways to talk about NLL teams folding or moving. Recently we’ve had Albany → Oshawa, New York → Ottawa, Panther City → nowhere, New England → Albany, and Rochester → Halifax, and that’s just since COVID. Now Philadelphia is either moving or folding, and there are rumours about other teams as well. Of course I don’t have a solution, but I’m starting to agree with those that say the real answer is to stick to the smaller cities and arenas. If your team is only bringing in 6,000 fans but they are actually making money because the arena doesn’t cost a million dollars a night, that’s a lot more sustainable than bringing in 10,000 fans and having to move or fold because the owners are losing money every year. Every new city wants to be the next Buffalo or Calgary and fill the building every night, but I’m not sure how many Panther Citys the league can afford to take a chance on before they hit the next Halifax.

Ottawa Bears of Black

Awesome

• Jeff Teat was excellent as usual. Rob Hellyer was as good as they expected, if not better. Callum Jones was amazing and won Defender of the Year.

Not Awesome

• Similar to Oshawa, in that they had their offense working in some games and their defense working in others, but rarely both in the same game. Zach Higgins was pretty good but when he had a rough game, the offense couldn’t bail him out.
• They won eight games but only three were against playoff teams.
• Even with those issues, the Black Bears were a playoff contender into March but didn’t score double digits in any of their last five games and lost them all. All they had to do was beat the Thunderbirds in their last game of the season and they’d have made the playoffs, but there was definitely some defecation in their sleeping apparatus. The fact that they lost that game wasn’t the problem, it just looked like a lack of effort. They tied for their lowest offensive output of the season.

The Wings of Philadelphia

Awesome

• They only had five wins on the season, but four were against playoff teams – Buffalo, Colorado, Georgia, and Toronto, and they also beat Las Vegas who just barely missed the playoffs.
• Michael Sowers looked great until he got hurt, and Kyle Jackson looked great in his return to Philly.
• Nick Damude didn’t have an incredible season overall but had a few really great outings. He held his opponents to only seven goals once and five goals twice. And one of the five goal games was against Las Vegas, the highest scoring team in the league.

Kyle Jackson

Not Awesome

• Scored seven or fewer goals in seven games. They also had one eight and two nines, which means they scored under ten goals in more than half their games.
• Looks like the Wings are done in Philly… again. We don’t know if it will be the team relocating or the league having yet another dispersal draft, but it sounds like the possibility of new ownership taking over the team and leaving them in Philly is pretty much zero.

Rochester Hawks of the Knight

Awesome

• Connor Fields followed up his MVP season with 41 goals and 119 points. Ryan Lanchbury surpassed 100 points for the second straight year.
• They started strong – 4–1 including wins over eventual playoff teams San Diego and Buffalo.

Not Awesome

• After that strong start, they dropped off a cliff. They went 1–5 over their next six games, which cost both Mike Hasen and Pat O’Toole their coaching jobs. Then once Randy Mearns came in, they went 1–6.
• Both goaltenders had rough years. Hartley had a GAA over 12 and save percentage of 76.6%. Hutchcraft’s GAA was almost 14 and his save percentage was 71.6%. They gave up 12 or more goals in twelve of their eighteen games and held their opponents under ten goals only twice.
• Ryan Smith certainly wasn’t terrible but dropped 8 points from last season, which was down 15 from the previous one.

The Seals of San Diego

Awesome

• They made the playoffs, beat the #2 seed Mammoth in the quarter-finals, and then took the eventual Champion Rock to three games in the semi-finals.
• Zach Currier set a career best with 57 points, though he played a lot more offense than his usual transition.
• Wes Berg’s 74 points was his lowest in a full season since his rookie year of 2016. But he still led the team, and in more than just scoring.
• Not so much awesome or not awesome, just interesting: Over the first half of the season, they either won by several or lost by several – only two games were decided by two goals, and there were no one-goal games. But all of their last nine games were decided by one or two goals.

Not Awesome

• Chris Origlieri getting hurt in the semi-finals certainly didn’t help though Dunkerley played very well.
• Only two teams scored fewer goals than the Seals. Tre Leclaire was the only player over 30 goals.

The Rush of Saskatchewan

Awesome

• Ryan Keenan had a career year with 95 points. Zach Manns was also excellent, basically replicating his 2024 season almost exactly (one fewer goal and three more assists).
• Frank Scigliano had a GAA of 9.43, good for fourth in the league, and only slightly higher than his 9.40 of last year when he was named Goaltender of the Year.

Not Awesome

• They started the season 10–1, but then cooled off significantly. Not as bad as Rochester, but they were 2–5 in their last seven. They still ended up with a home playoff game, but they had lost any momentum they might have had earlier in the year.
• Only saw Clark Walter in five games. He was a healthy scratch a bunch of times in favour of Levi Anderson, a complete 180° reversal from last season. In 2025 and 2026, Anderson played in 19 regular season games with the Rush, while Walter played in 20. They have played together in only four games.

The Rock of Toronto

Awesome

• I’d say winning the Championship was pretty awesome.
• Their rookies were incredible. Obviously the Big Three (Kirst, Hiltz, English) were outstanding but Kelleher was also excellent and both Moran-Weekes and Hucal made significant contributions as well.
• Rose was very good, then got injured and Holowchuk was very good, then Rose returned and was even better than before. Hopefully we’re done with the “Rose can’t step up in the playoffs” crap from the haters.
• They didn’t lose back-to-back games at any point this season.
• “The Rock of Toronto” was the tagline for a Toronto radio station in the 80’s. I think it was either 1050 CHUM or 104.5 CHUM-FM.

Not Awesome

• The veterans all seemed to struggle. Other than 2025 when he was injured, Mark Matthews had his lowest points-per-game average since 2014 (though he still tied CJ Kirst for the team lead in points). Josh Dawick dropped by 20 goals and 18 points. Chris Boushy dropped by 12 goals and 26 points, though he was strong in the playoffs. Dan Craig’s points-per-game average has dropped for the third straight season, this time to a career low.

The Warriors of Vancouver

Awesome

• Finished with a 13–5 record, the franchise’s best record since 2002 when they were 14–2 as the Albany Attack. They’ve played as four different teams since then.
• They were the #1 seed in the playoffs, the first time they’ve been #1 in the league since 2010 when they were the Washington Stealth, tied with Orlando at 11–5. It was the first time they were #1 in the league by themselves since, again, the 2002 Attack.
• Christian Del Bianco was just what they expected, with a GAA under ten and a save percentage of 81.3%.
• With Jesse King and Curtis Dickson joining the team, there was some question of whether one scoring leader would emerge and who that would be. Keegan Bal grabbed that title with both hands and ran with it, all the way to an MVP ballot and an Offensive Player of the Year award.
• Dickson and King were great additions as well, and Marcus Klarich continues to improve.
• The defense was outstanding, with ten games of holding their opponents to under ten goals. Much of that was Del Bianco but a lot of it was the defenders in front of him dictating where shots were taken from, or if they were taken at all.
• Like the Rock, the Warriors didn’t lose back-to-back games all year.

Not Awesome

• Secondary scoring wasn’t really a thing for the Warriors. The top five scorers (Bal, King, Dickson, Charalambides, and Klarich) were as good as the top five on any team but after them, the numbers dropped significantly. Christian Del Bianco was sixth on the team with 17 points. Then again, only four teams scored more goals than the Warriors so it’s possible they didn’t care.
• I’m guessing they’re not a fan of the “one and done” playoff format. They were the #1 seed overall but had one bad game in the playoffs, and that was it. They had a 7–1 lead at halftime but didn’t score at all in the second half, and allowed Halifax to come back to win by three.

But wait, there’s more! There were a bunch of awesome things and not awesome things about the league in general, so that will be in Part III. So we invite you, wherever you are, whether you’re at home or whatever, to kick your shoes off and put your feet up, and lean back and get yourself a cup of coffee or something, and just relax and join us in this 2026 NLL season in review.*

* – Props to you if you know where the majority of that sentence comes from. And if you don’t, well then you need to listen to more obscure Porcupine Tree songs.

The Bandits of Buffalo

Awesome

• The season didn’t start out great at all for the Bandits. After a 3–1 start, they lost four straight and were 4–6 after ten games. It’s one thing to admit that your dynasty might be over, but there were people on social media talking like they’d lost every game by 15 goals. They said the team was done, that Matt Vinc was washed up and they should have dumped him before the season, and I even heard talk like “What can we get for Dhane Smith?”. The Awesome here is that the team found their stride and went 7–1 to finish the season.

  If I had a nickel for every social media posting around mid-season saying “The Bandits are BACK”, lemme tell ya, I would have several nickels. Several.

Not Awesome

• Didn’t win the Championship, and didn’t make the Finals for the first time since the 1970’s or something.
• Not a strong start, as mentioned above, as though they couldn’t figure out how to score without Chase Fraser and Chris Cloutier. They did eventually figure it out.

Calgary Necks that are Rough

Awesome

• Not a great season for the Roughnecks, but fans have lots to look forward to. We saw the emergence of Tyler Pace and Tanner Cook as offensive stars, and Brayden Mayea had a great season as well. Colby Bowman is still very early in his career but has looked excellent.
• They had a strong end to the season, going 4–3 in their last seven but the three losses were very close – they lost to the Mammoth by two and to the Desert Dogs and FireWolves by one. They also beat the #2 overall Mammoth in their last game of the year.
• An average of 11,650 in attendance per home game, second-best in the league. This for a 6–12 team that was out of the playoffs pretty early.

Tanner Cook

Not Awesome

• Obviously starting 2–9 wasn’t awesome. We had glimpses here and there of how good Aden Walsh could be but mostly in the second half of the season. They only won back-to-back games twice.

The Mammoth of Colorado

Awesome

• Before the season, I predicted that the loss of Tyson Gibson, Connor Kelly, Connor Robinson, and Zed Williams would outweigh the addition of Andrew Kew, and the Mammoth would miss the playoffs. How wrong I was. I didn’t anticipate the addition of Jack Hannah, and obviously didn’t anticipate seven points per game from Kew. Even without Ryan Lee for most of the season and Eli McLaughlin for all of it, only one team scored more goals than Colorado.
• The defense stepped up and Dillon Ward had an excellent year as well. Nathan Whittom was even better, posting an 8.13 GAA and 83.8% save percentage over almost 120 minutes.
• The Rock and Swarm got all the accolades for their rookies in 2026, but don’t overlook Colorado’s rookie crop of Braedon Saris, Matthew Paolatto, Ari Stevens, Connor Nock, and Dylan Hess.

Not Awesome

• They lost Ryan Lee for the season after only four games. They were hoping to get Eli McLaughlin back from firefighter probation at some point, but never did.

The Swarm of Georgia

Awesome

• Brett Dobson had the best goaltending season in the history of the league. He had the lowest GAA ever. He had the highest save percentage ever. He gave up fewer than ten goals in fifteen out of eighteen games, including eleven straight. In one of those eleven games he only played 45 minutes, but had only given up four goals at that point. His save percentage was under 80% in only three games, and under 75% once.
• Thanks to Dobson and the Swarm defense, they gave up the fewest goals of any team. Only one other team was within 20 goals of them. They also had the lowest goals against per game average in league history, and the fewest goals allowed of any team that played 18 games in a season.
• Rookies Michael Grace and Nolan Byrne were two of the three Rookie of the Year finalists. Other rookies like Ben Trumble, Kean Moon, and Liam McGrath also had great seasons. Defender Jacob Hickey had an excellent sophomore season, and Jordan MacIntosh played like Jordan MacIntosh from ten years ago.

Not Awesome

• They had twelve wins but with Dobson’s numbers, they should have won at least a few more. He had four losses with a GAA of 9.00 or less and a save percentage of 83% or more. He had two games where he gave up only six goals and lost.
• Lyle Thompson had only 77 points, the lowest total of his career since his rookie season. Yet only one player on the team had more points.

Halifax Birds of Thunder

Awesome

• Making the Finals was pretty awesome, especially for the #8 seed.
• Warren Hill was outstanding down the stretch and throughout the playoffs
• In a game in March, the Thunderbirds were down 14–4 to the best defensive team in the league. But then they scored ten goals in the fourth quarter to tie it, the biggest comeback in league history, only to have Jordan MacIntosh score with 18 seconds left in regulation to give Georgia the win. A very exciting and impressive comeback, even if they did lose the game.
• In the playoffs they did it again, with smaller numbers but better results. In the quarter-finals, down 7–1 against the #1 seed Warriors at halftime, the T-Birds scored nine in the second half and kept the Warriors scoreless to punch their ticket to the semi-finals.
• Jason Knox was very good in the regular season and outstanding in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see the impact of the increased confidence – both his team’s confidence in him and Knox’s confidence in himself – in his game next season.

Not Awesome

• Their first half of the season wasn’t so great. They started off 3–7 and it looked like making the playoffs was going to be a long shot, let alone getting to the Championship series.

Las Vegas Dogs of the Desert

Awesome

• Offense! Las Vegas scored thirteen more goals than any other team – that’s an extra game’s worth of offense. Donville and Jones were each over 100 points, Cloutier was over 80, and Poitras hit 59, while Killen, Webster, and Kirst were solid secondary scoring. Chase Fraser was on pace to break 60 as well and Kevin Crowley was a great pickup halfway through the season. Think of what their offensive numbers would have been had Fraser and Crowley been there all season.
• Picking up Tyson Bell was a great move, bringing in another veteran defender to go along with LaFontaine, Belgrave, Goodwin, and Malcom.
• The Dogs were this close to their first playoff appearance. 2026 was easily the team’s best season since entering the league.

From left: Mitch Jones, Tyrell Hamer-Jackson, Connor Kirst (#34), Nick Preston (#52)

Not Awesome

• Losing Fraser really hurt. They were still great offensively, but he’s such a spark plug and can get his team fired up not only with his impressive goal scoring but just the effort he gives on every shift.
• Goaltending was hot and cold. Both Buque and Kells had some games where they were really excellent, and others where they were really not. You don’t need an elite goalie like a Del Bianco or Dobson in net, but a bit more consistency would have gotten them into the playoffs.

Oshawa Wolves of Fire

Awesome

• Simmons and Kurtz had great offensive seasons, with Simmons breaking the 100-point barrier for the first time.
• The FireWolves ended the season strong. They were 4–2 in their last six though three of the wins (and both losses) were against non-playoff teams. But they finished the season with a win over the Bandits – and the Bandits were playing for home floor advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They didn’t get it, and playing the quarter-finals on the road contributed to the end of their dynasty, so that was a huge win for the Wolves.

Not Awesome

• The rest of the offense wasn’t great overall. Only one team scored fewer runs.
• They scored a total of 21 goals in their first four games, though the defense wasn’t bad. Then they started scoring in double digits but gave up 12–16 goals in six straight games. They just couldn’t get the offense and defense both working in the same game.

I can’t honestly say the experience is unmatched anywhere else in the NLL because I haven’t been to most arenas. In particular, I think I’d have to see games in at least Calgary, Colorado, and Vancouver before saying that. But I have been to a game in Las Vegas (at Michelob, not Lee’s), two or three in Rochester, Banditland several times, and of course the vast majority of Rock home games (in Toronto, Mississauga, and Hamilton) since 2001. Bandits fans in particular are known for being loud, knowledgeable, and loving their team. Thunderbirds fans are also loud, knowledgeable, and love their team. But even if the place is sold out, there are half as many of them at a game as there are at a Bandits game, and they’re at least equally loud. And even ignoring the outcome, I had as much fun at that game as any I’ve been to in any arena.

In Hamilton, each Rock player has his own goal song that gets played when they score. In Halifax, the same goal song is played when any Thunderbird player scores, and most of the crowd sings along. Bandits fans have their special cheers, like “B-O-X” for opposing team penalties. Hamilton fans yell “Rooooosey!” when Nick Rose makes a save. After a Warren Hill save in Halifax the PA guy shouts “King of the…” and the fans all yell “HILL!”

But there’s a problem with this “data”. I have never been to Buffalo for a Finals game, so comparing a finals game in Halifax with a regular season game in Buffalo doesn’t seem fair. I saw the Knighthawks win the 2014 Championship in Rochester, and fans there were pretty darn loud. And I’ve seen Rock Championships in Toronto in 2005 and 2011, and fans there were really loud as well. The 2005 Championship game in Toronto had the highest attendance of any game in NLL history at 19,432. But it’s been 21 years since that game and 12 years since the Knighthawks Championship I went to, so it’s very possible it’s the recency bias talking when I say that Halifax was as loud as any of them. But it was pretty damn loud.

Some parts of the experience were the same as anywhere else – fans chanting “ref you suck” after penalty calls they disagreed with was something I recognized from Hamilton and elsewhere. There were fans with signs saying it was their first game or their birthday or just saying “Go Thunderbirds”. One that I particularly enjoyed said “The only rock we like is at Peggy’s Cove”.

There were only a couple of drawbacks, and they were pretty minor. The rows of seats are quite close together, so we didn’t have a lot of legroom. We got lucky because the seat next to me was empty, so I could turn to my right a little and give my wife a bit more space. There is a very loud cannon that fires after every Thunderbirds goal, so that startled me a bit on the first few goals though I quickly got used to it. And the crowd was loud enough that I couldn’t hear some of the goal or penalty calls. In particular, the Rock goal calls were very quiet and we had no chance of hearing those.

While walking around Halifax before the game, we saw lots of Thunderbirds jerseys and shirts (as well as a few Rock ones), and when cab drivers or wait staff at restaurants asked what we were doing in Halifax, most of them knew what we were talking about when we said we were there for the lacrosse game. Not everyone knew it was the Championship series or that Toronto was the opposing team, but some did. But just about all of them had at least heard of the team and knew it was a thing. Let me tell you that as someone from Hamilton, I was really not used to that. One waitress at an Irish pub near the arena said she loved going to Thunderbirds games and that it was way better than hockey. She also said that she didn’t like working on game nights because it meant she couldn’t go to the game but also because it got insanely busy after the game.

As for Halifax itself, it’s among my favourite cities in the world, right up there with Venice, Edinburgh, and Vancouver. I got a comment on X from someone who said that there was absolutely nothing to do there, which just means he has either never been there or didn’t look too hard to find things to do. On this trip we did a tour of the Alexander Keith’s brewery, my wife did a pewter jewellery class, we went to Peggy’s Cove, walked around both the Public Gardens and Point Pleasant Park, walked the length of the boardwalk a few times, and ate at at least three different places along the boardwalk. And we were only there about 2½ days. If we’d had more time, we’d have toured the Citadel, the Museum of Immigration, the Marine Museum, and gone to both Lunenburg and Dartmouth as well, all of which I’ve done in the past.

And I’m sure I can’t say this about every weekend throughout the year, but we couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was low-mid 20’s (low-mid 70’s Farenheit) and sunny all weekend.

If you get the chance to go to Halifax, I recommend it. And if you can do it at a time of year where a Thunderbirds game is a possibility, even if it’s not in the Finals, I’d recommend that too.

Game one of the Finals featured strong goaltending and excellent defense, and game two was even better in that respect. Warren Hill and Nick Rose battled but for both teams, the defenders in front of them made things a bit easier for them. The best defenders know where the goalie wants to see shots coming from, and manage to prevent shots from coming from anywhere else. This happened a lot on Sunday, particularly in front of Nick Rose, to the point where Toronto PxP announcer Matt Caruk tweeted that Rock defensive coach Bruce Codd should be a candidate for Championship MVP.

The Rock offense was well-balanced, with Chris Boushy and Owen Hiltz scoring three each and singles coming from six other players. CJ Kirst only scored once but he does so much in the offensive zone that even an off day for him is still great for the team. Every Rock rookie in the game scored at least once, including Lucas Hucal who scored his first NLL goal. Chris Boushy continued his strong post-season, finishing second in playoff team scoring behind Mark Matthews who did some more amazing Mark Matthews things.

Rock rookies from left to right: Owen Hiltz, Lucas Hucal, Hugh Kelleher, CJ Kirst, Sam English

On the Thunderbird side, Clarke Petterson was the only multiple goal scorer and was a potent force in the offensive zone. Randy Staats scored one early, just a couple of minutes after a Petterson goal, and I thought that if the both of them got hot at the same time, game two could have a very different outcome than game one. But Staats was snakebitten the rest of the evening and Jason Knox didn’t score at all, so the Rock defense has to be happy with that.

After the game, we spoke briefly to a Halifax fan who was concerned that this would be it for Cody Jamieson, who will be 39 when the 2027 season begins. Jammer is no longer putting up the MVP numbers he used to but of course, that’s not his job anymore. But that powerful overhead shot can still make it by goalies, and he showed in both Finals games that he can still get it done. In the fourth quarter of game 1, Jamieson scored two to give Halifax a brief (14 second) lead. In game two, Jamieson again gave his team the lead, though this time it was in the second quarter. But even Jamieson can’t do everything. The Rock defense was too suffocating and Halifax just couldn’t get the looks they needed.

I don’t want to take anything away from the Halifax defense though. Warren Hill made more than his share of excellent saves and the defense in front of him could be pretty frustrating for Rock forwards as well. Jake Withers, in particular, made some great defensive plays and fought for a number of loose balls. Yes, his LB totals get inflated because he takes (and wins) so many faceoffs, but many of those LBs came on plays unrelated to faceoffs. Graeme Hossack was either an unstoppable force or an immovable object, depending on what the play required, and both Curtis Romanchych and Max Wilson made a few standout plays as well.

Other game notes:

• With just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, Rock defender Billy Hostrawser blocked a shot off his leg. He could barely stand but couldn’t get off the floor, and somehow played some defense while standing on one leg and putting as little weight as possible on the other one. But just a few seconds later he grabbed a loose ball and ran up the floor when he had the chance, looking like his pain was gone, and passing to someone else once he crossed centre. But as soon as the ball was out of his stick, he limped off the floor, showing that the pain hadn’t just magically disappeared. Respect.
• Huge thanks again to Thunderbirds fan Todd Bechard who got tickets for me, my wife, and our friends before they went on sale to the general public. Without Todd’s help, we’d have been sitting waaaay back, if we were able to get tickets at all. You the man, Todd.
• I’m really happy for the first-time Championship winners, particularly the guys who have been around a long time like Nick Rose, Billy Hostrawser, and Brad Kri. I’m really happy for the rookies who get to experience the Championship feeling, which many players never get, in their first season. I’m really happy for Jamie Dawick who has owned the Rock since 2009 and has done an outstanding job with the team. And of course as a long-time Rock fan myself, I’m just really happy.

The Halifax experience

My wife and I along with a couple of friends travelled to Halifax for this game. It was my fourth time watching the Rock win a Championship, and second away from Toronto, but it was my first time experiencing a game at the Nest. I have no intention of allowing it to be my last. I wrote about that experience separately.

Game one started off just as everyone expected, with strong defence and goaltending, for a few minutes anyway. The Rock got a couple about four minutes in but Bo Bowhunter opened the scoring for the Thunderbirds shortly afterwards. But once Halifax got on the board, their offense took over as they scored the next four. The Halifax defence was stifling and the Rock just couldn’t get any momentum. By halftime, the Thunderbirds were leading 9–5, and five of their nine goals were scored within 32 seconds of the previous goal. None of those quick goals were scored or even assisted on by Jake Withers, but you know he and his faceoff skills were involved. That said, Withers was held to only 62.1% at the dot, a pretty low number for him.

Nick Rose was hot and cold – making some of the amazing saves that we’ve come to expect over the last few years, but there were a few shots from distance that managed to get by him. But in the second half, it was much more hot than cold. After Jason Knox’s goal late in the second quarter, the Thunderbirds went over 24 minutes without scoring, and ended up only scoring twice the rest of the game, both by Cody Jamieson midway through the fourth.

Nick Rose

Warren Hill was similarly hot and cold, allowing two goals in the first five minutes, and then only two more over the next 22 minutes. But just as Rose was much stronger in the second half, Hill struggled a bit more. The Rock scored the only four goals of the third quarter to tie the game, leading to an exciting fourth quarter. The Rock took the lead early in the quarter and held it for five minutes before Jamieson gave the Thunderbirds the lead back with two goals in a minute. That lead only lasted 14 seconds as Owen Hiltz scored off a faceoff win by Nick Rowlett, and less than a minute after that, Sam English scored to give the Rock the final lead of the game. English scored an empty-netter with 15 seconds left to seal the win.

Just like the regular season, the rookies were the story for the Rock. Kirst (4+2), English (2+3), and Hiltz (2+2) led the scoring, and no non-rookie had more than one goal. With all the (well-deserved) hype around Kirst, English, and Hiltz and the amazing seasons they had, the other Rock rookies kind of get lost. Hugh Kelleher quietly had a great rookie season as well, and has fit in on the defence and transition very well. He makes a lot of good plays and has a strong lacrosse IQ. Isiah Moran-Weekes only got into seven games, none in the playoffs, but scored some nice goals and hustles his butt off on every play. And Lucas Hucal also got into only seven regular season games but has played every game in the playoffs, and I thought he had a strong game on Friday.

Game two is in Halifax on Sunday, and I will be in attendance (I’m writing this on the flight to Halifax). I’ve been looking forward to getting to a game in the Nest for a while, so I’m very excited, and not just because I’m a Rock fan.

Other game notes

• Nick Rowlett also had a strong game, and not just with faceoffs. I think he’s another face-off guy who has evolved into a solid defender, a la Trevor Baptiste or TD Ierlan, and made some good defensive plays on Friday.
• Man, I love watching Mark Matthews running the offense. Obviously he can score some nice goals but his passing is just chef’s kiss. With barely a movement, he can pass in any direction to anyone who’s open, and sometimes to someone who didn’t even look open. It looks so effortless, which of course means that he’s put a ton of effort into it.
• The Rock do a “game ball delivery” thing before every game. They have a RC car with a lacrosse head attached to it, and they drive it up to centre floor, where the refs grabs the ball from it. Then someone physically picks up the car and turns it around before they drive it off the floor. This was not a temporary glitch – this has happened at every home game for a few years. Not a great look for the RC car company if their car is unable to turn around 180° using the remote.
• There were a lot of Thunderbirds fans in attendance. They didn’t outnumber Bandits fans when they visit the Rock, but they were pretty loud. The attendance was 7,812, which is in the top 3 of games this season, but seems a bit disappointing considering
  1. the last time they were in the finals in 2015 (in Toronto), they had over 9,000 at each of their playoff home games
  2. game two in Halifax was sold out (10,000+) within about four days of tickets going on sale, and
  3. IT’S THE FREAKING FINALS

Below is a list of all GMs, coaches, and assistant coaches in the NLL. I only listed those on the team’s web site, and only those people with “General Manager”, “Coach”, or “Coordinator” in their title, so not the scouts and team doctors and such. And for those of you who will point out the absence of Brodie Merrill, who was a #1 overall draft pick and has won a number of awards, he’s frequently behind the Seals bench but is not listed as a coach on their web site.

The “Played” column only refers to years playing in the NLL. An “N/A” in the “Drafted” column truly means “not available”, meaning I couldn’t find that data. For players drafted in the first round, I listed their overall draft position and for the others, I just listed the round.

Buffalo

Calgary

Calgary head coach Josh Sanderson during his playing days

Colorado

Georgia

Halifax

Las Vegas

Oshawa

Ottawa

Philadelphia

Rochester

San Diego

Saskatchewan

Jimmy Quinlan

Toronto

Vancouver

Georgia @ Halifax, Game two

It almost looked like it was going to happen again. The Swarm led the Thunderbirds 5–2 at the end of one quarter, and built that lead up to five goals on two different occasions in the second. But when Halifax went on a 4–1 run in the second to cut the lead to only two, a lot of people were wondering if the big 6+ goal Halifax comeback we saw in the first round would make an appearance in the second round as well. When Ryan Terefenko took a penalty late in the second, Georgia decided “OK, that Halifax comeback stuff stops now.” Nolan Byrne scored on the power play and then again a minute and a half later with only one second left in the half, and then completed his natural hat-trick 41 seconds into the third quarter. The Swarm never looked back.

They outscored the Thunderbirds 5–1 in the third and 5–2 in the fourth on their way to an eleven-goal rout to let everyone know that (a) they were not going away quietly, and (b) they could beat the Thunderbirds in Halifax. Game three would go on Sunday. It would be in Halifax again, but the home team had lost each of the first two games, so we didn’t know whether home floor would actually be an advantage.

San Diego @ Toronto, Game three

It’s not often that a team can go scoreless for an entire quarter, in fact have a scoring drought of over 22 minutes, and not only win the game but arguably dominate a good chunk of it. The Rock’s scoring drought started at 9:26 of the first quarter and didn’t end until 2:12 into the third. But the domination part didn’t start until about eight minutes after that.

The finals will feature the Thunderbirds and the Rock

Four of the first five Rock goals of the game were transition goals, and the fifth was by their Transition Player of the Year candidate Sam English. (That one was a settled play, and the full offense was on the floor, but English was the only player who touched the ball.) When their fifth goal was scored, two minutes into the third quarter, Dan Craig had scored one on a bench transition play, and Matthews, Hiltz, Rogers, Kirst, Boushy, and Dawick had a combined total of zero points. Kri, Rose, Kelleher, and English had two points each. Great transition is awesome, but when that’s all the offense you can muster, that’s not a recipe for success.

Cam Dunkerley continued his strong play from game two. By halftime, he’d only allowed four goals, three of which came within a minute and a half in the first quarter, and then nothing for 20 minutes. His armour began to crack a little in the third when the Rock offense started to get going. They scored three goals in a minute and a half again, giving the Rock a 9–6 lead after three quarters, and then started to pour it on in the fourth. By the end, Kirst had four points, Matthews had three, and Hiltz and Boushy had two goals each.

For the Seals, Zach Currier led the way with 3+3 but only Connor Robinson (0+3) and Wes Berg (1+1) had more than a single point. While the Rock were on their 22-minute scoring drought, the Seals certainly took advantage. They outscored the Rock 6–1 over the next half an hour, with Currier’s three as well as goals by Berg, McIntosh, and Ari Steenhuis. Steenhuis’s goal in particular was a great transition goal as he took the pass from Zach Currier near his own restraining line and ran the length of the floor before shooting low-to-high and fooling Nick Rose. That goal reminded me of another player who used to play in the league, coincidentally also named Steenhuis.

Nick Rose was outstanding for the Rock, stopping 53 of 61 shots for an 86.9% save percentage. He even stopped a penalty shot by Wes Berg and got the crowd chanting his name on more than one occasion in the fourth quarter and also during the handshakes after the game. There are those who say that Nick Rose is a great goalie but can’t step up in the playoffs, but they were silent on this night.

The Rock advance to the finals for the first time since 2015, hoping to win their first NLL Championship since 2011.

Georgia @ Halifax, Game three

Another win-or-go-home game, so we knew it would be intense, with both teams putting everything on the line. And we were right.

Considering both goaltenders had excellent seasons and post-seasons, it was a bit surprising to see a 7–6 score after one quarter. Both offences were playing very well and neither goalie was particularly sharp. The defense and goaltending improved quite a bit in the second, as the teams alternated goals a couple of times. But then the Warren Hill from Game One took over, and kept Georgia from scoring for almost 25 minutes. Brett Dobson was almost as strong in that time, as the T-Birds went 10 minutes without scoring, then scored twice in 1:22, then had 15 scoreless minutes.

But in the fourth quarter, the wheels kind of fell off of the Swarm. They scored three more in the quarter but every time, the Thunderbirds would score to take away any momentum they tried to get. Every T-Birds goal increased the volume inside the arena, which didn’t help the Swarm’s comeback attempts either.

Clarke Petterson scored twice but added seven helpers and Jason Knox continued his crazy playoff run with another three goals and three assists. Knox is leading the playoff goal scoring race with 15 goals and is tied for fourth in points, though the only player ahead of him who’s still active in the playoffs is Petterson.

The biggest news of the day was who was playing for one team and who wasn’t for the other. Both Randy Staats and Max Wilson were activated earlier in the day for Halifax. Neither had played since the end of February but both were welcomed back with open arms, though they had to do without the injured Stephen Keogh and Nonkon Thompson. Staats scored one and added four helpers, while Wilson only registered a loose ball but as a defender, he doesn’t put up big numbers anyway.

On the Georgia side, Rookie of the Year candidate Nolan Byrne was out of the lineup, replaced by Toron Eccleston. Byrne was the third-leading scorer on the Swarm this year so his absence was notable, although Eccleston scored two goals and an assist so he did an admirable job in relief.

The Thunderbirds advance to the finals for the first time since they moved to Halifax. Oddly, I’ve seen a couple of places saying that this is the Thunderbirds first trip to the finals in franchise history. Since the Thunderbirds took the Rochester Knighthawks history with them to Halifax, that’s wrong, since they did win five Championships as the Knighthawks. Halifax playing Toronto makes this only the second all-Canadian NLL finals in league history. The Rock also appeared in the only other such series, in 2015 when they lost to the Edmonton Rush.

The podcast in question is called The Ongoing History of New Music. Alan Cross has been doing this as a radio show for decades and I’ve been listening to the podcast version for many years. A recent series of episodes dealt with the biggest “one-hit wonders” in the history of alternative rock (remember The Icicle Works? Harvey Danger? Gotye?), and I wondered (pun intended) if I could find NLL players that qualified in a similar way. Maybe a player had 50 points in one season and no more than 15 in any other, or was a career 30–40 point guy and suddenly exploded for 90 one year.

I tried a couple of different approaches to solve this problem, and some of them gave questionable results. I’ll describe each approach, what players matched the criteria, and what was wrong with it.

Sorry goaltenders and defenders, this one is all about the points – with one exception. But what an exception it is.

Preface

Let me start by saying that a musical artist being known as a “one-hit wonder” is frequently viewed as a negative thing. Many people look at such an artist and think “you could only come up with one great song?” But I don’t think of it that way – that one-hit wonder has written one more great song that the vast majority of us. Consider the millions of professional musicians out there who do it for a living – most of them won’t write a song that hits the top 40 either. Having a song become that popular should be something to be celebrated. If you’re able to do it more than once, even better, but doing it once shouldn’t be a negative.

It’s the same with this list. Don’t look at players on this list as guys who had one great season but otherwise sucked, because it’s just not true. First off, the fact that they made the NLL at all immediately tells you that they are among the best players in the world. And secondly, many players move from offense to transition to defense or the other way around. As an example, Chris Driscoll played mostly defense and scored more than 30 points only once in his six seasons with the Rock. But he was a forward on the Saints and Bandits and had 69 and 81 points in the two seasons before joining the Rock. It certainly doesn’t mean he wasn’t as good with the Rock as he was before.

The simple approach

First, I looked for players who had played at least one game in at least three different seasons in the NLL. I found their best season in terms of points, then calculated the average number of points in their other seasons. I took the difference between their best and average seasons, then ranked all the players by the difference. I expected to find players I was unfamiliar with who had one great season, or players that had a bunch of decent seasons but one significantly better than the rest. I found a few of those, but some others that I certainly was not expecting.

The top five were:

1. Ryan Lee
2. Mitch Jones
3. Paul Gait
4. Mike Benedict
5. Athan Iannucci

Benedict fits – he played nine seasons, was under 20 points five times, hit the thirties twice, then 57 in 2001 and had a max of 82 with the Ottawa Rebel in 2002. Outside of that one season, he averaged 22.6.

Iannucci (pictured at right) fits as well; in fact, he might be the quintessential one-hit wonder. The man they called Nooch had 100 points in 2008 and no more than 61 points in any of his seven other seasons. It was even more evident in his goal totals, where he set a league record with 71 goals in 2008 (a number that’s only been beaten once since), and didn’t get half of that in any other season. He was a decent scorer for most of his career but his 100 points and 71 goals in 2008 led the league and he was named MVP. One hit.

But Mitch Jones? Ryan Lee? Paul freakin’ Gait? How could any of them possibly be viewed as a one-hit wonder? Well, it’s just math.

• Mitch Jones had 126 points in 2023 when thanks to a trade, he actually played 19 games. But his average outside of that was 55.2, brought significantly down by his 2022 season – 26 points in only 4 games – and his first three seasons, where he had 4, 5, and 11 points in 3, 4, and 3 games respectively. Those first three and 2022 are far from typical Mitch Jones seasons, but they do bring the average way down.
• Ryan Lee is here because he scored 119 points in 2022, then 95 in 2025, and no more than 60 in any other season. Other than 2022, his season average is 52.8 points, or 66.2 less than his best season. Similar to Jones, though, mitigating circumstances. In Lee’s last five seasons, he’s had points-per-game averages of between 4.6 and 6.6. In five eighteen-game seasons, he’d have had between 83 and 119 points in each of those seasons. Of course, he didn’t have that many points in those seasons, but Lee’s problem isn’t consistency, it’s staying healthy. One of those five seasons ended early because of COVID, one (2023) started late due to injury, one (2026) ended early because of injury, and he missed an entire season in there as well.
• Paul Gait had an incredible career in the NLL, setting a record (at the time) for goals in a season with 47 in 1991 (as a rookie), and averaging 53.5 points per season for eleven years before exploding for 114 in 2002. His comeback in 2005 gave him nine more points in four games, bringing the overall average down a bit. Gait had nine seasons over 5 points per game, but he also had one season that was head-and-shoulders better than the others, so he kinda does qualify.

Other names I didn’t expect to see in the top 25 or so of this list:

• Joe Resetarits – max of 121 points, average of 67.3. He’s had five seasons with under 50 points, but he’s also had four over 100 and one with 95. But his best season was about 10% than his second best, so does he qualify? It’s a stretch.
• Shawn Evans – max of 130 points, average of 76.8. His entire career in Rochester was 60–70 points per season, then he had five straight 100+ point seasons in Calgary and New England. His 130 points in 2015 was 10% better than his second-best of 118, so similar to Resetarits, it’s a stretch.
• Josh Byrne – Byrne’s max was 135 points in 2024, but he had 134 in 2025 and three other seasons over 90. His first three seasons though, were between 42 and 63 points. Those three bring his overall average down enough that he seems to qualify but his second-best season is the fourth-highest total of all time. “One-hit wonder” really doesn’t apply here.
• Gary Gait – he did have one season of 112 points and no more than 96 in any other, but Gait is widely regarded as one of the best lacrosse players – indoors, outdoors, and anywhere else – who ever played the game. Someone who was MVP in five straight seasons could not possibly be considered a one-hit wonder.

Given the number of players who “mathematically” qualify but really shouldn’t, there must be a flaw in my logic. The obvious problem is number of games played per season. Mitch Jones had three separate seasons with only 3 or 4 games, which drops his average significantly. Sure, Paul Gait scored no more than 66 points in his first eight seasons, but he only played 8–10 games in each. His 114 point season came in 16 games, but it wasn’t the highest points-per-game season of his career.

Using points per game

We can handle the difference in season length by looking at the average number of points per game in their best season and other seasons. That gives an entirely different list, which is much closer to what I was originally looking for:

1. Lindsay Dixon – 9.3 in 1993, 2.2 otherwise. I’m honestly not sure if this is real or not. According to the stats I have, Lindsay Dixon scored 17 goals and added eleven assists (and 30 loose balls) in three games in 1993. That gives him 9.3 points per game – in his rookie season. The next year he averaged three points per game, and in his last two seasons he averaged 1.67 and 1.75. Maybe it’s just an error and he played 8 games rather than 3 that first year. The 9.3 points per game seems… suspect.*
2. Marc Landriault – 6.0 in 2002, 0.9 otherwise. Landriault scored twice and had four assists in his only game of 2002, which of course gives him an average of six points per game. In his other two seasons, he had a total of 14 points in 15 games.
3. Nick Trudeau – 5.2 in 2003, 1.9 otherwise. Possibly another victim of wonky stats. He had 6 points in 8 games with the Bandits in 1998, then took two years off, then had zero points in 14 games with the Landsharks in 2001. Then he played two full seasons with the Albany Attack where he had 67 and 78 points, missed another season, and then had 7 points in 4 games with the Rock. Could be he was pure D with the Landsharks and pure O with the Attack.
4. Russ Heard – 6.1 in 1998, 2.8 otherwise. He had 55 points in 1998 and 51 in 1999, but 18 and 13 in his other two seasons.
5. Joe Hiltz – 6.7 in 1999, 3.7 otherwise. Owen’s Uncle Joe had 8 points in 5 games with the Turbos in 1993, then took five seasons off, then returned with 80 for the Thunder. He played three more seasons but only hit 50 in one of them.

Other interesting names include:

• Derek Keenan, 6.1 in 1992, 3.2 otherwise
• Teddy Jenner, 3.3 in 2002, 0.8 otherwise
• Mark Steenhuis, 6.3 in 2009, 3.6 otherwise
• John Tavares, 8.2 in 2001, 5.6 otherwise. <sarcasm>Yes, just like Gary Gait, it’s widely known that JT had just one really good season.</sarcasm>

So it’s not perfect.

* If these numbers are indeed correct, they provide one of my favourite @NLLFactOfTheDay entries ever. In 1993, Dixon led the Pittsburgh Bulls in scoring in his three games. Since he had only ever played three games, he was still considered a rookie in 1994, where he led the Baltimore Thunder in scoring. He led his team in scoring as a rookie – twice. Nobody has two excellent seasons as a rookie.

One more try

We’re still seeing players who had multiple great seasons but one just a little more great than the others. Can we clean that up a bit? Let try making sure that each player’s best season was at least 20% better than all their other seasons. This still puts Lee, Paul Gait, Benedict, and Iannucci at the top of the list, but also includes guys like:

• Ryan Martel – 73 points in 2024, no more than 36 in any other
• Corey Small – 111 points in 2017 and nine seasons between 63 and 84 points
• Josh Dawick – 75 points in 2025, a high of 57 otherwise
• Tanner Cook – 101 points in 2026, blowing away his previous high of 70
• Ryan Painter – 66 points (and 45 goals!) in 16 games in 2002, 24 points (11 goals) in 14 games after that

Martel, Dawick, and Cook are all 28 or younger, so they could have many more seasons to “correct” this one-hit wonder label.

Corey Small

The results

Using the names we’ve found using various methods above, I’ve combined them in an entirely subjective manner. Here’s my top ten list of NLL one-hit wonders:

1. Athan Iannucci
2. Lindsay Dixon
3. Mike Benedict
4. Tanner Cook
5. Corey Small
6. Nick Trudeau
7. Joe Hiltz
8. Marc Landriault
9. Russ Heard
10. Ryan Martel

With the caveat that Cook and Martel will likely get booted from this list after next season.

The Exception

Earlier I mentioned an exception to the “only points” criteria. The exception is Daniel Sams, who is just about the perfect example of what we’re talking about here, maybe even more so than Athan Iannucci. Sams was a Buffalo Bandits goaltender who is credited with seven games in his NLL career, but he was a backup for most of them. He only saw floor time in two games. The first was a Bandits loss to Rochester in April 2007. Buffalo was down 12–4 after three quarters and Sams came in for the fourth. He only allowed two goals on nine shots.

His only other game was February 2008, where he got the start against the Chicago Shamrox. Sams played all 60 minutes, faced 68 shots and stopped 60 of them. The 68 shots faced is tied for 18th all-time and the 60 saves is tied for 6th all-time. The 60 saves was a Bandits record at the time, which has since been tied and then passed by Matt Vinc.

Sams never appeared in another NLL game, even as a backup. His NLL career ended with a GAA of 8.00 and a save percentage of 87.0%.

Daniel Sams only played in two games in his NLL career but one of them was outstanding by any measure and cements his legacy as the greatest one-hit wonder in NLL history.

San Diego @ Toronto, Game 1

I wrote about this game here.

Halifax @ Georgia

It was like déjà vu all over again. Halifax was down by three in the second, when they suddenly seem to figure out Brett Dobson, which nobody has been able to do all season. They scored five straight as part of an 8–1 run and take a 9–5 lead, and Georgia was not able to recover. Sounds a bit like Halifax’s quarterfinal win over Vancouver, does it not? Unlike the Warriors, Georgia managed to score a few in the second half and keep it close, but the Thunderbirds still scored the last three goals of the game and kept Georgia from scoring for the last nine minutes. I’m starting to wonder if taking an early lead against Halifax is not in your best interest.

Brett Dobson was good but Warren Hill was excellent. Remember those guys at the beginning of the season who wondered if Hill was the right guy for the starting goalie job in Halifax? I remember those guys, because I’m pretty sure I was one of them. Damn, this crow tastes terrible, but I earned it. Hill was excellent in the second half of the season and has been incredible so far in the playoffs.

Clarke Petterson

One thing I noticed, and the stats bear this out, is that both teams seemed to miss the net with shots all night. The game sheet shows Halifax taking 65 shots on goal, which is a lot, but also 29 shots off goal. The Swarm took 42 on goal and 23 off. I don’t track shots off goal for NLLStats.com so I don’t know for sure but that seems like an awful lot. Maybe the goalies were playing well enough that the forwards felt that they had no choice but to pick corners with every shot, and that results in a higher chance of missing the net entirely.

Clarke Petterson picked up nine points (2+7) for the T-birds, Jason Knox continued his hot playoff run with four goals and a couple of helpers, and Brendan Bomberry scored a couple against his old team. For the Swarm, the points were widely spread out as Richie Connell was the only player with more than one goal and only three players had more than one assist. Then again, they only scored seven goals so there weren’t that many points available. Game two goes next Saturday night in Halifax, and if Game three is required, it’ll be next Sunday night in Halifax (see below).

Toronto @ San Diego, Game 2

As was said a number of times on the broadcast, it’s been a few years since a team lost the first game of a three-game series and came back to win the series. The Rock went into San Diego trying to prevent that from happening and to get to their first finals appearance since 2015, but the Seals dominated just about every facet of game two. The series will now continue next Saturday night in Hamilton, winner take all.

Nick Rose didn’t have the best game ever, nor did Toronto’s defense. Rose just wasn’t seeing the ball well and the defense wasn’t as strong at preventing shots as they have been. At the other end of the floor, the San Diego defense was very strong, not giving the Rock good looks at all, and Cam Dunkerley was simply outstanding. He has been a starter in the NLL in the past, for New York in 2024, and while that wasn’t a great season for him, he had some very good games. But allowing only six goals in 60 minutes is a new record for him, and an 85.7% save percentage is the second best game of his career in that category. He was seeing the ball well, stopping everything we expected him to stop, and a bunch we didn’t. He kept the Rock off the board entirely for more than 37 minutes from the first to the third quarters.

Dylan Watson seems to have inherited his father’s ability to step up his game in the playoffs. Watson scored four goals on Sunday, something he’s only done once before in his NLL career. He now has four points in three straight playoff games, something he’s never done in the regular season. San Diego has been talking about Wes Berg as Mr. Clutch for years, and it’s certainly not that I didn’t believe them before, but boy, is he showing that in this series. He’s only scored one goal in the series but he has twelve helpers, fights for loose balls, fights for his teammates, and is generally demonstrating the leadership you expect from your captain.

After the Seals lead got to six in the third quarter, the Rock tried to mount a comeback but San Diego refused to give up momentum. The Rock cut the lead to five on five different occasions over the last twenty minutes of the game, but the Seals scored the next goal after every one of them except the last, at which point it was basically over anyway.

Kudos to the Seals for an excellent game, and kudos to Cam Dunkerley for an incredible performance.

Not Awesome

Georgia loses out on a home playoff game

Since Georgia is the higher-seeded team in their series, they should host games one and three and Halifax should host game two. But there’s a problem: after last Saturday night, Gas South Arena is booked solid. After trying to find a different place to play and even considering neutral sites (Oshawa was apparently on the table), the league has decided that if there’s a game three, it will be played in Halifax. There’s really not much else they can do.

Yes, it sucks for Georgia fans. Nobody will argue that. But there’s precedent for it. In 2007, the Rochester Knighthawks finished the season 14–2 and won their last twelve straight games. They unquestionably earned the right to host the Championship, but they couldn’t. It sounds like a joke but there was a circus in Rochester, and they had the arena booked. The Knighthawks also tried to find another site but failed, and the Championship game was held in Arizona. The Knighthawks won anyway, but their fans had to watch it on whatever the equivalent of NLL+ was at the time.

So it’s happened before, and no, it’s not ideal. Then again:

• hosting one extra game in the arena that was third in attendance instead of the one that was thirteenth isn’t such a bad thing for the league as a whole
• the Swarm had home-floor advantage in game one and squandered it, so I don’t feel as bad about them losing that advantage in game three.

I’ve been around this league long enough to know that there will be people on social media screaming about how this is such a bad look for the league and it’s a bush league move and god the nll sucks and and and… Get over it. It’s par for the course when you’re the second, third, or even fourth tenant in your building.

If Georgia comes back and wins this series, we may run into the same problem in the finals because the arena is also booked the weekend that the finals are scheduled to start. The Swarm are the highest remaining seed in the playoffs so regardless of who they’d play, they should host games one and three but if the arena isn’t available, well, that could get interesting.