Get off the Floor
Slow forwards
Photo Credit: Saskatchewan Rush
Since 2023, the Thunderbirds have been in the top four in penalty minutes each season, leading the league in 2024 with a bewildering 345 PIM, the second time in the last four seasons they eclipsed 300 PIM.
Their fieriness has not changed in the 2025-26 NLL regular season. Halifax has 62 PIM this season, averaging out to 15.5 PIM/GAME, behind only the aggressively aggressive San Diego Seals’ 18 PIM/GAME. At that pace, they’d finish the 2025-26 season with 279 PIM, which would be their lowest regular season total since their 221 PIM in 2021-22.
We all know who the Thunderbirds are at this point. Their constant visits to the sin bin aren’t a surprise. It having a deleterious effect on the offense’s production isn’t unexpected (how do you get in a groove when you’re constantly on the PK?). But they are half the reason the Thunderbirds are trending in the wrong direction, and it’s not just cause they played Saskatchewan twice.
Halifax forwards aren’t getting off the floor fast enough.
You already knew that, though, cause you’ve seen it in action whenever you’ve watched a Halifax game. An offensive shift is done for the TBirds, and there’s either a slow jog back to the bench from the forwards or someone grabbing a defender’s sweater instead of heading for the substitution box. Good broadcasters pick up on it and pointedly call it out — go back and watch SASvsHFX on Dec. 27, 2025 and listen to Pat Gregoire chastise them multiple times.
But I don’t think anyone’s definitively pointed out with stats how bad this issue is for the Thunderbirds, so let’s do that. We’ll be looking at just defensive FB numbers, not focusing on PPFB, SHFB, or TrueFB (which is a combination of all three fast break shift types).
This season, the Thunderbirds have given up 50 FBSets and 6 FBG. That’s a 12.0 FBE%, which is decidedly below average (a good thing), but they give up the most FBSets per game at 12.5, the highest rate in the NLL.
There are a few factors that feed into an opponent getting the jump on you. Some teams have that defender that likes to “cheat” and play a bit up the floor in a defensive shift, already a step or two ahead when momentum shifts back his team’s way (think Scott Dominey). Some teams have a freak on a leash like Ryan Terefenko, Jake Boudreau, Owen Grant, or Jake Piseno. Some teams are just young and can book it to and from the bench better than anyone (think this season’s Georgia Swarm). Those are all a nightmare to defend against for different reasons.
Halifax doesn’t really defend against reverse transition beyond having Warren Hill in cage. And while he’s been exceptional, he’s also been overworked between those reverse tranny shifts and all the penalty killing he’s had to do.
Halifax gave up 10 FBSets against Oshawa, another 17 against Buffalo, 11 the first time they played the Rush, and 12 the second time. Only one of those games had egregiously bad transition numbers, that first Rush meeting where the Rush had 4 FBG (Saskatchewan also tacked on a PPFBG in that game and two more in the second clash, which is why I normally focus on True stats so we get a clearer picture of how good/bad a team is at something).
But this season’s four games long for the Thunderbirds, and this issue stretches far back in the past. Halifax has been the slowest NLL team since I started this whole stats project. They gave up 252 FBSets in 2023-24 (14.0 /GAME) and 229 FBSets in 2024-25 (12.7 /GAME, both the most in the league by a comfortable margin. Hill and Drew Hutchison did as well as could be expected (if not better), as the Thunderbirds weren’t the worst in defensive efficiency, going 18.9% and 19.7%, respectively (still top 5 worst).
When added to all their PKSets (a league-leading 63 sets, 18.5% of their total shifts) and their scoring issues, it’s a trifecta of a bad time for the TBirds defense this season.
The scoring should fix itself. Halifax has too much firepower out front and some absolute weapons in transition; averaging 9.0 GF/GAME will correct upwards.
The penalty issues will continue until drastic philosophical changes are made in the organization. You aren’t tops in penalties year after year without that being systemically baked into every level of a team. Untimely and unnecessary penalties are part of their personality.
And unfortunately, that means the slow forward trots back to the bench are also a part of their personality. We’ve seen years of Halifax display this flaw, and same as the penalty issues, it won’t abate until the team’s disposition does.
Besides “Halifax forwards should get off the floor faster,” the one thing I really want you to take away from this article is we’ve probably been unkind to Hill over the years. In retrospect, he’s been busy in high danger situations probably more than any other netminder the last few seasons. Between all the penalty kills and reverse transition, it’s a wonder his numbers weren’t horrendous.
This is the best Hill’s ever played in the NLL. He’s constantly under pressure and turning in GotY numbers. We really need to give the King of the Hill his flowers.
Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan/Halifax Thunderbirds