GOilers88
#FreeMoustacheRides
- Dec 24, 2016
- 15,160
- 22,695
It feels to me like no one has shown they can score/beat them with Hill in net.
13-2-2 record this year, what was his playoff record? Through 3 playoff rounds last year, he only lost 4 times total, in our series, we only beat him 1 time after he entered the series.
We've played the Knights with Hill in five games from last playoffs onwards and lost 4/5 times.
I'm not sure anyone can beat these guys right now, beating them 4 out of 7 games is going to be tall order. They were already a good team before, they managed to somehow add a goalie that plays at a .935 rate for them. We need some adds at the deadline that would change this dynamic.
It's going to be a daunting task to beat them in a playoff round. We gave them almost nothing last night and they still capitalized on the few mistakes we did make and the other end, they are just a force defensively with Hill in net. And they had no Eichel or Theodore in either.
I don't think I've seen a team in the last 10 years that is as good defensively + has a goalie that good in tandem. When you do get past their D some how, Hill looks like he's 6 foot 10 in net and be opportunistic.
Our "we blew that chance, or over passed on that play, no biggie" style of offence through a volume of chances really doesn't work well against their style either. You can't leave chances on the table against them, you have to capitalize.
We need to like somehow add Tarasenko (sniper), Tanev (Ceci replacement), MAF (goalie wildcard).
I'm not sure if anyone can break their defensive shell and break Hill on top of that.
They're about as good of a back end as any Cup winner I've seen in the last 10 years, we can't get any offence going against them with Hill in net and it's the same story for pretty much everyone else since the playoffs last year.
Even 2022 Colorado we were able to at least score against them without anywhere near this much fuss.
They are just a juggernaut of a team. Deep forward group, 1-6 their D it's very hard to draw any of them out of position and when they do make a mistake, Hill is a giant in net.
Of course we'll try our best, but man, they are an absolute wagon of a team with Hill in.
We've played Hill 5 times now, we've lost 4/5 of those games.
It's not like we haven't been trying 100% in those games either.
Our offense again last night, 5 on 5 ... nothing doing.
Even on things like the Draisaitl empty net chance, their D played that fairly well, there were 2 Vegas players on top of Draisaitl that pushed him to a weird angle and then rushed the shot. They just don't give us any clean looks and when they do, Hill is there.
It's not just us either, as far as I can tell no one has gotten any traction against them with Hill in. They shredded us from game 3 on when he came in, destroyed Dallas, and destroyed Florida too. This year he's 13-2-2 or whatever it is. If anyone has answers for this team, I'm not seeing it yet.
They spanked Vancouver the one game they played them too, and looking at that game, looks like Thompson allowed 1 goal, got hurt or something and then Hill comes in and then shuts them out for the rest of the game. They win 4-1.
Of course you still try your best. It's not like effort has been an issue for us, we play as hard as we can against them, I don't think anyone can say we haven't given our 100% effort against them. The team had given it their all against them the 5 times we've played a Hill version of them, but we just can't get any traction.
We get a 1 goal lead early on maybe and then they just shut the door and wait for us to make a mistake and take advantage.
No one seems to have an answer for them, Vancouver got slapped silly by them and had no answers for Hill either the one time they played.
Hyman and Draisaitl don't seem to be able to get anything going against Hill either.
5 games now, 1 goal for Hyman, 0 for Draisaitl, 0 for Kane. Foegele actually has 2 goals against him, but you're right, he's not a top 6 forward on a cup contender.
McDavid has 4 goals in 5 games against Hill, the rest of our forward group is having massive problems get the puck past their D and past him.
But I guess show me any forward group that's been able to get a lot against him since the playoffs last year. There isn't one. Against Vancouver this year, Hill came into a game and shut them out.
We don't get that many AAA open looks. Even the Draisaitl miss, two Vegas players were on his ass and he was angled out at a very sharp angle, that's not as clean of a look as people think.
Even when McDavid is able to shake them out of their coverage (it's usually McDavid as the only one doing it), they recover fast.
At some point you just have to tip your hat I guess. They play D about as well as I've seen it played by any team. Even their bottom pairing has sticks in passing lanes, bodies in passing lane, almost non-stop. And then when you do get a good look, you have Hill to deal with.
And they didn't even have arguably their best D (Theodore) in last night. It doesn't change how they play at all.
The thing is it's not just us that Hill has been killing. I posted this in the other thread, but these are his numbers against the top teams he's played this year:
This season Adin Hill
1.000 save percentage versus Vancouver
1.000 save percentage versus Colorado
0.968 versus Edmonton
0. 946 versus Dallas (2 games)
0.947 versus NYR
Against Colorado the dude put up a 41 save shut out. His numbers go *up* against the best teams somehow.
Either this is the greatest goaltender heater in the history of the sport and this guy is the luckiest goalie to ever play or something else is happening here, like a new goaltending superstar is establishing himself. Because otherwise I can't explain this at all, even Binnington and Ward had a significant drop off after their Cup wins.
The other reason I'm not sold on the "it's just their defense though!" is that Thompson and Brossoit played behind the same exact D and have no where the same numbers. Their D is terrific, no doubt, but Hill has massively better numbers.
We saw that first hand, games 1 and 2 against Vegas with Brossoit in net were a cake walk compared to games 3-6 with Hill in net. We went from scoring quite easily to things going dry fairly quick.
We've played them 5 times with Hill and they've won 4/5 times.
At some point this isn't just a fluke.
If Hill is average, then this is the greatest heater in the history of the NHL for a goalie IMO. He is the luckiest goalie to ever play. It's either that or he's actually good.
If you think they're invincible why not just say that? It would be much easier and less tedious than what you're doing.I dunno I think they might just be that good.
We’ve played pretty much all the top teams the last two years … IMO I haven’t seen a back end as good as theirs (D with Hill in) for a while. Defensively they give up little and they may have somehow found a Vezina tier goalie from nothing.
McDavid is the only forward scoring on Hill, Hyman and RNH can barely piss a drop, Draisaitl and Kane have been shut out full stop in 5 games against Hill.
Even Colorado 2022, we were able to break loose and put some goals on the board.
Aside from that, with all due respect to Adin Hill, and he is earning a ton right now, you are very literally looking at a 34 game sample size and talking him into mythical proportions.
This isn't me comparing the two either. But over just the last 18 games, which is all Hill has played so far this year, Skinner has posted a .936/1.66 compared to Hill's .938/1.88
Again, Hill has been a monster over the last 34 games he's played, but there was 85 games prior to that where he wasn't playing at a Vezina caliber. I think you're absolutely overstating things at this point in time. You're also forgetting to mention that Vegas had a slide earlier this year too.
After a torrid 11-2 start in October, they went 6-8 in November, 7-6 in December and 7-6 in January. They are a very good team, but they are not this invincible machine you're trying to make them out to be.
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