Adin Hill’s Game Rounding Into Form At Perfect Time

When the Golden Knights are playing at their best, they’re considered one of the hardest teams in hockey to beat. A huge reason for that is their ability to limit chances off the rush coupled with their incredibly structured defensive zone coverage.

Since March 1st, only the LA Kings have allowed fewer goals per game than VGK’s 2.17 per night. As good as the defense has been though, Adin Hill’s consistency in the Vegas net is probably the biggest reason for the stellar goals against numbers.

Hill is 11-3-1 in his last 15 starts, posting a .922 save percentage, two shutouts, and 11 games with a save percentage greater than .900. To start the year, Hill’s games varied widely as he posted better than .900 in just 14 of his first 33 starts. Since February 6th though, Hill is 3rd in the NHL in save percentage, behind just Andrei Vasilevskiy and Darcy Kuemper.

I feel like I’m playing better, a little more confident, and I feel like the team is playing better too. It’s nice to get a good string of wins and hopefully we can keep the momentum riding into the playoffs. -Adin Hill

Maybe the most important aspect of this season so far for Hill has been his availability. He has not missed a single game, or even a practice, due to injury, which has him on track to start 50 games for the first time in his career. In fact, Hill has never started more than 35 (last year) and had just 88 starts in his first six seasons in the NHL.

For the coach, the place in which Hill has been most impressive is when he’s making saves, moreso than how many.

It’s not always about save after save after save, it’s when they come. It’s to me like special teams, you need timely goals on the power play, timely kills, you need timely saves. We’re not a team that’s giving up chance after chance every night anyway but we’re human, we’re going to make mistakes and we’re going to need to be get bailed out and Hill has certainly bailed us out. -Bruce Cassidy

As the playoffs near, Hill is in a position he’s never found himself in, as the clear #1 guy. Last year he struggled down the stretch losing seven of his final 11 starts and posting a save percentage of just .868. That led to Logan Thompson getting the call to open the playoffs. The year before, when he ultimately led the team to the Stanley Cup, he was injured for the majority of the second half of the season and went more than two months before his last regular season start to his first playoff start.

Hill has a career 12-6 record in the playoffs with a .932 save percentage, four shutouts, and has allowed more than three goals just twice in 18 starts. Each of the last two postseasons, he’s come in cold, in relief of Thompson and Laurent Brossoit.

This year though, Game 1 will be his, as will Games 2, 3, 4, and every other game until the team’s season is over. For the first time ever, his run-up to the playoffs is exactly what every goalie is hoping for. He’s been incredible in the playoffs despite having to deal with challenging situations the last two years, it’s fun to imagine how good he could be this year without anything standing in his way.