The Vegas Golden Knights have had no shortage of goaltenders this year, but it seemed throughout the first round that one of them, Laurent Brossoit, finally grabbed the net. Brossoit was injured against the Oilers, however, and former third goaltender Adin Hill led the Knights to victory over Edmonton. In Friday’s edition of Daily live face-to-face, hosts Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna discussed whether Hill’s stellar play would be enough to defeat world goaltender Jake Oettinger and the Dallas Stars.
Frank Seravalli: Is it possible to exaggerate the impact of the goalkeeper in this series? You look at it, and we’ve been saying all season that Vegas can’t win with Logan Thompson in goal, or with Laurent Brossoit in goal. Now Adin Hill, another UFA pending, is the Golden Knights’ goaltender, their third-string player. Can he do the job against Jake Oettinger? On paper, that’s a pretty big discrepancy, but I don’t know if that’s actually the case.
Mike McKenna: It’s hard for me to say because Hill played so well during his limited playoff time. It’s 3-1; his entire postseason sample size was in the last round against the Oilers.
Adin Hill hit a speed bump in Game 3, but in Games 4, 5 and 6 he was so good against Edmonton. He was very important in those games, allowing only three goals. The question is can it continue?
Even in the first half of the season, Adin Hill spent so much time on his back, on his stomach, collapsing all over the place. He worked with goaltending coach Sean Burke to try to let the game come to him, not move around as much and get into position in time. Can he continue? That’s what a very dynamic Dallas offense boils down to.
On the other hand, Oettinger was retired three times in the playoffs despite his reputation as one of the best money guards. I found a tweet the other day that I thought was interesting showing that Oettinger is good from games 1-4 but blocked from games 5-7.
Jake Oettinger playoff career (starter), 20 games:
Games 1-4: 2.69 GAA, 0.915 SV%
Games 5-7: 1.97 GAA, 0.942 SV%
His high game for the most important game of the series | #TexasHockey https://t.co/9yXRwNOheM
— Brien Rea (@BrienRea) May 16, 2023
There’s no doubt in my mind that Vegas will try to dictate the pace of this series from the start, because the further it goes, Frank, the more Dallas it will favor. Hey man, it’s the Pete DeBoer postman. He knows these Vegas Golden Knights players as well as anyone, and it’s going to be a great practice game.
You can watch the entire episode here…
