Adin Hill Could Rescue Vegas in Game 6 After 3-2 Hole
adin hill could become Vegas’ best answer in Game 6 after the Golden Knights fell behind 3-2 in the Stanley Cup Final. The Carolina Hurricanes beat Vegas 4-2 in Game 5, and the Golden Knights now face elimination with their season on the line.
Vegas Leans Toward Hill
Hill is being discussed as the goalie who could change the series because he brings playoff pedigree and a history of settling in after being thrown into the middle of a series. Vegas has already lost back-to-back games, and the current swing has left the Golden Knights needing a clean response in front of a Hurricanes team that has scored 21 goals in five games.
That puts the focus on whether a fresh option can give Vegas a steadier start than the one it has gotten in this stretch. Hill’s last NHL game came on April 9, and the gap since then makes him the most obvious short-term change if Vegas decides it needs one.
Carter Hart’s Record Run
Hart has carried the net through the first three rounds of the playoffs, but the final has gone off the rails in ways no goalie in NHL history has opened a Cup final series. In Game 4, he became the first goaltender ever to allow four or more goals in four straight games to begin a Cup final series. In Game 5, that streak stretched to five straight games.
He has also been under heavy load. Hart went nearly two years without playing a game before this playoff run, played only 18 regular-season games, and has then gone nearly every other night for almost two months in the postseason.
Staal Drives Carolina
Jordan Staal has six goals and a five-game goal streak, and Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov combined for three goals in Game 5. Those numbers have helped drive Carolina to the edge of the title, while Jack Eichel still has not scored his first goal in the series and William Karlsson left Game 5 with an injury that will probably keep him out of Game 6.
Tortorella shut down the goalie-swap talk on Thursday with a blunt answer when asked if he considered changing course: “Oh, Christ. That could be the stupidest question I’ve heard.” He also has history with Hart that goes back to 2022 in Philadelphia, where Hart won 19 of his first 23 starts with Tortorella behind the bench in Vegas.
If Vegas wants one move that can reset the series quickly, Hill is the clearest one left. The Golden Knights are down 3-2, the Hurricanes are scoring in bunches, and Game 6 has become a test of whether Vegas trusts its fresh goalie more than the one that has been asked to carry too much for too long.
