Justin, this is incredible, great job! I just finished reading it when you posted it.
Timely too, given all the "drop Hiller for Fasth now" posts we are seeing, ludicrous given how much of a notorious slow starter / strong finisher Hiller is.
I noticed in the last Dallas game that he had a noticeable lack of the usual confidence, seemed to fight pucks, didn't get over fast enough on the Benn goal (he's usually among the best in the league in lateral movement as far as I've seen). I think this part of your article captures the situation perfectly:
"By this point, I feel sorry for him. There are certainly issues with the blocker side, but with so many goals coming on the power play, he has had to deal with tons of “seeing eye” shots, deflections, pucks coming through a maze of bodies, and shots that he can’t get a good pulse on.
Combine that with the rust he likely experienced coming out of the lockout, the strong early play of Viktor Fasth, and the fact that he clearly wasn’t his sharpest or in much of a rhythm, and these type of things certainly get magnified.
But a goalie like Hiller won’t make any excuses."
And of course, your wise final words:
"I for one believe that he’ll be much better once he returns from his groin injury. Maybe not instantly, but I feel like his next five games will see him post above a .900 SV%, and his GAA will shrink as well.
As you can see from the highlights, a lot of the goals he allowed were real tough saves to make. Once he gets a little more defensive support in front of him, and once he nails down one really strong win, he’ll start to track pucks better and make more of those timely highlight-reel saves we know he’s capable of making."
I know how much you admire and respect Hiller and his game. It was in large part your feedback that caused me to pick him up as an early first rounder a few years back, over guys like Varlamov and Emery (when he first joined Philly) at the time, and solid advice it was. I imagine it's your respect for this goalie that caused you to write this piece, when so many are questioning him due to Fasth's solid start and his correspondingly poor start.
Kudos again on a great piece.