Connor Hellebuyck vs. Devan Dubnyk

Goaltending is an integral part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. To better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each goaltender, the last 100 goals allowed for each goaltender were charted, with the help of Double Blue Sport Analytics from Upper Hand Inc., to see what patterns emerge.

Winnipeg Jets No. 1 Connor Hellebuyck and Minnesota Wild starter Devan Dubnyk are no strangers. They have the same trainer, Adam Francilia, based in Kelowna, British Columbia, and took part in the annual NET360 goalie camp last summer. The similarities don't end there, either.
RELATED: [Complete Jets vs. Wild series coverage]
Hellebuyck and Dubnyk each play a controlled, if somewhat conservative, positional game, and effectively shift their big frames into shots instead of reaching and opening holes.
Hellebuyck and Dubnyk will meet in the Western Conference First Round, with Game 1 at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET, CNBC, SN, TVAS, FS-N).
Here is an in-depth look at each goalie's game:

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Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets

Hellebuyck,24, had a breakout season after rebuilding his body in the summer, with a focus on training to keep it together, without many open spaces, when moving around his crease and into shots. That work to update key elements in his game began last season with Wade Flaherty, the Jets goalie coach, and accelerated during the summer. The work paid off with 44 wins in 2017-18, passing Tom Barrasso for the most in a season by an American-born goalie. Hellebuyck's .924 save percentage ranked third among starters to play at least 50 games. It also showed up when tracking his game this season.

Goal trends

Forget the glove:Among the biggest changes Hellebuyck made, starting last season, was the position of his glove, which he used to hold unusually low, leaving him over-reliant on his elbow for high saves. It worked at lower levels of hockey, but was identified and exploited by opposing goalie coaches in the NHL. They'll have to look elsewhere now, as Hellebuyck has raised the starting position of his glove hand and is right around average for the goals tracked in breaking down playoff-starting goalies for this project in the past two seasons, with 25 percent of his goals coming mid-to-high glove, and just nine of 30 clean-look goals on the glove side.
Blocker instead: Things weren't as clean on the blocker side, where all three numbers above the pads were higher than average, and account for 43 percent of his total goals allowed. It's important to point out these aren't save percentages so it's possible Hellebuyck saw more, or higher-quality, shots to the blocker, but it is a trend worth noting. Unlike with his revised glove work, there is a tendency for him to turn and pull up and away on high-blocker shots, rather than cutting them off in front of him. The result is more reaching with his blocker and a sharp rise in goals under his blocker arm, almost double the average number of goals allowed there by other starting goalies in the playoffs.
Bad angles: Hellebuyck also added reverse-VH to his post-integration repertoire last season, dropping the short-side pad on the ice against the post and using the back leg to drive that seal and pivot around the post. It wasn't always a smooth transition as practice repetition can lead to overuse and Hellebuyck gave up eight goals from either bad angles or from using bad-angle techniques. Not all were from reverse-VH, and Hellebuyck does a nice job of not defaulting to it too early, even if he did get caught on his feet or transitioning to the ice on a couple goals. The gap between the bottom of his pad and post in reverse-VH was costly a couple of times.
Noticeable numbers:Hellebuyck was higher than average with 21 goals scored when the puck or play was moving one way and was then shot or pulled back in the other direction, including seven on clean looks. Those numbers don't include a tendency on his part to stay on his post or drop forward rather than shift across on low-high passes, which left him vulnerable to far-side shots.

Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild

Dubnyk, 31, resurrected his career with a depth-management rule he learned from Sean Burke, the former Arizona Coyotes goalie coach, before he was traded from the Coyotes to the Wild on Jan. 14, 2015: If he can't beat a pass on his skates, he's too far out.
That simple approach, combined with hard work off the ice and improved tracking on it, has made Dubnyk one of the NHL's top goalies since his arrival in Minnesota. However, deeper positioning, like most things in goaltending, comes with give and takes.

Goal trends

High glove: A deeper position in the crease generally means higher goal totals around the edge of the net, even for a goalie, who at 6-foot-6, fills so much of it. Dubnyk's high-glove goals are down from last season, when 29 went in top corner to his left. So, as much as the 19 he has allowed this season might jump out as his highest number, the reality is his 24 goals allowed from mid- and high-glove areas are slightly below the average tracked for this project. Still, nine of 17 clean-shot goals went in over the glove.
VH rebounds: Dubnyk uses the new reverse-VH as a save selection, but holds his feet and relies more regularly on a traditional VH, with his short-side pad up against the post and his back pad down along the ice on sharp-angle attacks from above the goal line. He uses it effectively and transitions out of that selection laterally as well as any goalie, gaining an early angle as he moves thanks to the improved tracking. But the VH is more of a blocking-save selection, so sharp angle-attacks can lead to more rebounds, scrambles and second chances off his pads.
Get him moving: Creating lateral chances increases the odds of scoring on any goalie, and 62 percent of the past 100 goals scored against Dubnyk contained an element of side-to-side movement. That included 26 against-the-grain plays, 11 percent above the average generated by the sample size; 42 percent involved a quick release or one-timer.
Noticeable numbers: Dubnyk's numbers matched the average for almost every shot type and location, which maybe shouldn't be a shock for a goalie with a balanced style.