Connor Hellebuyck said he will be better when the Winnipeg Jets play the St. Louis Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN, FDSNMW).
Hellebuyck, who on Monday was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, which goes to the best goalie in the NHL, said he is looking ahead, not back, after allowing a total of 11 goals in Games 3 and 4, each St. Louis wins that evened the best-of-7 series. He was pulled in each game, the first time in his career he’s been taken out of two consecutive postseason games.
“You don’t love giving up that many goals but we’re 2-2 in the series. That’s all that matters,” Hellebuyck said. “Win the next one. Am I going to be better? I am going to be better.”
Hellebuyck, who won the Vezina last season and in 2019-20, said the two days off between Games 4 and 5 will allow him to fix his issues.
“I’ve studied goaltending extremely hard. I’ve probably studied the most out of anyone in this world, so I know what to do and how to get my best game,” he said. “So that’s what I’m looking forward to do. I’ve got two days here. Time to bring it in Game 5.”
The 31-year-old is 2-2 with a 4.24 goals-against average and .817 save percentage in four starts this postseason. He’s 20-29 with a 2.95 GAA, .906 save percentage and three shutouts in 49 career playoff starts.
It’s a far cry from his regular season, when he went 47-12-3 in 63 games this season, leading the League in wins and shutouts (eight). He finished first in goals-against average (2.00) and second in save percentage (.925) among goalies who played at least 25 games.
Asked about his playoff numbers being a surprise, Hellebuyck said, “Honestly, it’s a surprise in my world too.”
“When I’m watching my game, there’s a certain way I need it to look and want it to look. And it would be crazy to go that many regular-season games and then all of a sudden switch something up in the playoffs,” he said. “You don’t win 47 games and then come the playoffs, switch everything up. I know how it needs to look. I like a lot of things. I’m not going to go and make huge changes. That being said, I’m going to be better. That’s my job, and that’s the foot that I’m putting forward.
“I can’t be giving up this many goals. We’re a team in here, we’re not pointing fingers at anyone. We’re going to do this together. I keep saying it, we’re in a good spot, 2-2 in the series.”
This is the third straight postseason Hellebuyck’s numbers haven’t matched his regular-season success. Last season, he was 1-4 with a 5.23 GAA and .870 save percentage, and in 2022-23, he was also 1-4, with a 3.44 GAA and .886 save percentage. In each of those seasons he won 37 regular-season games and had GAAs of 2.39 and 2.49 and save percentages of .921 and .920, respectively.
“You’ve got to weather those ups and downs, and it’s easy to say from the outside looking in that we’re down right now,” Hellebuyck said. “But I don’t view it like that. Whatever happens, put it behind you and move on to the next one.”
Everything gets tougher in the postseason. The mental side of the game looms larger, and Hellebuyck said one of the most important assets he can have this time of the year, “is being strong between the ears.”
“You don’t want to go into a game playing with fear," he said. "If you play with fear, that’s when you start to actually make mistakes and want things back. We go out, we play our game, and you continue to be better every single shift, every single game and every single day. That’s my mindset moving forward, and I’m looking forward to that.”
In some cases, Hellebuyck has dealt with screens, traffic and unfortunate bounces. In Game 4, Blues defenseman Justin Faulk’s goal went off Jets defenseman Neal Pionk. Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey and Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist were screening him when Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker scored.
“The feeling is that we've got to do a better job in front of him,” Pionk said. “He's the best goalie in the world, but he can't stop what he can't see. We've got to take their sticks out of the way and push them out of the way so he can see the puck.”
Hellebuyck didn’t see it that way.
“I believe in everyone in this room. They are incredible hockey players. We don’t do what we do for 82 games and then all of a sudden lose it. They’re a good team over there. They got really hot, and it was crazy for us to think ever that this was going to be an easy series and no one did think that,” he said.
“In the position we are, it’s on to the next one. This is fun playoff hockey. It doesn’t matter if you lose 2-1 or 6-1. At the end of the day, it’s a loss and you move on. Getting back to our game is what we want to do in here and that’s our plan for 60 minutes.”
