Jets’ Hellebuyck Has Surprising Answers About Playoff Performance

“I was playing the best hockey of my career, that’s truly how I was feeling,” the 31-year old — who gave up 24 goals in five games (minus one period as he was pulled after the second period in Game 4) — said after he was asked if his details and process were where they needed to be.

“Not only was I playing some of my best hockey, but I was in the zone where you’re not thinking, you’re just playing,” he continued. “That’s what you seek after. That’s a dangerous thing in sports. To not be able to keep four goals off the board, it’s heartbreaking. It really is heartbreaking.”

Later, when the Winnipeg Sun’s Scott Billeck sought clarification, Hellebuyck hedged slightly.

“I feel like a lot of those games, I was stealing some goals,” he said. “That being said, I’m not going to go and tell you I don’t want to be better. I absolutely need to be better if we’re going to win. I can’t be giving up that many goals.”

Hellebuyck and Defense Share Blame For His Ugly Playoff Numbers

It’s hard to believe Hellebuyck was playing the best hockey of his career, whether one assesses his performance with the simple eye test or by looking at the numbers. He appeared shaky from the get-go of Game 1 and failed to come up with big saves at key times, which the Jets have become used to him doing. He gave up 19 goals through the first four games of the five-game reverse sweep — the most of any four-game stretch in his entire nine-season career — and finished with an ugly 5.23 goals against average (GAA) .870 save percentage (SV%), and a negative 5.0 goals saves above expected (GSAx.) That negative 5.0 GSAx number is the most revealing.

In fairness, when looking at his larger body of work, he definitely has played some of the best hockey of his career. He is the favourite to win the second Vezina Trophy of his career as he posted a 2.39 GAA, .921 SV%, 37 wins, and 33.1 GSAx in 60 regular-season starts in the Jets’ 52-win season.

Discourse about Hellebuyck through the series was firmly divided into two camps: one deemed him completely at fault, while the other deemed him completely blameless for any pucks past him.

The reality falls somewhere in between: the team in front of him didn’t do him any favours — they were shredded by the Avalanche’s speed and allowed way more high-danger chances and a far greater expected goals against than they did in the regular season — but Hellebuyck also didn’t steal any games or give them momentum with his play.

“Looking back, I don’t think I saw even half the pucks go in the net,” Hellebuyck said, referring to the large number of goals that came as the result of screens.

However, even his greatest apologists have to admit his recent playoff series performances are cause for concern — he has allowed three-plus goals in nine-straight playoff games dating back to last spring’s first-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights, which the Jets also lost in five games.

Hellebuyck Knows He’s Not Fully to Blame For Second-Straight First-Round Exit

A few of Hellebuyck’s comments indicate he knows he’s not fully to blame for what transpired. “We gave them a little too much space,” he said in perhaps the understatement of the year.

“In my head, I can think of a couple of their goals that were exactly the same, game in and game out. So I guess we just didn’t make the right adjustment and didn’t jump on those fixes that needed to be made,” he said.

He clarified later he didn’t think they “made the right changes and implemented them the right way.” While head coach Rick Bowness’ player deployment and strategies were questionable in the series — something Bowness took accountability for later in the day — Hellebuyck said “that’s not a throw at the coaching staff; it’s on all of us.”

Hellebuyck asserted he doesn’t feel like he allowed a lot of goals he should have stopped or that made him think “I gotta have that.”

His seven-year contract extension, one he inked last October even after it seemed there was no way he would re-sign, will kick in next season. It’s well documented that the desire to win a Stanley Cup burns deep within him.

Hellebuyck said he “hopes this is the final learning curve” for the team, lamenting that they didn’t play up to the standard they did in the regular season. The Jets remain stuck at only three playoff series wins in 13 seasons, nine seasons of which he’s been a part, and Hellebuyck said he’s “hoping that this series kind of opened our eyes to the last piece of the puzzle needed to go on a long run.”