Americans confident with Hellebuyck behind them

BOSTON MA – Winnipeg fans are accustomed to the heroics of Connor Hellebuyck as are his Jet teammates. As expected, the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament has opened some more eyes to the greatness of the two-time Vezina Trophy winner.

Thursday night, Hellebuyck will have the chance to become the first goaltender since Mike Richter to lead the United States to victory at a best-on-best tournament involving NHL players. Richter was spectacular in the final game of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, as the U.S. beat Canada in the third and deciding game, 5-2 and was named tournament MVP.

Hellebuyck will attempt to do so with his dad Chuck, wife Andrea and his kids in attendance at TD Garden.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun. I know this area, I’m very familiar,” said Hellebuyck.

“I think it’s going to be one of those days where I kind of take it minute by minute and enjoy the process.”

In a winner-take-all scenario, the United States players feel very confident about having the 31-year-old behind them even against some of the best in the world like McDavid, MacKinnon and Crosby.

“It’s huge. He’s the best goalie in hockey right now and for a reason, I think he works so hard. He does all the right things,” said Matt Boldy, who has faced Hellebuyck and the Jets three times this season with the Wild.

“It seems like we seem him a handful of times a year and it’s always so tough to score on him. So, I’m excited to have him on my team.”

Noah Hanafin has played both with and against Hellebuyck over his career.

“I've played in a world championship once with him a long time ago, but I mean, being in this tournament seeing how good he is, I mean, it's incredible. He's so good back there, and even his play with the puck, he gives the defencemen, his whole team so much confidence in front of him,” said Hanafin.

“So, we just got to play hard. We have to check well against a really elite team, and I think if we do that, we know he'll hold it down back there.”

It wasn’t only Hellebuyck that was frustrating Canada in the last meeting on Saturday, it was the entire team forcing the Canadians to dump and chase consistently.

“I think our system has been good. We have the guys that play it hard and play it the right way, a lot of pressure, a lot of good reads, and a lot of guys in positions,” said Hellebuyck.

“So, there's not a whole lot of space out there when there's that much speed.”

The Canadians had more of a shoot first mentality on Monday when they faced Finland, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon were a lot more successful than they were against the United States. Even if Canada does find a way to get more pucks to the net, Hellebuyck isn’t over thinking things.

“Just stop the puck. Pretty, pretty simple in my world. just get your way in front of the puck. And let everything happen,” said Hellebuyck.

“I just go out there and I battle, and I work as hard as I can and give myself the best chance.”

Hellebuyck recently had a chance to meet his idol, Olaf Kolzig. The former Capitals star was at the Jets last road game in Washington, Jets goaltending coach Wade Flaherty set up the meeting.

“I told him, growing up, how I collected his cards and stuff like that. And we just, you know, small talk, and I didn't want to bug him,” said Hellebuyck.

“I didn't want to fan boy him too hard, but it was hard not to do.”

Hellebuyck was asked if he has chatted with any of his Winnipeg teammates and he mentioned Kyle Connor and that was it. But he thought for a second and mentioned that he has spoken with Jets head coach Scott Arniel about his plans for what is going to happen after the tournament. Winnipeg plays in St. Louis on Saturday, and you would think that Eric Comrie will be facing the Blues to give Hellebuyck a rest, but we will have to wait and see.

Like many American hockey players, the movie Miracle is an inspiration and Hellebuyck listed as his favourite movie when he was back playing college hockey. However, he has not had the chance to watch it this week and will likely not get a chance before Thursday’s big game.

“It's been pretty crazy, actually, this last two weeks, just managing everything. We got family, we got guests in town, and the travel,” said Hellebuyck.

“And then the long days, the late nights, for 8:30 games. Really, it's just been managing your day to day.”