Hellebuyck, Jets prepare to host Red Wings on bobblehead night

WINNIPEG - Earlier this season, Connor Hellebuyck shut out the Detroit Red Wings by making 33 saves in his home state of Michigan.
When the Red Wings play in Canada Life Centre on Wednesday, they won't have just one Hellebuyck starting back at them - they'll have more than 15,000.
The Jets goaltender is the bobblehead giveaway tomorrow night, with one sitting in every seat waiting for fans to take home.
It's not the first time the 2020 Vezina Trophy winner has been on a bobblehead though. There were previous versions in college at University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and at his North American Hockey League stop with the Odessa Jackalopes.
This one is unique, though.
"This one is probably the coolest one I've ever seen," said Hellebuyck, speaking of the bobblehead that features two of his sporting passions - hockey and fishing.
"Usually it's just someone standing there. This one has a little action to it," he laughed. "I'm excited to see how it all turns out and seeing how it goes."

Fishing has been a passion of Hellebuyck's since he was a kid, so the fact it's featured so prominently on his first NHL bobblehead is fitting.
"(Dustin Byfuglien) got me into ice-fishing here in Winnipeg. Before that it was my grandpa. We'd always go up north in Michigan," said Hellebuyck. "He'd take us out on the water and we'd eat what we'd catch. That was my roots and then as I got older, my brother and I started to go at it in fishing and we had a lot of fun with that in high school."
BUY TICKETS FOR BOBBLEHEAD NIGHT
While the fans get to enjoy the bobbleheads in the stands, Hellebuyck will be focused on helping the Jets get back in the win column on the ice.
Winnipeg opened the home stand on Saturday with a 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, and heading into action on Tuesday, the Jets are six points back of Vegas for the final wildcard spot.
Hellebuyck will be a big part of the Jets cutting into that deficit. Like his teammates, he's taking things one day at a time.
"I'm looking ahead, but it's not like I'm living my day to day thinking 'Oh, we gotta do this, we gotta do this' ahead of time," Hellebuyck said. "My day by day is just that day. Because that's all I can control in the now. And then at the end of the day you look at, Okay, where are we at?"

The 28-year-old Hellebuyck is at the top of the NHL statistics in terms of starts (58), shots against (1,903), and saves (1,735). He's learned over his 373 career games how to manage that type of workload.
"A couple of years ago I was a no morning-skate guy and I'd skate in between and get a little work in there. Now, as I'm getting older, I'm finding, no in between and (taking) the morning skate is more important," he said. "But who is to say, maybe next year it goes back to no morning skate. I think the way that we've been managing my workload has been really good and really helpful."
Jets interim head coach Dave Lowry said the conversations around Hellebuyck's schedule are always ongoing, and changing, depending on how many games the Jets have upcoming and how Hellebuyck feels.
"It's not like you wake up and you just say that Connor is going to play," said Lowry. ""He gives us a chance to win every night and that's what we ask. Obviously, with shot numbers and all of that, some nights he faces higher (volume) than we would like (in terms of) quality chances and that's on our group to tighten that up. We've said and I say it every day, our goalies give us a chance to win every night."
On the nights that Hellebuyck hasn't played, Eric Comrie has stepped right in and performed at a high level. Comrie is 8-3-1 this season with a 2.68 goals-against average and a 0.912 save percentage in his first season as a full-time back-up.
"He's been phenomenal this year," Hellebuyck said of Comrie. "He's got the right mindset. His depth is bright, his practice habits are right, he works really hard. The team loves him. So he's got all the aspects of everyone fighting for him. He's just got that mentality that he's not going to let this opportunity miss."
Winnipeg will need both its goaltenders over the final 12 games of the regular season as they push for a playoff spot.
Having the last three days away from game action has been nice after playing 17 games in 33 days. However, the schedule has the Jets playing seven games in the next 11 nights, with two back-to-backs and travel thrown in for good measure.

As taxing as that will be on the goaltenders, it'll also be tough on the skaters.
"Hopefully, you're able to play four lines. And play your six D. And we're going to need both goalies," said Lowry. "Obviously, we used the last two days here to have a couple of good practices. Although they weren't long, we got what we wanted out of them. You probably won't see us practice in between games now as a full group."
Hellebuyck and the Jets are ready for the challenge.
"Try to win every chance you get out there," said Hellebuyck on his mindset. "Me being part of the team, I'm going to go out there and give my A-plus game every single night."