WINNIPEG -- Connor Hellebuyck can be forgiven if he sees flying pucks in his sleep for a while.
The Winnipeg Jets goalie, a four-time finalist for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the best at the position in the NHL, is not used to the type of offensive onslaught he and the Jets faced at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche, whose 6-3 victory Tuesday ousted Winnipeg in five games in the Western Conference First Round.
Hellebuyck, who was second in the NHL in wins (37), third in goals-against average (2.39, minimum 30 games played) and led in save percentage (.921, minimum 30 games played) during the regular season, had those numbers turned inside out by the Avalanche in the first round and described the result as "heartbreaking."
Hellebuyck was 1-4 with a 5.23 GAA and .870 save percentage during the series, allowing at least four goals in each of the five games against Colorado.
“You’re probably not going to believe when I say, I was playing the best hockey of my career,” Hellebuyck said Thursday. “But that’s truly how I was feeling. Not only was I playing some of my best hockey but I was in that zone where you’re not thinking, you’re just playing ... To not be able to keep four goals off the board (in a game) is heartbreaking. It really is heartbreaking.
"I mean, you’ve got to give them some kudos for what they did, but looking back, I don’t know if I even saw half of the pucks that went into the net. They did a great job, but for me to not be able to put my foot down even in a single game is really heartbreaking. It’s not typically how I do things.”
Hellebuyck, the 2020 Vezina winner and 2024 winner of the William M. Jennings Trophy after Winnipeg allowed a League-best 199 goals against (including shootout-deciding goals), said he needed a mental reset after being pulled following the second period of a 5-1 loss in Game 4.
“Specifically, Game 4 ... I was laser-focused," he said. "From the second I woke up I was ready to steal a game. And this kind of was my mindset going into every single game, but especially in Game 4. And when I got pulled (after allowing four goals on 30 shots) to give me more rest, it was like a flood of emotions I had suppressed all series long, and that was the realization that I can’t do this alone.
"And I'm not saying that I needed to do it alone. That was my mindset; I needed to do this alone. That was the realization; that I need to be part of this team more than I am and to not take everything onto my shoulders -- and I'm talking me personally, that’s not me talking against the team -- it’s just the way my mentality is, I’m trying to put everything on my shoulders. I don’t think that’s the right way to go about [the] playoffs anymore. I think what I need to do is just dive into a team game even more, and that will hopefully bring me peace of mind.”
Winnipeg set a modern-era NHL record this season, allowing three goals or fewer in 34 consecutive games. That memory seemed very far away during this series.
“We’ve taken pride all year in our team game, that’s what carried us, and [Hellebuyck] was a big part of that team game,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “It’s an example of a player putting a lot of undue pressure on himself. That he had to make a difference. You get in the playoffs, and we’re watching hockey all of the time, there’s always a game in a playoff series where the team isn’t playing [well] and the goalie steals a game. I think that’s what he is referring to.
"The reason, and I explained after we pulled him in Game 4, we wanted to put a little more onus on the players: ‘OK, we’ve got to tighten this thing up here. We’re not going to rely on him every ... game to keep us in there.’ … What matters now is we didn’t do it when it counts most, and that’s when he’s putting a lot of pressure on himself.”
Asked what it was like watching a Jennings-winning team perform the way it did against Colorado, Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said his team may not have taken the proper approach to the postseason.
"I guess it shows you that the playoffs are a different animal,” Cheveldayoff said. “You have to be prepared to try and play any different way to be successful. The other team has got talented players. Us sitting here saying it was all about us would be a disservice to what kind of great players and great team and well coached and well managed the organization that we matched up against [is].
"I think back, even when we talked when we made the trades at the [NHL] Trade Deadline: You've done nothing. Until you're the team standing there at the end, you've done nothing. The onus is on everybody within the organization to be that 10 percent better."
