Maurice talks Hellebuyck's desire to be great on NHL @TheRink podcast

Paul Maurice expects goalie Connor Hellebuyck to start fast and be the difference the Winnipeg Jets need him to be when the Stanley Cup Qualifiers begin.

Maurice, the Jets coach, joined the NHL @TheRink podcast this week and talked about Hellebuyck's desire to be great, how that drive will allow him to be prepared when the Jets, the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference with a .563 points percentage, play the No. 8 Calgary Flames (.564 points percentage) in the best-of-5 series to determine who gets to compete in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"If you've spent some time with him you know he's an exceptionally competitive guy," Maurice said. "He has an unusual drive to be great. I'm not necessarily talking about the Winnipeg Jets, but there's a spectrum of how these players are coming back. Some guys are a little leery. Some guys have taken some time off. There's a lot of uncertainty maybe about what the hockey is going to be like. Connor Hellebuyck looks at this as a phenomenal opportunity to prove how great he is. That's kind of how he comes to the rink every day. I want to be the greatest goalie. I want to show everybody I'm the greatest goalie."

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Hellebuyck was 31-21-5 in the regular season. He faced the most shots of any goalie (1,796) and was second in save percentage (.922) behind the Boston Bruins' Tuukka Rask (.929) among the goalies who appeared in at least half of their team's games.

"He's already all jacked up and fired up about this so I have no fear of him coming back and being casual and thinking this is weird, this is not something I can get myself up for," Maurice said. "He's already wired for this. He has this unusual competitiveness and it's every single day that he comes to the rink. It's not just about getting better, Connor is driven to be great."

Maurice also mentioned how the Jets and Flames will seem like strangers when their series begins because they only played against each other one time this season, in the 2019 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan, on Oct. 26.

The Jets won 2-1 in overtime.

They were scheduled to play two more times, March 14 and March 31 in Calgary, but those games were cancelled after the season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

"These two teams are going to meet and they won't have a real great memory of each other of the style of hockey," Maurice said. "We'll rely on piecing together video from other teams they've played recently that play similar systems that we do. But we're going to look a whole lot different from them too even from video."

Former NHL goalie Mike McKenna, now a television studio analyst for Vegas Golden Knights games on AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain, also joined the podcast.

McKenna talked about the Golden Knights, why they were the hottest team in the NHL before the season was paused, going 11-2-0 in their last 13 games, and who should be their starting goalie when they resume play as one of four Western Conference teams with the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars that will play a round-robin to determine seeding ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

McKenna also touched on the challenges that await goalies when the season resumes, what he hopes to see in the television broadcasts of the games, which will be played without fans, and everything fans would hear if goalies were mic'd up on the broadcasts.

The podcast is free, and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.