Trophy Tracker: Ullmark, Hellebuyck leaders for Vezina as best goalie

To mark the midway point of the 2022-23 regular season, NHL.com is running its third installment of the Trophy Tracker series. Today, we look at the race for the Vezina Trophy, awarded annually to the goalie voted to be the best in the League by NHL general managers.

Linus Ullmark is in his second season with the Boston Bruins, and the goalie credits the comfort of familiarity for the success he's having this season.
"It calms you down a lot," said Ullmark, who played his first six NHL seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. "A calm goalie is usually a better goalie than a stressed-out one. You want to have that impact on your teammates and on the game itself, that whatever the opponents throw at you, you're going to stand there and be calm about it and show the poise.
"That's what I want to show my teammates every night and every practice as well, to be someone that can be relied upon as well."
Ullmark has been someone the Bruins (32-4-4) have been able to rely on as they have ridden their goalie's outstanding play to the top spot in the NHL standings.
Along the way Ullmark has become the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy as the top goalie in the NHL, according to a poll of 14 writers for NHL.com. He received 69 points in the poll, including 13 first-place votes.

Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets was second with 55 points, getting the other first-place vote.
Ullmark is 22-1-1 with a 1.87 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and two shutouts in 26 games. He leads the NHL in wins, GAA and save percentage (minimum 10 games). He has an NHL-high .945 even-strength save percentage and has had a .900 save percentage or higher in an NHL-best 84.0 percent of his starts (21 of 25).
He also was selected to play for the
Atlantic Division in the 2023 NHL All-Star Game
.
"I remember watching [the All-Star Game] when I was young," Ullmark said. "It was one of the few things we taped when I was younger, to watch Peter Forsberg, Nick Lidstrom, Joe Sakic, those guys when they played the All-Star Game. It was always fun watching it. It's a little surreal to be there now."
Ullmark credited his success to his teammates as well as Bruins goaltending coach Bob Essensa, who he calls "Goalie Bob." .
"I just love Bob," Ullmark said. "We've had great conversations throughout these one and a half years now. We've grown closer and closer each day and with every conversation. We butt heads sometime, but we always agree upon something in the end. ... I want someone I can bounce ideas off and have a conversation with. I also want him to be honest with me, say this is not good enough, because if I don't get to hear that, I can't improve. I don't want someone to pat my back all the time and say I did a good job."
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis): Linus Ullmark, Bruins, 69 points (13 first-place votes); Connor Hellebuyck, Jets, 55 (1); Ilya Sorokin, New York Islanders, 24; Jake Oettinger, Dallas Stars, 22; Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning, 13; Igor Shesterkin, New York Rangers, 11; Alexandar Georgiev, Colorado Avalanche, 6; Logan Thompson, Vegas Golden Knights, 6; Pyotr Kochetkov, Carolina Hurricanes, 3; Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh Penguins, 1