Dissecting Connor Hellebuyck’s end of season comments
Following the Winnipeg Jets first-round playoff loss to the Colorado Avalanche, goaltender and Vezina Trophy finalist Connor Hellebuyck shared comments regarding his game and how he felt he was ‘playing the best hockey of my career’ as things took a turn for the worse for the Jets in their Stanley Cup hopes.
Today on Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk dissect those comments.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I thought it was interesting on locker clean-out day how Hellebuyck talked about the series and the way it ended. Let’s hear what Hellebuyck had to say, “You’re probably not going to believe when I say I was playing the best hockey of my career,” Hellebuyck started. “That’s truly how it felt and how I was feeling, not only was I playing the best hockey, I was in that zone where you’re not thinking and just playing and that’s what you seek after, it’s a dangerous thing. To not keep four goals off the board is heartbreaking, it’s really heartbreaking. You got to give kudos for what they did but looking back I don’t even know if I saw those pucks go in the net and for me to not put my foot down in a single game is heartbreaking.”
Tyler Yaremchuk: Frank, it’s interesting, the comment of “I don’t think I saw them” kind of points towards Hellebuyck going ‘What do you want me to do here?’ You look at the stat line, the worst of his career, yet he says he was playing his best.
Frank Seravalli: The brilliance of Hellebuyck is not just in his physical gifts but his mental; aspect. josh Morrissey told this story a few weeks back on Frankly Speaking. He was talking about how one time in Hellebuyck’s rookie year, I happened to be in the Jets locker room when he said it, and I will never forget the look on Blake Wheeler’s face as he was carrying his laundry bag. Hellebuyck is doing media and is 20-something games into his career and goes “I think I can win Vezina Trophies” and we were all like “Huh” and he is just supremely confident and that’s a gift.
Frank Seravalli: But, when you hear him say that it’s not him trying to boast that he is better, it’s him bewildered in his thought process that when he says he couldn’t put his foot down to take a single game, that’s tough to take. Especially as someone who in six weeks time will be up on stage collecting the Vezina Trophy, that’s hard to swallow not just for him but for the Jets. Part of it is on him, but like Bowness said it’s also the Jets’ lack of structure and the other part is Colorado absolutely running you over and leaving tire tracks on the ice.