By the Numbers: Hellebuyck's playoff struggles continue

Everything was going to plan for the Winnipeg Jets through the first two games of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the St. Louis Blues.

After breezing through the regular season en route to their first every Presidents’ Trophy, the Jets took both Games 1 and 2 at home to jump out to a quick 2-0 series lead. It was a promising start for a Jets team that hadn’t reached the second round of the playoffs since 2021 and coming off back-to-back opening-round losses in each of the last two seasons.

Everything changed once things shifted to St. Louis late last week. The Blues dismantled the Jets 7-2 in Game 3 and followed that up with a 5-1 win Sunday to even the series at two games apiece. Now things head back to Winnipeg for Game 5 Wednesday night all square with the Blues carrying the momentum.

Being outscored by a combined total of 12-3 requires plenty of things to go wrong. But keeping pucks out of the net was one of Winnipeg’s biggest problems in the St. Louis portion of the series, which is something they excelled at during the regular season. Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who is expected to win his second consecutive Vezina Trophy and third overall later this spring after being nominated as a finalist Monday, won the Jennings Trophy as Jets allowed the fewest goals against in the league during the regular season.

It’s been a different story for Hellebuyck and the Jets during the first round. Hellebuyck was pulled in favour of Eric Comrie for the second straight game Sunday, three days after he was lifted early in Game 3. Including the regular season and playoffs, it’s just the second time in Hellebuyck’s career he had been pulled in two straight games.

The 31-year-old netminder has now allowed at least four goals in 10 of his 14 most recent playoff games stretching back to Winnipeg’s first-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023. In 49 playoff games during his 10-year NHL career, Hellebuyck has a 20-29 record, a .905 save percentage and a 2.95 GAA.

That’s a far cry from his remarkable regular 2024-25 season that saw him play to a .925 save percentage and 2.00 GAA with a league-leading 47 wins and eight shutouts. His playoff output has also been below his career reuglar-averages of a 2.56 GAA and .918 save percentage, too.

And event though it’s a small sample size where his team has still won two of four games, Hellebuyck’s playoff save percentage this year is .817 and his GAA sits at 4.24.

Despite the struggles, the Jets still have all the faith in the world in their star netminder.

“I’m 100 per cent confident in Connor Hellebuyck,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said after Sunday’s loss. “His resume speaks for itself.”

Defenceman Luke Schenn agreed.

“Lots of confidence,” Schenn said. “He’s had an unbelievable year, and you watch the replay of the goals that went in. They’re deflections, they’re screens, they’re bouncing off us and in, and just, obviously, we’ve got to do a better job in front of the net.”

The veteran defenceman gave credit to the Blues.

“I don’t think anyone expected this to be an easy series, at least, personally, I didn’t. I watched the Blues' last two months of the season — they’re the hottest team in the NHL for a reason, and have the best home record and didn’t lose at home down the stretch,” he said.

Arniel thought many of Sunday’s goals weren’t on Hellebuyck anyway.

“I can look at all the goals,” Arniel said. “Those are coverage goals. Those are things that we usually handle pretty well. We didn't tonight.”

“(We) just, obviously, [have] to do a better job in front of the net. … Games are won and lost in the hard area and the hard area is in front of our net, in front of their net, and we obviously got to do a much better job of that,” Schenn said via NHL.com.

Deja Vu for Hellebuyck, Jets?

After going 37-19-4 in the regular season with a .921 save percentage and 2.39 GAA last year, Hellebuyck was burned for 24 goals against for a .864 save percentage and a 5.23 GAA in a first-round exit against the Colorado Avalanche. He allowed at least four goals in all five games, but said after he felt he was playing to the best of his ability. 

"You're probably not going to believe when I say I was playing some of the best hockey of my career, but that's truly how I was feeling," Hellebuyck said last spring after the Jets were eliminated.  "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, and that's what you're looking for, that's a dangerous thing in sports.

"To not be able to keep four goals off the board, it's heartbreaking."

The Jets star appeared to pass blame onto the Jets defensive breakdowns under then-head coach Rick Bowness. 

"I don't want to tell you that I don't want to be better, I absolutely need to be better if we're going to win," he added. "That's the playoffs right there, it's so tight, and if you give a guy open space, they're going to make the best of it ... We gave a little too much space.

"...When I got pulled [after the second period] to give me more rest [in Game 4], it was like a flood of emotions that I had suppressed all series long and that was the realization that I can't do this alone.

"That was the realization that I need to be part of this team more than I am ... I'm trying to put everything on my shoulders, and I don't think that's the right way to go about playoffs anymore."

Series now a best-of-three

The Jets still have time to turn things around, leaving Arniel also put things in perspective Sunday, pointing to the Jets having home ice in two of the series’ potential remaining three games.

“We're all in this together," he said. "You know what, it's just a situation that we've got to put our best foot forward when we go home. … We worked our tails off for 82 games to get home-ice advantage.

"Well, it's a best-of-3 now. Now we've got to make sure we take care of business.”