Hellebuyck’s latest heroics leads quest for new superlatives
Trying to say something new about Connor Hellebuyck, like a previously unused superlative, is like trying to hit a home run with a pool noodle.
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Even if you hit the damn flush, you will almost certainly come up short.
Yet here we are, hoping to cork the styrofoam cylinder on the back of Hellebuyck’s latest masterclass between the whistles.
We are obliged to do this.
Arguably the craziest statistic from the Winnipeg Jets’ 4-1, 50-saver win Monday night is that the raid at Madison Square Garden meant Hellebuyck’s second-best goals were kept above the expected result of the season. The top spot is reserved for a 2-1 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in October.
Analytical guru Travis Yost tweeted a comparison of the last two decades of goaltenders in their prime based on the cumulative number of goals scored versus expected. Guess whose name is at the top of the list?
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It’s not 2015 Hart and Vezina Trophy recipient Carey Price, or two-time Stanley Cup winner Jonathan Quick.
It’s the 29-year-old Commerce, Michigan native topping two surefire Hall of Famers by comparable stretches of their respective careers.
Hellebuyck surpassed the 13,000 save plateau on Monday in New York and has seen 1,000 more shots since entering the league in 2015-16 than any other goaltender in the NHL.
His 31 shutouts are surpassed only by another of the game’s all-time greats, Marc-Andre Fleury.
Monday’s performance was nothing particularly new for Hellebuyck.
We’ve been down that 50-plus save road before, back in 2019 when he hit a career-high 51 stops in a 2-1 win at the San Jose Sharks. The performance was just as amazing.
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You could see how demoralizing it was getting for Rangers, especially after Hellebuyck flashed his gauntlet to stop Chris Kreider’s speedy one-timer in the slot with just under 12 minutes remaining in regulation time.
It was a soul-sapping parade and all Kreider could do was stare at Hellebuyck with eyes that screamed, “Bro, what the (expletive)?”
“Pretty routine night,” Hellebuyck said in a walk-off interview with Sportsnet’s Sean Reynolds after the game.
The gifted goalkeeper seems to thrive in games where shot volume is sky-high.
Monday’s win was his 20th with 40 or more shots and 40 or more saves, taking his overall record in those situations to 20-3-4.
His save percentage in those 27 games is a whopping .950, as is his 2.19 goals against average.
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This is all reassuring for Jets fans, given Winnipeg’s ongoing trend of constantly breaking in on the shot clock.
If things continue as they have been, this season will be the first since the 2017-18 season in which Hellebuyck did not lead the NHL in shots.
He finished third this year and is currently second behind Nashville’s Juuse Saros this season.
These stats, and the analysis that accompany them all, point to one thing: Hellebuyck is arguably the best goaltender in the NHL, both now, during his eight-year career, and of his generation.
So if you’re trying to write something new about the guy, a lot of what you read above ended up with the question you’re about to read.
Is it too early to speak of Hellebuyck’s name being enshrined in Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame?
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Immediately some will scoff.
An elite pantheon hangs on these walls, names like Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek.
Few are engraved on the Stanley Cup without their names – six in all, including non-NHLers Vladislav Tretiak and Kim St. Pierre, along with Roy Worters, Chuck Rayner, Eddie Giacomin and most recently Roberto Luongo in 2022.
But it’s Luongo who has reopened the debate on what it takes to get a plaque.
For all his accomplishments, he never won a trophy or took home a Vezina in his 19-year NHL career.
But Luongo deserves to go indoors. A two-time Olympic gold medalist who played 1,044 games, runner-up all-time.
Price will one day do the same, although it’s unlikely he’ll ever lift Lord Stanley’s mug.
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Hellebuyck is only halfway through his career so maybe this is all far too early to really discuss.
If Hellebuyck’s career has been held back so far, it’s because he didn’t make it into the playoffs.
Some are suggesting Fleury will be trumped against Vegas in 2018 or Montreal’s Price in 2021.
It’s not even that his numbers are bad (0.921 save percentage and 2.46 goals against average in 35 career playoff games), it’s just that they aren’t spectacular. (Fleury, for example, had a .955 save rate in the 2018 Western Conference Finals.)
A Stanley Cup ring would almost make this conversation starter a foregone conclusion for Hellebuyck, but a long run would at least take him into the stratosphere. A second Vezina this season could fare similarly.
Right now, the Jets, their fans, and hockey fans alike are reveling in having Connor McDavid-level talent wrapped in a goaltender’s shell between the whistle.