1 week Ago By Paul Friesen
There’s probably nothing like having your name chanted by a boisterous home crowd. When it’s in an opposing rink, though, it’s never a good thing. For a second straight game, Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck was serenaded in St.
Louis on Sunday. Giving up five more goals, on the heels of six the previous game, made Hellebuyck the easy and obvious target of Blues fans, as the Jets limped out of a second straight blowout loss, 5-1 the count. Hellebuyck may be on the verge of winning a second straight Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top netminder, but he hasn’t been the better one in this first-round playoff series.
That edge goes to Jordan Binnington, and it hasn’t been particularly close. The Jets did not make Hellebuyck available for questions after the game Sunday, leaving his head coach and teammates to take them. “I’m 100 percent confident in Connor Hellebuyck,” head coach Scott Arniel declared after a rout that evened the series at two games apiece.
“His resume speaks for itself. We need to be better in front of him. We need to let him see some pucks.
There were a couple there we didn’t let him see.” Too often, the Jets allowed the Blues free passes to the net, something they didn’t do often while allowing the fewest goals against in the NHL this season. Goalies occasionally have to steal a playoff game for their team, too, and Hellebuyck hasn’t done that.
His numbers in the series look like they’ve been stolen from one of the worst goalies in the league: He’s giving up 4.24 goals per game with a saves percentage of just .817.
The 31-year-old looks more like the goalie who was shelled by Colorado in last year’s playoffs, or Vegas the year before, than the one who posted a sparkling 2.00 goals-against-average and .925 saves percentage during the regular season.
On Brayden Schenn’s second-period goal that made it 3-1, Hellebuyck had the puck against his stick but allowed Schenn to steal it. Another play saw him get caught behind the net, although he got away with that one, unlike in Game 3, where a similar move cost his team a goal. “There’s things that we have to do to help him,” Arniel said.
“He knows he has to do things that help us. And that’s how it’s been all year long. We’re all in this together.
” The Jets will need to be more forceful in their own zone in Game 5 in Winnipeg, Wednesday, or else fall behind in the series. Their goalie will also have to be better. “Lots of confidence,” defenceman Luke Schenn said.
“He’s had an unbelievable year. And you watch the replay of the goals that went in, their deflections, their screens, they’re bouncing off us and in. We’ve just got to do a better job in front of the net.
” [email protected] X: @friesensunmedia Blues hold serve at home, beat the Jets 5-1 in Game 4'We unravelled': Jets a rag-tag version of themselves in St.
Louis.
