Jets’ playoff failure ‘heartbreaking’: Hellebuyck

Jets’ playoff failure ‘heartbreaking’: Hellebuyck

In a playoff series filled with surprising developments, Connor Hellebuyck had one final jaw-dropper as he met with the media on Thursday morning.

“You’re probably not going to believe when I say, I was playing the best hockey of my career,” the Winnipeg Jets goaltender began his year-end availability.

Yes, that would be the same Hellebuyck that got torched for 24 goals over 14 periods of hockey against the Colorado Avalanche (backup Laurent Brossoit mopped up in the third period of Game 4).

“That’s truly how I was feeling. 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,” Hellebuyck continued.

“It really is heartbreaking. I mean, you’ve got to give them some kudos for what they did, but looking back I don’t know if I even saw half of the pucks that went into the net. They did a great job but for me to not be able to put my foot down even in a single game is really heartbreaking. It’s not typically how I do things.”

In that sense, add Hellebuyck to the long list around here wondering what the heck just happened. How did the NHL’s best defensive team in the regular season, led by the guy who is likely a lock to win his second Vezina Trophy, just become the first team in NHL history to give up at least five goals in five consecutive games to begin playoff series?

And how did the Jets, with a 52-24-6 record (including 3-0-0 against Colorado) suddenly have no answers for an opponent that finished behind them in the standings.

“I would say winning in this league is extremely difficult. You can have a great regular season, but it’s about finding your game, finding ways to win at the most critical time of year,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry.

“We had a great regular season. We showed over 82 games we can be a really good team, but at the end of the day and we didn’t perform in the playoffs, that really doesn’t mean a whole lot.”

It’s almost as if all the positives lessons learned during the marathon that is the regular season were thrown out the window the second the hockey stage got bigger.

And that’s a big problem for a team that went “all-in” at the trade deadline, adding two big pieces in forwards Sean Monahan and Tyler Toffoli.

“I’d like to think this is hopefully the last learning curve that we’re going to go through, but… I mean, we were so good. You can’t image you’d be good for 82 games and then you just don’t… you’re just not there, you’re not the same team,” said Hellebuyck.

“I hope we’re going to learn that this is the small difference between playoffs and the regular season. This is why the hockey gets so exciting, it gets so quick. Your details have to be so fine-tuned by the time you make playoffs that there’s no room for error, there’s no room to find your game. I’m hoping that, this series kind of opened our eyes to the last piece of the puzzle to go on a long run.”

Hellebuyck said getting the hook after two periods in Game 4 — something that has never happened in his playoff career — was humbling. It also led to a light going on.

“That was my mindset, I needed to do this alone. That was the realization that I need to be part of this team more than I am, and to take everything onto my shoulders — and that’s, I’m talking me personally, that’s not me talking against the team — it’s just the way my mentality is, I’m trying to put everything on my shoulders,” he explained.

“I don’t think that’s the right way to go about playoffs anymore. I think what I need to do is just dive into a team-game even more, and that will hopefully bring me peace of mind.”

Media interviews were continuing throughout the day, with a dozen Jets players along with head coach Rick Bowness and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff taking questions.

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