[Mike Kelly] What happened to Hellebuyck? There’s more than one answer but give the Avs credit for being on top of him all series. Colorado scored 10 goals with a screen, most of any team. Hellebuyck finished with a save % of .737 on screened shots – last among goalies with at least 2 games played.
What happened to Connor Hellebuyck? There's more than one answer but give the Avs credit for being on top of him all series.
Colorado scored 10 goals with a screen, most of any team. Hellebuyck finished with a save % of .737 on screened shots – last among goalies with at least 2… pic.twitter.com/BYwFab3F1H— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) May 1, 2024
by seeldoger47
14 Comments
Jets should have started Broissoit after the game three loss.
Expert video coaching by the avs, blocker side and screened shots amounted to free goals essentially.
If you can coach your team to a strategy that basically requires you to not earn the majority of your goals the hard way, you’re going to win.
>Colorado scored 10 goals with a screen,
I know Helle’s numbers were bad in this series but how many bad ones did he really let in? Avs were everywhere in front of the net and our defense couldn’t handle it. They were getting screens, deflections, rebounds, one-timers. One goal last night got tipped in front then bounced off the ice what’s he supposed to do about that? Colorado knew they couldn’t beat him clean so they did what they had to do to create chaos in front of him.
I don’t think his sv% or GAA is at all reflective of how he played.
Not that I’ve been the biggest logan stanley booster, but i hope he can take his training to another level and play the way he did at the end of the season at the start of next season.
We need big bodies to clear the front of the net. No goalie can stop those screened point shot deflections and in tight rebounds.
We gotta give helle the chance to succeed as much as he has to give us the chance to succeed.
Wpg defense after Morrisey is horrendous. You can not tell me otherwise. Honestly if your going to get hemmed in your own zone for minutes on end 5 on 5 your goalie is bound to let in above expected. Then you add in the Mackinnon and Makar factor. Wpg had no answer defensively for the Avs, this is not on hellebyuck!
Our defense is nowhere near good enough to make a run. Couldn’t clear the net, couldn’t get pucks in the corner, rough breakout passes, hard time holding either blue line
Forwards aren’t free from blame either, as a unit we had a terrible time getting the puck through the neutral zone so being able to set up and get meaningful zone time was a rarity. So many bad stretch passes followed by dumps we’d never be able to retrieve.
We have some solid forwards in the pipeline, and I think with some tweaks our group isn’t terrible but we need to start by rebuilding our blue line. Not that I think our forward group is perfect and doesn’t need adjustments, there were a few passengers there we could have done without, but I think our defense is the main issue here.
While Helle didn’t steal us a game like so many other goalies have for their teams, it’s hard to put this on him. The defence was atrocious. They let the Avs walk into our zone largely uncontested, didn’t move guys out of Hellebuyck’s way, and I could go on. It would have been nice to see the Jennings, and likely vezina winning goalie steal one game, it just didn’t happen.
They could have boarded up the net with plywood and the Avs still would have scored 5 goals a game. The Jets were nowhere good enough as a team throughout the series.
Helly was phenomenal…
Pionk on the other hand, yikes. He had one of the worst playoffs a player could have. And the rest of the D corps wasn’t far behind.
Thats on the defending foward. How does a puck make it through 4 guys.
Everyone in this sub giving Helle a free pass, methinks.
To be sure, the Jets overall defence was awful, but Helle was Also Not Great.
I think the best stat to illustrate this is Goals Saved Above Expected, which for Helle was a whopping -5 over the playoffs, far and away the lowest among all tenders in the post season. In other words, an *average* goaltender would be expected to save additional 5 goals *if he faced the same shots that Helle did*.
Would five additional saves make the difference between beating the Avs and losing? Probably not. But if Helle was back in regular form, that might have been 10 additional saves over those 5 games. That puts the Jets on much more equal footing with Colorado.
Jets players didn’t show up for their goalie is what happened
In the 2024 playoffs to date, Hellebuyck has both the most goals allowed AND the most saves. Absolutely he could have played better, but the man was also hung out to dry against a super-skilled Avs team that found their playoff gear and didn’t let up… and it certainly didn’t help that in front of him the Jets and their coaches seemed utterly unable (unwilling?) to adapt to the pressure and intensity that the Avs brought.
Helle for sure had some saves that NEEDED to happen and didn’t- I don’t think anyone is without fault here-but I think the bigger problem is that he’s behind a system that did not adjust to letting one of the best offensive teams in the NHL walk in on him and go full bore, basically unopposed, for 40+ shots per game.
Leafs fan who’s still nervous about our goaltending. Would you guys take Marner for Helle?
We have Samsonov, Woll, and Matt Murray and would throw one in with trade. All players can shine but none are consistent. Murray is far removed from his cup years.