The New Jersey Devils announced on Sunday that Connor Hellebuyck won’t start against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, which left supporters there planning to direct their feelings at the visitors’ bench instead.
They may not get the chance. Jets beat writer Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press pointed out that Hellebuyck doesn’t sit on the bench on nights he isn’t playing.
“Connor Hellebuyck always stays in the room with the goalie coach when he’s not playing,” McIntyre wrote. “I assume the only time fans will see him is during pre-game warmup, assuming he comes out for that.”
Connor Hellebuyck with the Devils:
| Starts | Wins | Losses | Saves in Sunday’s shutout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 5 | 0 | 23 |
Will Hellebuyck be on the Devils bench in Winnipeg?
His routine on nights off has been the same for years, and nothing about Tuesday appears to have changed it. That leaves the warmup as the only likely sighting, and even that comes with a question mark attached.
It also raises a problem for the home club. The Jets would ordinarily mark the return of a goaltender who spent eleven seasons there with a video tribute, and nobody has worked out what you do with one of those when the player isn’t on the ice or behind the bench.
The reasoning for sitting him has been inconsistent. General manager Sunny Mehta‘s statement cited a reduction in the club’s expected win probability, which is difficult to square with Hellebuyck having won all five of his starts. Head coach Sheldon Keefe went somewhere else entirely.
“From our end of it, he’s playing his third game in six nights. He’s been at this for less than two weeks, and then after we finish this road game against Winnipeg, we go home,” Keefe said, pointing at two divisional games against Washington on November 12 and 14.
It would have been Hellebuyck’s fourth start in eight days. He stopped 23 shots in a 4-0 shutout of Toronto on Sunday, his first with the club.
He does have to face Winnipeg in one setting. Hellebuyck will meet reporters after the morning skate, at his own request, and has said he will finally explain why he asked to be traded.
McIntyre has since corrected one detail of his own post. Hellebuyck actually spends those games in the video room with team staff rather than with the goaltending coach, who is usually upstairs.
“But point is the same,” McIntyre wrote. “He’s never on bench, actually rinkside. I don’t expect that changes.”
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