Connor Hellebuyck had not played a competitive game since April 13, had missed the Winnipeg Jets‘ entire training camp during his holdout, and had been with the New Jersey Devils for all of four days. The reasonable expectation was rust.
He stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced in Dallas on Tuesday as New Jersey won 5-1.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe was asked about it afterwards and didn’t bother with qualifiers.
“I thought he was exceptional. I don’t think we could’ve asked for much more from him here today,” Keefe said, per Devils reporter Amanda Stein. “And you can kind of see why he was pushing to play, because he’s very much just physically ready.”
That last part was a nod to Monday, when Hellebuyck had told reporters at his first practice that he was ready to play that night and only the coaching staff was stopping him.
Connor Hellebuyck’s Devils debut:
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Shots faced | 18 |
| Saves | 17 |
| Save percentage | .944 |
How did Connor Hellebuyck play in his Devils debut?
Well enough that his coach struggled to find anything to improve on, and the compliment Keefe reached for had nothing to do with the saves.
“Not only seems like he’s in mid-season form, but seems like he’s been here a long time,” Keefe said. “He’s got tremendous level of confidence, which is for good reason. He’s earned that. And he showed that he’s been doing all the work necessary to be ready, as he said he was.”
READ MORE: Hellebuyck’s parting words to Winnipeg have backfired
Hellebuyck himself pointed the credit the other way, describing a night where his new teammates gave him almost nothing to deal with.
“I thought the guys in front of me just played a perfect game for me to get acclimated. Low amount of shots, blocking everything, keep everything to the outside, let me see things, let me touch the puck a lot,” he said. “I got to work through a little bit of rust, but I thought it was just a perfect game top to bottom.”
New Jersey are in Colorado on Wednesday on the second night of a back-to-back, which likely means Jake Allen rather than Hellebuyck. He plays in Winnipeg on November 10.
Read more:
