{"id":455818,"date":"2026-02-12T17:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455818\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:13:12","slug":"connor-hellebuyck-to-start-team-usas-opening-game-vs-latvia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455818\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Hellebuyck to start Team USA\u2019s opening game vs. Latvia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Connor Hellebuyck will get the start as the United States opens its Olympic tournament on Thursday against Latvia. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Winnipeg Jets netminder was also the starter for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off last winter, starting three of four games, including the loss to Canada in the tournament final. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He gets the nod once again over Dallas Stars netminder Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 32-year-old Hellebuyck has a 13-16-7 record with the Jets this season and is on pace to finish with the worst save percentage of his career at .900 with a 2.79 goals-against average. He missed time earlier this season due to an operation on his knee. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Oettinger has a 23-10-4 record with an .897 save percentage and a 2.73 GAA in 37 games with the Stars this season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Swayman is enjoying the statistically strongest season of the three with a 22-12-3 record with a .903 save percentage and a 2.89 GAA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Following Thursday\u2019s game, the Americans will have a day off before facing Denmark on Saturday and will then face Germany on Sunday in their final preliminary round game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Hellebuyck will get the start as the United States opens its Olympic tournament on Thursday against Latvia.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,32468,5,33167,55376,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-455818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-connor-hellebuyck-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476945","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jake-oettinger-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479979","12":"tag-jeremy-swayman-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8480280","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116058784079930260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}