{"id":461801,"date":"2026-02-18T07:25:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461801\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:25:21","slug":"connor-hellebuyck-gives-team-usa-goalie-edge-in-battle-vs-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461801\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Hellebuyck gives Team USA goalie edge in battle vs. Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Team USA\u2019s inextricable advantage in these Olympics, and certainly over Team Sweden in Wednesday\u2019s quarterfinal<\/a>, resides in their net.<\/p>\n

Connor Hellebuyck is having a down year for the Winnipeg Jets. You wouldn\u2019t know it based on his play for Team USA so far in this tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a gamer. I believe in him and no one else I\u2019d want to have in the net than him,\u201d Dylan Larkin said of Hellebuyck, who will almost assuredly start the rest of the way for the Americans. \u201cI learned quickly last year at 4 Nations, giving up a big chance or something happens and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, we got that guy.\u2019 It\u2019s nice when you have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through two starts at the Olympics \u2014 Jeremy Swayman played Team USA\u2019s second game of the preliminary round against Denmark \u2014 Hellebuyck has stopped 40 of 42 shots, looking at ease.<\/p>\n

Sweden, meanwhile, has a serious dilemma on its hands as to who should even start Wednesday. Jacob Markstrom played Tuesday against Latvia and has appeared to overtake Filip Gustavsson as the No. 1, but it would be a lot to play him twice in two days. Gustavsson struggled in both of his two starts. Jesper Wallstedt has yet to play at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\"ConnorConnor Hellebuyck makes a save during Team USA\u2019s win over Germany on Feb. 15, 2026. Reuters<\/p>\n

There are no such issues for Team USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exciting,\u201d Hellebuyck said. \u201cThis is why I play the game. I don\u2019t chase the money, I don\u2019t chase the fame. I play for fun. And these are those moments that I really enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team USA coach Mike Sullivan started his availability Tuesday by commenting on the shooting at a hockey rink in Pawtucket, R.I.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat certainly is close to home for me, growing up in Massachusetts, two of our coaches are from Rhode Island and what a terrible tragedy and something that hits close to home,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI just wanted to acknowledge the incident, and let everyone know how sorry we are and that we feel for them, and for their friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IceTeam USA and Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan Reuters<\/p>\n

The boards at Milan\u2019s Santagiulia Arena were changed to a lighter blue and green color, reportedly following player feedback. <\/p>\n

There was speculation that the darker color led to Jeremy Swayman losing the puck on the goal he allowed from just inside the red line against Denmark, though the Team USA netminder denied that postgame.<\/p>\n

Brock Nelson donned a fishbowl helmet at Team USA\u2019s practice, while Charlie McAvoy\u2019s fishbowl was gone. <\/p>\n

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

Coach Mike Sullivan confirmed Nelson suffered a facial injury.<\/p>\n

Josh Morrissey and Brad Marchand were both full participants at Team Canada\u2019s practice after missing the past two games with injury. <\/p>\n

Marchand is available for Wednesday, per coach Jon Cooper, who said he would need to see about Morrissey.<\/p>\n

Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Bennett missed Canada\u2019s practice with what was described as maintenance. They are expected to be good to go Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Team USA\u2019s inextricable advantage in these Olympics, and certainly over Team Sweden in Wednesday\u2019s quarterfinal, resides…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,4,2602,43,77,18,5288,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-461801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-winnipeg","14":"tag-winnipeg-jets","15":"tag-winnipegjets","16":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116090446605876176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461801","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=461801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}