![\"Bird's-eye](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2261838180.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMILAN \u2014 Connor Hellebuyck looks angry. Like, all the time. There\u2019s just something about that steely glare, the way his eyebrows dip in the middle, the way the tiny muscles at the corners of his mouth don\u2019t seem capable of going up. This is a very serious man.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s almost jarring to hear Hellebuyck use a word like \u201cfun.\u201d It\u2019s akin to someone rapidly speaking in an unfamiliar language dropping in a name you recognize. Wait, did I just hear that right?<\/p>\n
But believe it or not, Connor Hellebuyck is having fun in Milan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is exciting,\u201d he said, with absolutely zero excitement in his voice. \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
Strange cat, this Hellebuyck. His Zen-like calmness in net is part of what makes him arguably the best goaltender on the planet. He never flails, never panics, never seems to scramble. He\u2019s always in the right place, always making the difficult look routine through savvy anticipation and flawless mechanics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love his confidence, I love his calmness,\u201d said United States teammate Matthew Tkachuk. \u201cIt\u2019s exactly what you want in a No. 1 goalie.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the stillness masks a competitive ferocity that drives him to almost fanatical levels. He doesn\u2019t smolder, he burns. Hellebuyck elicited chuckles last spring when he said, without a trace of irony in his voice, that he has probably studied the art and science of goaltending more than any person \u201cin this world.\u201d But he wasn\u2019t kidding. He really does take his job that seriously. What he defines as \u201cfun\u201d is that pursuit of perfection.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s come pretty darn close to finding it.<\/p>\n
At 32 years old, Hellebuyck has already cemented his place as one of the most talented goalies the league has ever seen. He\u2019s one of just 13 goalies in NHL history with three Vezina trophies, tied with the likes of Patrick Roy, Glenn Hall and Tony Esposito. He\u2019s one of just eight who have won the Hart Trophy as the league\u2019s most valuable player, and one of just three this century. He has saved 122 more goals than expected over the last three full seasons \u2014 41 more than second-place Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders, per Evolving Hockey.<\/p>\n
Hellebuyck\u2019s resume and reputation from October through early April is unimpeachable. It\u2019s those pesky spring months that have been the issue. His playoff performance over those same three seasons is rather ghastly. In 23 playoff games, he\u2019s given up 13 more goals than expected, 47th out of 47 goalies who appeared in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 postseasons. His .922 save percentage from 2022-2025 is tied for best in the league, but in the playoffs, it dropped to .872, bad enough for 39th place. The Winnipeg Jets won just one series over those three postseasons, and Hellebuyck understandably drew the most scrutiny as the team\u2019s best player.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n A coronation in Milan might give the rest of the hockey world some confidence in Hellebuyck the next time the stakes are raised. (Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Hellebuyck\u2019s inability (so far) to win the big one has been as much a part of his story as his regular-season dominance. An injury this season cost him a month, and the Jets look like they\u2019re going to miss the playoffs, meaning he\u2019ll have to wait another year to shed that label as a big-game failure.<\/p>\n
Unless he can do it in Milan.<\/p>\n
Would the image of Hellebuyck with an Olympic gold medal slung around his neck \u2014 having conquered Sweden, having conquered Canada \u2014 be enough to change the narrative, to rewrite his legacy, to prove him a winner?<\/p>\n
As the Olympic tournament enters the quarterfinal round on Wednesday, that\u2019s the kind of rarefied air the eight teams left have reached. This is legacy stuff, the kind of thing they put in the first line of your obituary \u2014 or the first line of your Hockey Hall of Fame plaque. It\u2019s a lot to wrap your brain around, and some players choose not to try. That mental burden can motivate you or crush you, and all athletes \u2014 from figure skater Ilia Malinin to snowboarder Eileen Gu to every NHL player on the United States, Canada and Sweden rosters \u2014 feel it.<\/p>\n
How they handle it varies. Germany\u2019s Nico Sturm tries to ignore it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all deal with the pressure a little different,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cI always like to not let the moment get too big. You\u2019re at the Olympics and you\u2019re one win away from having a chance to play for a medal. But there\u2019s no point in (spending) the next 20 hours telling yourself that, because you\u2019re going to go crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweden coach Sam Hallam tries to use it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that you remind yourself at times where you are,\u201d he said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t Game 63 in the regular season. This is once every four years. Just embrace that as motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
American Vincent Trocheck tries to focus it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next game is part of that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to worry about that one. You can\u2019t get to the semifinal game without winning the quarterfinal game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hellebuyck? He\u2019s, well, calm about it. If the burden of history \u2014 and of his reputation \u2014 weighs on him at all, he certainly isn\u2019t showing it. When discussing Wednesday\u2019s quarterfinal against Sweden, he very much sounds like he\u2019s discussing Game 63 of the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it\u2019s one day at a time,\u201d he said when asked about it. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying myself and trying to get better. All I can do is put my best foot forward every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
That chill confidence is why his teammates, both in Winnipeg and in Milan, like playing in front of him so much. Asked what he learned about Hellebuyck at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, Dylan Larkin said that he\u2019s \u201ca gamer,\u201d adding there\u2019s no one else he\u2019d rather have in net. And Hellebuyck was excellent at the 4 Nations, posting a tournament-best .932 save percentage and allowing just five goals in three starts.<\/p>\n
But he didn\u2019t win. Jordan Binnington and Canada did. And while that blame hardly lies at Hellebuyck\u2019s feet, the fact is Binnington made one more big save than he did. Binnington stopped Auston Matthews in overtime, Hellebuyck didn\u2019t stop Connor McDavid. Three months later, he gave up five or more goals in four of his 13 playoff starts, losing to the Dallas Stars in Round 2 after barely escaping the St. Louis Blues in Round 1. The talk of Hellebuyck\u2019s big-game struggles was never louder.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s all fair. Hellebuyck\u2019s trophy room is as impressive as any player\u2019s in the NHL. But they\u2019re all individual, all for the regular season. There\u2019s no Stanley Cup. And there\u2019s no gold medal. Not yet, at least.<\/p>\n
No label is more offensive to a professional athlete than that of \u201cchoker.\u201d It\u2019s a term that\u2019s probably too harsh for Hellebuyck, who is not solely to blame for the Jets\u2019 inability to get past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. But it\u2019s not far off, either. Sports fans traffic in hyperbole the way Hellebuyck traffics in monotone clich\u00e9s. So the label will follow him until he rips it off in triumph.<\/p>\n
Would a gold medal be enough, or would the skepticism follow him into Winnipeg\u2019s next playoff series, whenever that may be? Probably the latter, if we\u2019re being honest. In the hockey world, the silver of Lord Stanley still trumps the gold of the Olympic Games. But it certainly wouldn\u2019t hurt the public perception. It could, at the very least, nudge the narrative.<\/p>\n
Internally? Hellebuyck doesn\u2019t seem to feel any of it \u2014 the weight, the pressure, the stress. This is not a man who needs more confidence. To steal a phrase from him, perhaps no one in this world has as much confidence as Hellebuyck does. But a coronation in Milan might give the rest of the hockey world some confidence in him the next time the stakes are raised.<\/p>\n
And who knows? It might even make him smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Connor Hellebuyck looks angry. Like, all the time. There\u2019s just something about that steely glare, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,54125,4,2602,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-461919","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-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-winnipeg","14":"tag-winnipeg-jets","15":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116091382226015820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461919","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=461919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}