{"id":470717,"date":"2026-02-25T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470717\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T05:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:30:14","slug":"usa-hockeys-connor-hellebuyck-enjoying-life-as-secretary-of-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470717\/","title":{"rendered":"USA hockey’s Connor Hellebuyck enjoying life as ‘Secretary of Defense’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor Hellebuyck\u2019s resume has only gotten bigger in the past few days. <\/p>\n

Now he can add a new title: \u201cSecretary of Defense.\u201d He seems to be taking a liking to it, too.<\/p>\n

The United States men\u2019s hockey team\u2019s goaltender cemented his legacy on the international level<\/a> on Sunday when he backstopped the Americans to their first gold medal in 46 years on Sunday. He was sharp all game long, stopping 41 of 42 shots to frustrate the Canadians time and time again. <\/p>\n

Fans quickly dubbed him the new \u201cSecretary of Defense\u201d for his efforts, and on Tuesday, he embraced the name as he posed for a photo on the team\u2019s flight from Miami<\/a> to Washington, D.C., with his gold medal and a plaque bearing the Secretary of Defense seal.<\/p>\n

United States goalkeeper Connor Hellebuyck (37) uses his stick to block a shot by Canada\u2019s Devon Toews (7) during the third period of the men\u2019s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

Connor Hellebuyck enjoying his new title of \u201cSecretary of Defense. Vincent Trocheck\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck was one of 20 Team USA members to head to the White House on Tuesday<\/a> afternoon before their expected attendance at the State of the Union. <\/p>\n

The three-time Vezina Trophy winner with the Jets as the NHL\u2019s top netminder has been dogged for his playoff performances, with his .903 save percentage in the postseason far below his career regular-season mark (.917).<\/p>\n

But Hellebuyck rose to the occasion in Milan, with a 1.18 goals-against average and a .956 save percentage during the Olympic run. In the final contest, he stopped Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini on breakaways and, in the second period, made the save of his life when he reached out with his stick to stop defenseman Devon Toews from scoring a wide-open goal in the crease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came into this game, probably one of the biggest of my career, and I really wasn\u2019t that nervous,\u201d Hellebuyck told reporters afterward. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe second I woke up this morning, I felt I was doing everything right. \u2026 It kind of translated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor Hellebuyck led Team USA to gold. REUTERS<\/p>\n

USA blue-liner Charlie McAvoy said Hellebuyck looked a lot like the 1980 Miracle on Ice\u2019s goaltender.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe channeled his Jimmy Craig tonight,\u201d McAvoy said after the win. \u201cHe was unbelievable. He had so many saves, time and time again. Like the one in the third on Toews, we\u2019re going down the bench saying \u2018That\u2019s the one.\u2019 The TSN Turning Point. And then he made a couple more. There were times in this game for sure when we were on our heels. It\u2019s hockey. You need good goaltending and we got it. He\u2019s the best player in the league, and we have him on our side.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Hellebuyck\u2019s resume has only gotten bigger in the past few days. Now he can add a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,2602,56888,43,3255,422,9595,2787,31286],"class_list":["post-470717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-hockey","tag-olympics","tag-secretary-of-defense","tag-sports","tag-team-usa","tag-usa-hockey","tag-white-house","tag-winter-olympics","tag-winter-olympics-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116129630064170157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470717","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=470717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}