{"id":475603,"date":"2026-02-27T19:13:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475603\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T19:13:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:13:33","slug":"analysis-more-expected-of-1-of-winnipeg-jets-2-olympic-gold-medallists-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475603\/","title":{"rendered":"ANALYSIS: More expected of 1 of Winnipeg Jets\u2019 2 Olympic gold medallists – Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you\u2019ve ever held an Olympic gold medal, you can\u2019t help but be impressed with a couple of things.<\/p>\n

Firstly, there\u2019s the pure weight of the award. It is certainly heavier than you might\u2019ve imagined. And, secondly, we normally see just one side of the medal. I can assure you that the designers have given great consideration to both sides of the medal.<\/p>\n

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And like the medal, there are two sides to the way the two different Jets players who won gold medals have managed their success.<\/p>\n

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On one side, there was Kyle Connor \u2014 under-utilized by Mike Sullivan\u2019s group in Milan \u2014 who, after celebrating the gold-medal win for the U.S. men\u2019s hockey Olympic team, his commitment to his two families, his immediate one and the Jets, became his priorities. Connor\u2019s commitment to the Jets was on full view in Vancouver Wednesday night. If the Jets are to make one last gasp to the Stanley Cup playoffs, Connor\u2019s skill, speed and savvy will be a big part of that story.<\/p>\n

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On the other side, Connor Hellebuyck\u2019s commitment shouldn\u2019t be questioned either. There is a real possibility that this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the goaltender and his American teammates.<\/p>\n

In so many ways, it transcends the hockey world. For many of us \u2026 particularly those of us who aren\u2019t elite athletes or Americans, we may not understand what has gone on in the past few days. However, we should respect it.<\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong with expressing your patriotism. There is nothing wrong with celebrating long and hard. But it\u2019s also not wrong to wonder if Hellebuyck can win a playoff series for the Jets. What he did in Milan was exceptional. He was certainly the best player on the ice for both teams last Sunday.<\/p>\n

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But (because there\u2019s always a but), just because Hellebuyck \u201cthe American\u201d succeeded at the Olympics does not mean he has done it as Hellebuyck \u201cthe Jet.\u201d His play in Italy was beyond reproach. He deserved the gold. Now he has to prove that he can do it for the silver in this league.<\/p>\n

Being an Olympic champion is a tremendous honour, but last I checked, Hellebucyk plays for the Winnipeg Jets again. And as of today, that\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size If you\u2019ve ever held an Olympic gold medal, you can\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,4,43,77,18,387,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-475603","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-sports","12":"tag-winnipeg","13":"tag-winnipeg-jets","14":"tag-winnipeg-sports","15":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116144191472557641","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475603","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=475603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}