What Went Wrong: A Tale of Two Hellebuycks

Six teams remained on this day, and half of them were Canadian. I found myself pulling for a Canadian-dominated Final Four, with three of the four teams being from the nation sitting above this one. It's the most that could possibly happen, considering the fact that the Metropolitan Division has no Canadian teams. The Winnipeg Jets actually finished with the best record in the league for the first time in their 26-year franchise history. The team looked like a big favorite to at least get to the Cup Final.

And then... Playoff Hellebuyck had to emerge... again.

It took a while, but the faulty play showed up in Game Three against the Blues, and continued from there, but despite this, the Jets survived. Barely. The Central Final against the Stars started rough for Winnipeg; a Mikko Rantanen hat trick in Game One, and a Mikael Granlund hat trick in Game Four. The Jets did stay alive after Game Five, but they couldn't do it in Game Six. Season over just 93 seconds into overtime in Game Six. Holy moley.

While it's very true that the refs' favoritism towards Dallas was part of Winnipeg's undoing, the main catalyst of this playoff exit was Playoff Hellebuyck being a thing yet again. We have to talk about this.

I, for the life of me, will never be able to figure out how one of the best goalies in the NHL could turn into such a pumpkin when it counts. Connor Hellebuyck won the Jennings Trophy for the second straight year. He won his second Vezina Trophy last season. He's definitely one of the top goalies in the league. Yet for some reason, when playoff time comes, he curls into a ball. He makes Mike Smith look like prime Martin Brodeur. Two years ago, he was very shaky against the Golden Knights, and I'm shocked that the Avalanche weren't charged with torture for what we did to him last year.

So yeah, Playoff Hellebuyck is a thing, but this year, it was different. This year, we kinda saw two Hellebuycks. At home, he looked good, and some games saw him play like the Hellebuyck we know. On the road? Disatrous. He was pulled in each of his three starts against St. Louis. He gave up two hat tricks against Dallas. Hellebuyck did have two shutouts, but the rest of his numbers: 6-7, 3.08 GAA, .866 SV%. I swear, Playoff Hellebuyck is the NHL equivalent of Playoff Kershaw in baseball.

Game Six was an emotional one for Mark Scheifele; as he played just hours after learning that his father passed away. Scheifele had Winnipeg's lone goal in Game Six, and he finished with 11 points (5G/6A) in 11 games, one of two players putting up a point per game in this year's playoffs. The other to do so was Kyle Connor, who led the team with 17 points (5G/12A). Nikolaj Ehlers finished with seven points, with five of them being goals. Neal Pionk (G/6A) and Mason Appleton (all assists) also had seven points, with Pionk's total leading Jet defensemen by one over Josh Morrissey's six points (all assists). The depth was there, but Hellebuyck's consistency disappeared.

And with that, the Presidents' Trophy curse claims another victim. This is the 12th season that has passed since the last time a Presidents' Trophy winner won the Cup that same year (Blackhawks in 2013), and the New York Rangers remain the only Presidents' Trophy winning team to advance past Round 2 (doing so in 2014 and 2024). Also, the Jets were the last Cupless team remaining, so a first time champion will not be crowned this season, after four of the last seven seasons have seen teams win their first Cup. The Jets have some work to do this offseason. From the looks of it, they really don't need to get any big free agents or make a trade. They just need to figure out the root of Hellebuyck's playoff problems and try to solve them. Hey, Clayton Kershaw exorcised his playoff demons and ended up winning, so there is hope.

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