Olympic Daily: Connor Hellebuyck's golden moment
The Americans have won gold thanks to their goalie.
Twenty years ago I played a game in a Metro Detroit summer hockey league against Connor Hellebuyck.
He was a 14-year-old, soon-to-be freshman at Walled Lake Northern High School and I was an 18-year-old getting ready to head off to college hoping to maybe play some club hockey at Bowling Green.
I don’t remember the score of the game, it was summer hockey and there wasn’t much defense played, but I remember shaking hands with Hellebuyck after the game and we laughed about that memory a couple years back when I caught up with the now Winnipeg Jets goalie for a story at my former employer.
Two decades later, we both played hockey early this morning. I was up for my weekly Sunday morning skate, we hit the ice at 7:30 am, while Hellebuyck was playing in a much more important game over in Italy.
And Hellebuyck, given the stakes and the stage, put together one of the most impressive goaltending performances we’ve ever seen.
For the first time in 46 years, since something more commonly known as the “Miracle on Ice,” the Americans have won the gold medal in men’s hockey. Hellebuyck made 41 saves and without his performance, Team USA probably loses this game 4-1 as they were outplayed and caved in consistently by the Canadians.
Canada was the better team today, but Hellebuyck was the best player on the planet. When he goes into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and he will, this game will lead the resume.
As a goalie nerd, my favorite part about the Hellebuyck performance here is how it all came together. The mix of quality and quantity, how Hellebuyck’s elite play reading and positioning laid the foundation, but there was still some needed razzle-dazzle, most notably the immaculate paddle save on Devon Toews that was capture in this image.
Remember Hellebuyck typically doesn’t make highlight reel saves, because he typically doesn’t need to. He’s a very boring goalie because his strengths are built on beating shooters to their spots and playing deeper in the crease. Brian Boucher had a good point on the NBC broadcast about how because of Hellebuyck’s positioning he was able to patiently defuse the 5-on-3 Canadian power play.
If there’s been a knock on Hellebuyck in his career it’s been the lack of big-time moments like this, the regular season excellence that’s shriveled up in the playoffs, and how when there’s been an opportunity to take the next step, legacy wise, he’d folded.
That’s not the case anymore, for the first time since Jim Craig stopped 36 of 39 shots against the Soviet Union in 1980, an American goalie was the best player in the world in the most important international moment.
For me it’s fun to look back on, to think about Hellebuyck’s journey not only from playing high school hockey in Michigan, a path that is now devoid of truly elite talent because of the AAA system, but through the NAHL in Odessa, Texas and the college hockey to what he’s become now, it’s pretty fun.
He’s never been exciting, that was never his style, and for that reason he’s been underrated even when winning an NHL MVP award. It’s a lesson in goaltending about play reading and patter recognition, and when you combine that with a bit of flash, you get that performance we witnessed today.
Thanks Shap. Don’t forget that slick, slight of hand goal by Mr B as well. That took some enormous pressure off of the USA for quite a long period of time knowing if/when Canada would likely score, hopefully at worst they would still be tied. Bennington was definitely “more beatable” than our tender, but the real chances to score were at least 3:1 in Canada’s favor and Hely was phenomenal. And hockey is also played with a round anodized disc which seems to be on-end half of the time, so you never know what the pill might do, hockey has its luck and mystery that way. Certainly one hell of a great game for both sides and one that will always be remembered by both sides and neighboring countries.
Love reading and the perspective and insights