Connor Hellebuck - Worst Playoff Goalie in NHL history

[Icarium]

Bobrovsky was notoriously bad in the playoffs until he wasn't. Maybe Hellebuyck can do it too.

 

[9GWG9]

I would trade both skinners and my first born to have him on the Oilers!

 

[CupofOil]

Helleybuck is the epitome of "goalies are voodoo". Vezina level regular season, then Stuart Skinner level postseason the last 3.

Ullmark - great regular season, poor playoffs, Keumper the same, Adin Hill coming out of nowhere to win a Cup, Swayman getting the big contract then having a terrible year, Stolarz having a great year and being the #1 on a contending team in the playoffs, Binnington winning a Cup then being a pile of inconsistency thereafter, Oettinger outdueled by Skinner in the playoffs last year etc. etc.
You never know which goalie you'll get in any series. Hellebuyck could easily bounce back and make this thread look stupid. Voodoo man, voo....doo

 

[jetsforever]

No question he was terrible in Games 3-4 and last year's playoffs (although some of that was on the team)
He's also had great playoff runs though so who knows
Seems mental at the moment so hope he can lock in for Game 5

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Some goalies get a bad rap for being bad playoff goalies due to bad puck luck, team D crapping its pants come playoff time, and smallish sample size.

Hellebuyck could have claimed a couple of those things earlier in his career. At this point it's bizarre the gap between his reg and post season play. Definitely one of the worst in history in terms of that gap. I feel bad for the guy. Would be good if he could get that monkey off his back.

 

[bobholly39]

Bobrovsky was notoriously bad in the playoffs until he wasn't. Maybe Hellebuyck can do it too.

That's actually a great parallel.

After all - who knows. Jets are still in it, it's a 2-2 tie. Helle can literally stiill win the series, and win the smythe/cup this very year.

I predicted before round 1 Jets would choke and so would Helle though, so I'm not exactly surprised.

I used to call Bob out a lot when he was failing repeatedly in playoffs, but I also 100% gave him big time credit for his last 2 runs. We'll see if Helle can do the same, whether still this year, or in future.

 

[overlords]

so you're an expert?

 

[Mr Nogatco]

Helleybuck is the epitome of "goalies are voodoo". Vezina level regular season, then Stuart Skinner level postseason the last 3.

Ullmark - great regular season, poor playoffs, Keumper the same, Adin Hill coming out of nowhere to win a Cup, Swayman getting the big contract then having a terrible year, Stolarz having a great year and being the #1 on a contending team in the playoffs, Binnington winning a Cup then being a pile of inconsistency thereafter, Oettinger outdueled by Skinner in the playoffs last year etc. etc.
You never know which goalie you'll get in any series. Hellebuyck could easily bounce back and make this thread look stupid. Voodoo man, voo....doo

IMO the “voodoo” theory refers to otherwise inexplicable year-to-year variance.

Hellebuyck’s been consistent for a while now: great regular season, bad playoffs.

And instead of being inexplicable, he has specific stylistic tendencies you can point to that don’t translate well to the shift in play style we see in postseason hockey.

 

[Louie the Blue]

Helleybuck is the epitome of "goalies are voodoo". Vezina level regular season, then Stuart Skinner level postseason the last 3.

Ullmark - great regular season, poor playoffs, Keumper the same, Adin Hill coming out of nowhere to win a Cup, Swayman getting the big contract then having a terrible year, Stolarz having a great year and being the #1 on a contending team in the playoffs, Binnington winning a Cup then being a pile of inconsistency thereafter, Oettinger outdueled by Skinner in the playoffs last year etc. etc.
You never know which goalie you'll get in any series. Hellebuyck could easily bounce back and make this thread look stupid. Voodoo man, voo....doo

Binnington has been fairly consistent since the Cup, with his worst season statistically coinciding with the worst Blues season of the last 12+ years…He had one regular season that was outright bad (2021-2022) and one bad PO (2020 in the bubble vs Vancouver). Binnington is an average to slightly above average starter who has the potential to be beyond that in stretches and IMO what he did in the regular season last year was substantially better than his performance in the 2019 regular season and should’ve been a finalist for the Vezina.

 

[Patrik26]

Striking fear into his playoff opponents. Clown.

 

[Mrb1p]

Striking fear into his playoff opponents. Clown.

View attachment 1025842

The face of a guy that doesn't know he's about to be the sole reason his team loses once again in the first round

 

[sr edler]

Jets as a team doesn't strike me a playoff squad on a whole. Scheifele's been good in the playoffs at certain points, but you need more than that to go any lengthy distance.

Regarding their goalie, I dunno, some of his post-game playoff comments from last year were a bit weird, can say that much.

 

[voyageur]

Jets as a team doesn't strike me a playoff squad on a whole. Scheifele's been good in the playoffs at certain points, but you need more than that to go any lengthy distance.

Regarding their goalie, I dunno, some of his post-game playoff comments from last year were a bit weird, can say that much.

The Jets had swagger when they were running Buff, Trouba, Myers all in their primes down the right side of their defense, and Maurice could push Scheifele, Stastny, Lowry and Little down the middle.

It's a different team now. Regular season wins on special teams domination are less likely with fewer calls and missing elements. Without the killer PP the Jets identity is a solid grinding game, but the elite finishers and heavy net crashers are maybe not there with this team.

There's so many things that are different with a regular than the playoffs, when teams can use a lot of video to find weaknesses. For Hellebuyck it's confidence. If he has it, he's hard to beat.

 

[WATTAGE4451]

Helle, Vasi and Darcy were all nominated for the Vezina and none of the three are performing particularly well in these playoffs. I want to projectile vomit at the thought of Calvin Pickard outperforming Kuemper but here we are.

Kuemper has played fine. He was bad in game 1 but they won that game anyway. He was hung out to dry in game 3 and the Oilers having near 5 xgoals shows that darcy giving up 5 wasnt that vad. Kuemper was the only reason the kings were even close in games 4 and 5.

 

[syz]

Kuemper has played fine. He was bad in game 1 but they won that game anyway. He was hung out to dry in game 3 and the Oilers having near 5 xgoals shows that darcy giving up 5 wasnt that vad. Kuemper was the only reason the kings were even close in games 4 and 5.

Kuemper is near the bottom of the list for goals saved above expected but it's entirely due to game 1 of the series. Games 2-5 the Oilers have had an xGF of 20 and he's only given up 13. Remove game 1 and Kuemper is at the top of the board for the playoffs.

Vasi isn't really in the conversation either; he's hovering around even. Maybe not as good as usual for him but not exactly a detriment.

The standout BAD performances by the numbers have been Hellebuyck and Skinner. Adin Hill's numbers are creeping closer to them, and Ullmark was down there but is clawing his way back up.

 

[MrLunatik]

Hard to argue. His playoff stats are horrific.

bad and worst ever are vastly different

Dan Bouchard is probably the worst ever

 

[shello]

And people thought he was better than Price

 

[cbcwpg]

Watching the Jets vs Blues and I am amazed how big of a choker Helleybuck is come the playoffs.

He is probably the best goalie in the NHL since 05 if you look at just regular season hockey.

However, in the playoffs he just sells games and isn't stealing anything for the Jets besides their chances to win a game.

Since 2005, is Helleybuck the worst vezina winning playoff goaltender?

Being a Leafs fan makes you an expert at choking , so I guess I should take what you have to say as " knowing what you are talking about "

Career Playoff SV% Vezina Goalies

MAF - 0.911
Hellebuyck - 0.910
Bobrovsky - 0.905
Ullmark - 0.887

 

[WhiskeyEE]

Damn Skinner is the only goalie (30 min + played) with a worse sv% and GAA than Hellebuyck these playoffs.

 

[yurnxt]

Given past successful playoff performances Connor Hellebuyck has had and his consistent regular season success, is it POSSIBLE that this isn't a "jacked up between the ears" mental sort of issue but that instead it's performing poorly in a small sample size that happened to be the playoffs a couple few seasons in a row?

I mean like has Hellebuyck had 4 game or 6 game or whatever stretches in any regular season where he also performed very poorly but it's largely masked by an overall spectacular performance throughout a long season that keeps his stats in a much larger sample size really good?

Or is it possible that it isn't him succumbing to playoff pressure it's that he has too much workload during the regular season so he isn't as fresh for the playoffs? I think he's only starting 5-10 more games a year more than Binnington on average but maybe that helps explain why when he was younger playoff performance wasn't an issue but now that he's a bit older it is? Admittedly that seems like a stretch.

Or maybe it's between the ears hell I don't know just asking what others think about those other possibilities though most seem to be in the camp of "Playoff choker because he can't handle the pressure of the playoffs" camp.

 

[Mr Nogatco]

Given past successful playoff performances Connor Hellebuyck has had and his consistent regular season success, is it POSSIBLE that this isn't a "jacked up between the ears" mental sort of issue but that instead it's performing poorly in a small sample size that happened to be the playoffs a couple few seasons in a row?

I mean like has Hellebuyck had 4 game or 6 game or whatever stretches in any regular season where he also performed very poorly but it's largely masked by an overall spectacular performance throughout a long season that keeps his stats in a much larger sample size really good?

Or is it possible that it isn't him succumbing to playoff pressure it's that he has too much workload during the regular season so he isn't as fresh for the playoffs? I think he's only starting 5-10 more games a year more than Binnington on average but maybe that helps explain why when he was younger playoff performance wasn't an issue but now that he's a bit older it is? Admittedly that seems like a stretch.

Or maybe it's between the ears hell I don't know just asking what others think about those other possibilities though most seem to be in the camp of "Playoff choker because he can't handle the pressure of the playoffs" camp.

Seems like none of the above: he’s facing the kinds of chances that were largely prevented by Winnipeg in the regular season and are particularly challenging for his individual play style (big dude, deep in the net, average athleticism, vulnerable glove side/ high)

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

That success in regular season was never going to carry over to playoffs.

 

[Macbanan]

Good goalies often have stretches where they hover around 85% save percentage. I'm guessing in the ballpark of one in four of every set of 4-5 games during a season are in that category for most good goalies.

I think it's mostly just chance when they happen to cluster together in consecutive playoffs. Especially since Hellebuyck had 4 good post seasons before these last 3 bad ones.

But I don't know, maybe he was a great playoff goalie and just lost it but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

Impressive to be that consistently bad during the playoffs, while having great regular seasons...

 

[Whitesnake]

Yeah..Dobes would have already won that series...lolll