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GDT: May 1 • USA vs. Finland

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FiLe said:
For what it's worth, I was emulating the thoughts of other people calling him bad.

I admit, I don't know much about the guy myself, but if he's deemed good enough to start for USA, he can't be completely sucky.
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As a Jets fan, we're all hoping for that. ;)
 
FiLe said:
For what it's worth, I was emulating the thoughts of other people calling him bad.

I admit, I don't know much about the guy myself, but if he's deemed good enough to start for USA, he can't be completely sucky.
Click to expand...

He's generally considered to be one of the best goalie prospects in the world.

His story is actually pretty funny. He was drafted out of the NAHL as an unranked player (and unknown, the reaction on our boards when he was drafted was a unanimous "Who?"), scouted by one of our scouts who went to a game with him in it while scouting another player.

After that, he went to UMass-Lowell, expected to be a backup. He had a mediocre first game, so he didn't play his second game until 10 games in to the season. Then he started performing. He started 6 of the next 16 games, then he started every single one of the last 16 games that season. He finished his first season of college hockey as a rookie starter for UMass-Lowell, with a .952 sv% (yes, that's ridiculously good in the NCAA as well).

In his 2nd college season, he was the appointed starter from the beginning. He started 29 games out of 41, finished the season with a sv% of .941, finished his career with an NCAA record of .946 and as many shutouts as losses in his college career. He also won the inaugural Mike Richter Award.

In the off season, he signed with the Jets, and was supposed to split duty with Peter Budaj in the AHL this season. That... didn't happen.

Between November 9th and April 4th (called up to the Jets for insurance for the playoffs, the IceCaps were out of it) he started 51 games out of 58. He burned out towards the end, which led to him sporting a .921 sv%. But for the most part of the season, he was absolutely amazing, and the only reason why an absolutely horrendous IceCaps team was in the playoff hunt up until late March.

I worry about three things with Hellebuyck for this tournament:

1. He started his first game in almost a month against Austria. He looked a bit rusty.

2. I don't know if he has recovered from his season in the AHL yet. He played in 58 games, which is more than his previous 2 seasons combined. And as I said, he burned out toward the end, and hasn't had time off to reload.

3. The big ice. I don't think he has ever played on it in a game before this tournament.

He's a good one though. He's big, good with angles and very boring to watch. But he's very good at saving pucks.

P.S.
That ended up a bit longer than I intended it to.
tl;dr, Hellebuyck is a very promising young goaltender, but I'm not sure how he'll perform in this tournament.
 
Romang67 said:
3. The big ice. I don't think he has ever played on it in a game before this tournament.
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American players who have played quite a bit in the NCAA usually adapt well to the european ice surface, I don't know if it is because of hockey is played there or if the surface is somewhat bigger than in the NHL?
 
QnebO said:
Not sure why. The game was mess in the last game. I hope Kojo gets his coaching going on magically here.
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For what it's worth, our lineup has been improved since then. Only line that's stayed intact from that game is the Kontiola unit, and they had no issues back then.

Btw, another fun thing to note about the US goalie: "Helle" means "heatwave" in Finnish. So I bet many Finns are hoping he's not worth his name tonight.
 
Guys chill. Steve Moses was the best goalscorer in the world this season if you dont count NHL+Pulkkinen. He will show you.

Go Suomi!
 
11 players on the US team has never been in an IIHF tournament before.

So they're young, unproven on the big ice, unproven in tournaments like this...:laugh:
 
Wow- that was a defensive lapse from the States there. Lucky Lepisto didn't get ahold of that earlier.
 
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