Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck catches the puck in front of Nashville Predators left wing Viktor Arvidsson on Friday, April 27, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn.Mark Humphrey/The Associated Press
Connor Hellebuyck brought to mind one of the old goalie Arturs Irbe’s great lines: “I play like wall.”
The Winnipeg Jets goaltender almost singlehandedly held off the Nashville Predators Friday night in the opening game of their second-round Western Conference NHL playoff series. By the end of the game, the Predators outshot the Jets 48-19 but Hellebuyck held them off for a 4-1 Jets win.
“He was awesome,” Jets forward Blake Wheeler said. “They were throwing everything at the net. What we were trying to do in front of him was just get bodies, get sticks, let him see things. You could tell early on if he was seeing the puck he was going to make the stops.”
But Jets centre Mark Scheifele, who scored two goals, insisted Hellebuyck didn’t steal the game for the Jets, even if he did appreciate the performance.
“There’s no steals in playoffs,” Scheifele said. “If you win, you win. It wasn’t pretty. It probably wasn’t how we drew it up. But we got the win and that’s the main focus.”
Jets head coach Paul Maurice was inclined the same way. The argument was for the most part the Jets kept the Predators away from the front of the net and let them bomb away from the perimeter but there sure were an awful lot of gold sweaters plowing through the slot in front of the Winnipeg net.
“No, I would not use that,” Maurice said of the word steal. “They put a lot of pucks to the net. But most of what was at our net was a heavy scrum. Lots of plays within two or three feet of the net which we’d like to clean up. But there certainly weren’t a lot of odd-man rushes or things like that of the real high-risk nature.
“We weren’t at our best, I’ll give you that. We can play better and I think we will as this series goes on. But we pay our goaltender, too.”
Earlier in the day, Maurice was asked if he was concerned his team would have trouble shaking the rust from a seven-day layoff in the first period. The last time the Jets played was a week ago Friday when they eliminated the Minnesota Wild in the first round. Maurice brought up his good friend Pete DeBoer, head coach of the San Jose Sharks, who were smoked 7-0 by the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday after an eight-day break.
When it came to how the Jets would respond after the opening faceoff Maurice said, “I think well but I’m sure Pete DeBoer felt the same way. You always worry about those things.”
As it turned out, Maurice was right to worry. The Predators, who were coming off a mere five-day sojourn from the first round of the playoffs, went at the Jets hard. Considering the size and style of both teams, a physical series was expected, and they did not disappoint.
However, Maurice’s Jets proved to be more like the Golden Knights than the Sharks, who fired away at Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury only to see the few shots coming the other way fill their net. By the end of the second period, the Jets had a 3-0 lead despite being outshot 36-16.
Hellebuyck was not affected by the layoff. He picked up his shutout streak from the 5-0 elimination game against the Wild and sailed on, frustrating the Predators, who pounded away at him all evening.
Hellebuyck did not give up a goal until 1:23 of the third period on the 38th Predators shot of the game. And it took a double-deflection to do it with the goal going to Kevin Fiala, which ended Hellebuyck’s shutout streak at an even 163 minutes.
Sure enough, he said a long rest between series is just what he likes.
“For me, no. I like the rest,” Hellebuyck said. “I like getting a little feel on the ice and just getting off. That feeds well into my game. Build the body back up, get the little tweaks out of there and then you’re ready to play.”
While he was careful about how he put it, it was clear the goaltender was not fully buying into the theory he did not really steal the game for his team.
“I was making saves tonight, that’s for sure,” Hellebuyck said. “It’s tough to really get into this one because it’s a long series ahead of us and I know they’re a great team over there and they’re going to push back.
“I don’t want to over-step myself and say something I shouldn’t. We’re really looking forward to this series. I don’t want to feed [the Predators] in any way but they were good.”
Naturally in a game where one team enjoyed such a large edge in play but lost there was some luck involved. When Wheeler took a goaltender-interference penalty at 15:38 it looked like the Predators were in position to cut into Winnipeg’s 2-0 lead and get back in the game.
Late in the power play, Nashville’s scoring ace Filip Forsberg got the puck in front of the open side of the Jets goal. But he fired it off the post and the Jets turned the rush up the ice as the penalty expired.
The Winnipeg rush ended when Scheifele’s long wrist shot found a corner of the Nashville net to make it 3-0 Jets on 14 shot. That made it one goal for each of the Jets’ top three lines. It also silenced the sellout crowd at Bridgestone Arena, which had been deafening all night. Scheifele made it two goals for his line when he scored into the empty net with 30 seconds left in the third period.
“I guess that’s how hockey goes, right?” Hellebuyck said. “Hit a post at one end, capitalize at the other. I guess that was the key tonight.”
Rinne was lifted after two periods, with backup Juuse Saros taking over in the Nashville goal at the start of the third period.