Connor Hellebuyck ranked first among NHL goalies in games played, shots faced, saves made and shutouts earned this past season and earlier this week he was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top netminder.
Despite all the accolades, the 2019-20 campaign wasn’t the easiest season for the fifth-year Winnipeg Jets goaltender.
“I think this season was a mental grind,” Hellebuyck told Hockey Central during an appearance Friday. “Physically, I felt like I could play every single game and kept going and going but mentally there was games that I expected more out of myself and better out of myself and then there was games where I thought I played phenomenal and we lost 4-1 or something like that.
“So, it was more of a mental grind trying to stay right in the middle and even-keeled and keep playing the way I wanted to play and as hard as I wanted to play.”
Hellebuyck finished the regular season with a 31-21-5 record, a .922 save percentage, 2.57 goals-against average, six shutouts and had won every game he started in the month of March.
“Then (the league hiatus due to COVID-19) was a whole new battle that no one really knew how to handle, but I feel I did a very good job getting myself in shape and getting the rest I needed,” Hellebuyck said.
When the season eventually resumed the Jets faced the Calgary Flames in a qualifying round series yet, unfortunately for Hellebuyck and his teammates, they were eliminated in four games and star forwards Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine went down with injuries.
“It’s always tough when you lose your big guns, those guys that eat up a lot of minutes,” Hellebuyck added. “I don’t want to blame it on that but it definitely would have been a difference-maker for sure. … I feel like we deserved a better outcome than what we got.”