Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck learned valuable lessons in what was an up-and-down playoff run.
"The first round was definitely a roller coaster and a mental grind," Hellebuyck said Tuesday. "Once we got through that, the weight of the world came off my shoulders. I started going back to playing my game, and everything that I was studying in the previous round kind of started to come together, back to my game.
"You can't abandon your game. Maybe make some tweaks here and there, but nothing huge, nothing drastic. You just gotta go out there and have fun and realize bad bounces do happen, and sometimes there's a little bit of a luck factor in hockey."
The Presidents' Trophy-winning Jets advanced past the St. Louis Blues with a dramatic Game 7 double-overtime victory before losing to the Dallas Stars in six games in the second round.
Hellebuyck, the overwhelming favorite to win the Vezina Trophy and a finalist for the Hart Trophy, was pulled three times versus the Blues, and he ended the series with a woeful .830 save percentage.
The 31-year-old rebounded in Round 2, posting shutouts in Winnipeg's two wins, but still finished the postseason with an .866 SV% and a 3.08 goals-against average. It's the third year in a row Hellebuyck has ended the playoffs with a save percentage below .890.
"This playoff run, there's a lot of learning curves and a lot of things that we've learned, and we can take away," Hellebuyck said. "I know this group is gonna get a lot better from that. Not only do we get tighter as a family, but our game got tighter, and we're gonna continue to grow that and build that.
"We have pretty much the same group coming back, so we're all very motivated for a Cup. That's our goal. That's all we got on our mind, from now until this time next year."
