Why Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck is the most underappreciated goalie of his generation
Connor Hellebuyck stepped out of his bedroom and flagged down his dad. I’m just standing there like, I’m still his parent, but who am I to kill a dream?” Now 31, Connor Hellebuyck has spent the better part of his life fulfilling his childhood dream. “You’re probably not going to believe when I say I was playing the best hockey of my career.” Hellebuyck did wonder if he’d put too much weight on his own shoulders. “If you were going to be in a movie theater to see an incredibly high-paced film, would you rather sit in the front row, where you can’t even see the whole screen and everything seems like it’s moving twice as fast, or would you rather be sitting further back so you can see the entire screen and the action doesn’t look as fast?” Francilia explained. “What he told me was that he’d analyzed how different goalies were saving things, whether it was top level or at our local level — anyone who was having success — and he’d say ‘That doesn’t work’ or ‘Yeah, that works’ and then he’d work on it until he knew what he wanted.” Hellebuyck’s obsession with results over aesthetics since childhood has built his legacy as a top goaltender of his generation.
The new normal: How Connor Hellebuyck re-wired his brain to get better in goal
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