WINNIPEG — Given the chance to leave the Winnipeg Jets in free agency in 2021, future captain Adam Lowry instead signed a five-year extension for a modest pay increase because he believed in his team and liked his town.
Of course, he still does.
And of all the things Lowry believes about the Jets, who trail the Dallas Stars 3-1 and whose season is yet again on the brink, he is fervent about career-teammate Connor Hellebuyck’s ability to bring Winnipeg back into the second-round playoff series.
“I don’t think it’s even a question about retaining confidence in Helly,” Lowry said before Tuesday’s 3-1 Game 4 loss in Dallas. “We have an unwavering belief that he’s the best goalie in the world and that he will get the job done. I think we take the responsibility for the struggles on the road. It doesn’t just fall to one guy.
“I think he’s the focal point (when a goal is scored). But there’s a lot of plays that happen before that in order for them to get those Grade-A chances. He’s so calm, so confident in his own abilities, that we have no doubts that he will be able to get it done and he’s going to shut the door for us.”
Thursday would be a good time for that door slammer.
About to win his third Vezina Trophy after a typically stellar regular season, Hellebuyck is having another confounding playoffs. We would call his under-performance shocking, except it’s a continuation of the playoff cratering that people saw the last two springs.
In fairness to Hellebuyck, the team in front of him also confounds.
Since declaring the franchise’s arrival as a contender with a run to the 2018 Western Conference Final, the Jets had won only one playoff round since then before their spectacular comeback in Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues.
They outplayed and outchanced the Stars on Tuesday, but managed to get only one puck past Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger and lost for the ninth straight playoff road game over three seasons. The Jets haven’t scored more than twice in any of those losses.
Through four games in the second round, the Jets have both the worst power play (1-for-15) and worst penalty kill (the Stars’ power play is 4-for-11) among the eight teams still in the Stanley Cup tournament.
Losing in the playoffs is devastating.
Losing while not delivering your best makes it even worse.
“I think all year we’ve done a really good job of bouncing back from games we don’t love,” Lowry, 32, told Sportsnet. “We’re an unbelievable defensive team. We make it really hard to generate chances against when we’re playing at the top of our game, and we have the best goalie in the world, I think.
“We might not have Connor McDavid or Nathan MacKinnon that’s going to go out and score three, four points kind of on a nightly basis, but the makeup of our team, we have so much depth up front and on the back end, and world-class goaltending. I think our team game can be as good, if not better, than any team in the league and that’s why we were able to finish where we did in the regular season. You don’t just lose that team game when the games become more important.”
If the Jets haven’t “lost” the game that earned them the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s regular-season champions, then they’ve misplaced it at an inopportune time.
Except for special teams, their play was better in Game 4. And they have been excellent at home, going 5-1 in the playoffs. But the Stars proved they could win in Winnipeg by taking the series opener 5-2.
Several times during the two games in Dallas, fans bellowed in unison: “Otter’s better! Otter’s better!”
The chant, an update on “Eddie’s Better!” from 25 years ago when Stars goalie Ed Belfour outdueled Patrick Roy in a seven-game series, has been inarguably accurate so far.
Oettinger, Hellebuyck’s backup on Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, has three wins and a .929 save percentage. Hellebuyck has one win and a save rate of .884.
This actually represents an uptick for the Jets goalie, whose 21 playoff starts over the last 25 months come with an .866 save percentage and a minus-22 goals saved above average. Put another way, Hellebuyck has been allowing an extra goal per game over four rounds and three playoffs.
Including his seven games against the Blues, Hellebuyck’s save percentage this post-season is .851, which ranks last among 20 NHL goalies who have started at least once.
“It’s just goaltending, I think,” Oettinger said when asked about Hellebuyck’s struggles. “You’re going to go through ebbs and flows and, you know, I’ve gone through the same stuff. He’s a world-class goalie that gives them a chance to win every night. We’re not getting any easy ones on him, so he’s done his job so far. I think the playoffs, it’s all about how you respond.”
Oettinger said Hellebuyck has been “the best goalie in the league for the last… it feels like a long time.”
“We’re competitive people,” Lowry said. “These are the meaningful games that you want to be playing in. I think having a real hard-fought first round and surviving and moving on makes you want to feel that elation (again) and you want to see the run continue. All eyes are on you and you want to perform at this time of year, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of handling the pressure and rebounding after games we don’t love.
“I’ve got a lot of belief in the players as individuals, but also… the collectiveness that we have as a group, that we can respond.”
