Connor Hellebuyck lived up to expectations in Devils debut

The New Jersey Devils made their all-in move toward Stanley Cup contention last Friday when they acquired superstar goalie Connor Hellebuyck from the Winnipeg Jets, and less than a week later, he made his team debut against the Dallas Stars after what felt like much more than four days of anticipation.

It went about as well as it could have reasonably gone. The Devils, who have been one of the league’s most dominant teams according to advanced metrics this year, stifled the Stars all game. Hellebuyck only saw 18 shots, and he stopped 17 of them on his way to a 5-1 victory in his first game in the red and black.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed Hellebuyck’s impressive performance in his New Jersey debut as the Devils continue to look like real contenders.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I  think I said on the show, like, “Ah, Connor Hellebuyck’s not going to play tonight,” then it was like, “Oh shit, Connor Hellebuyck’s playing tonight. Hutts, how surprised were you that no AHL games, basically no practices with the team, the Devils are just like, “In you go, Hellebuyck”?

Carter Hutton:  I would assume it was his decision. I’d assume this is something they went to him being like, “Hey, how do you feel? Where are you at?” Like, and they’re trying to get to know this new asset that they have. And it sounded like he was ready to go, and obviously clearly he was. I think they did a really good job in front of him of limiting chances, you know, only facing 17 shots, but he was solid. The other side of it is, like, if you were to throw to a guy that is super athletic, over-moving, very aggressive, maybe you give him a little bit more of a window and a time frame. But Connor Hellebuyck is a guy that manages depth. He lets the game come to him. He’s a simplistic goalie in that sense, and theyey felt comfortable with it, and it looked like the right decision. He was really good last night.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I think it also probably did something for the group in front of him as well. And not to say the Devils haven’t been— you know, they’ve been pretty solid defensively, all of that stuff, but they allowed against a Dallas team that has been playing really well. Dallas came into that game with the longest winning streak in the NHL, at 5 games. They’ve scored only 33 goals in 12 games. So when you look at the season as a whole, it’s not pretty. But as of late, they’ve been humming Dallas at all situations: 5-on-5, power play, all that. Only had 1.71 expected goals… the shots were 27 to 18. So I do think that group in front of Connor Hellebuyck was pretty eager to play a solid game and make life easy on their new number one.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…