The NHL world outside of the Garden State is pointing and laughing at the New Jersey Devils, thanks to an announcement on Sunday night that was unexpected: Connor Hellebuyck won’t start on Tuesday against his former team, the Winnipeg Jets, the franchise he forced his way out of.
Why? Per a statement from GM Sunny Mehta: “In our estimation, playing in this game would potentially give us a reduction in our expected win probability.”
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Really? You’re using the “it’s not me, it’s stats” excuse? Also, I’m going to need to see how the reduction in expected win probability works for a goaltender who is 5-0-0 with a 1.96 GAA thus far with the Devils. But then you add in the fact that Hellebuyck isn’t happy about it!
“I’m disappointed,” he told reporters on Sunday. “I understand. Selfishly, I want to play.”
“I love Winnipeg,” he added. “Playing there again and facing the music, seeing the reaction, it’d be nice. It’s out of my hands.”
This is one that the Devils franchise may not live down for a while. It seems clear to everyone else that New Jersey might be trying to shield their incredible all-world goaltender from the kind of vitriol that Quinn Hughes got in Vancouver when he returned recently with the Wild, or the kind of hate that Brady Tkachuk got in Ottawa.
(A quick side message to Canada: Thanks to what you did to Hughes and Tkachuk, you win this one big time. Incredible work.)
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This is how sports works, and Hellebuyck seems to know that: If you force a trade, you know you have to own it when you return to the team you left behind. The Devils are robbing him of that ownership, and to do with a couple of days to go before the game, while Hellebuyck expresses his displeasure with the decision.
What are we doing here?!
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Devils won’t live down benching Connor Hellebuyck for Winnipeg return
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