St. Louis Blues making Connor Hellebuyck’s playoff demons resurface

At the start of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, I picked the St. Louis Blues as one of the teams that could pull off a stunning upset in the first round. I also picked the Montreal Canadiens to upset the Washington Capitals. Yes, the Canadiens can still do it, but their chances don’t look as good as the Blues’.

The Blues enter Wednesday night’s action with a shot at taking a 3-2 lead against the vaunted Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets. The Jets, for their part, entered the playoffs among the betting favorites to take home the Cup.

But as we all know, odds are one thing and on-ice performance is an entirely different animal.

That brings us to Connor Hellebuyck’s playoff demons. Hellebuyck should be a lock for the Vezina Trophy this season. Hellebuyck, along with the LA Kings’ Darcy Kuemper and the Tampa Bay Lightning's Andrei Vasilevsky, are among the finalists for the Goalie of the Year.

With good reason.

Hellebuyck ended the season with a 47-12-3 record with a 2.01 GAA and a mind-shocking .925 SV%.

The consistency behind those numbers puts Hellebuyck in another category of elite. But as I mentioned earlier, regular-season numbers mean diddly-squat in the postseason. Even the most brilliant regular-season performances get wiped clean, and a new tab is opened.

That’s where Hellebuyck is now. The Blues have unlocked the postseason demons that haunt the world’s best goalie.

Hellebuyck is 2-2 this postseason with a 4.24 GAA and an .817 SV%. Take a minute to let those numbers sink in.

Those are not the numbers one would expect from an all-world goalie. Yet, here we are. Hellebuyck is set to start Game 5. It makes sense that the Jets would roll with their number-one guy. A few bad starts don’t mean he’s ready for the scrap yard. But those bad starts are now stoking bad memories from last season's first-round exit. Looks like it could be two years in a row.

St. Louis Blues feasting on Jets’ overconfidence

There’s a downside to teams like the Winnipeg Jets. They have so much talent across the board. They have firepower and skill that is not even funny.

But then, they run into solid, scrappy teams that understand what it takes to win hockey games in the playoffs. These teams forecheck, move the puck, create traffic, cause mayhem, and lay out the body if need be.

That’s been the formula for the Blues' success. They’ve gotten in the Jets’ heads by playing tough, grinding hockey. The Jets were able to get around that in the regular season. They feasted on rebuilding teams to pad their stats.

But the Jets ran out of luck in the postseason. Now, the Jets will have to come back with a grinding Game 5 of their own if they can wrestle control back. Meanwhile, the Blues enter the game with a chance to take a 3-2 series lead. If they do, all the pressure in the world will descend on the Jets.

I wouldn’t want to be in that dressing room if they lose.

In my estimation, we’re poised to see one of the biggest postseason upsets in recent memory. It will be a fun conclusion to the series. There’s no doubt about that.