“Winnipeg’s the best defensive team in the League,” Pete DeBoer, the Dallas Stars’ head coach, acknowledged before Game 3 against the Jets. Turns out, he needn’t have worried so much. The Stars wriggled out a massive 5-2 victory over Winnipeg at the American Airlines Center just hours ago to capture the lead in Round 2 of the playoffs. While the defeat was a hard pill to swallow for the visitors, it was Connor Hellebuyck‘s controversial action that shocked the community.
During today’s game, Hellebuyck made 21 saves. An acceptable statistic, you’d bet. And yet, it was his fumble in the third period while handling the Stars’ Alex Petrovic‘s kick-in at the goal that seemed to shift the momentum in favor of the hosts. The goal gave Dallas a 3-2 lead, and the fans were astonished at how Connor failed to save the shot from the right face-off circle. So were the NHL experts by the bewildering scenes.
A post on X, captioned, “There’s a new pandemic according to Dr. Lundqvist,” by NHL on TNT from May 11 shared the pundits’ amusement at what went down today between the Stars and the Jets in Game 3. At one point in the discussion, Paul “Biz Nasty” Bissonnette asked Lundqvist if the pandemic of NHL defensemen shooting themselves in the foot irritated the latter more than COVID-19. Hank didn’t object. “As a goalie, you’re going to get bumped more. (0:55) That’s just the reality of playing in the playoffs,” Lundquist said how Connor Hellebuyck’s mistake was only a byproduct of the postseason action.
“But when there’s a lot of deflections, a lot of times it’s about awareness…I mean, everything is happening so quickly. But how you place your skates in front of the net, it matters,” the former NHL star went on, elaborating how things can change before you can even blink. Petrovic’s goal stood after a lengthy review initiated by the Situation Room.
There’s a new pandemic according to Dr. Lundqvist…
Defenseman deflecting pucks into their own net pic.twitter.com/2Rxt1qE1KA
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) May 11, 2025
One would find similarities between today’s incident and what went down in Game 3 between the Panthers and the Maple Leafs. Toronto’s Morgan Rielly was in the center of things when the puck took a deflection off him to bring Florida a goal. Not once, but twice! “Stuff happens. I mean, that’s how pucks are going in right now. It’s not just this series. It’s last series, it’s kind of happening all over the playoffs,” Morgan said after the game. It would make sense now as to why the retired star said what he said about Connor Hellebuyck’s error.
“It hit our goaltender’s stick and went in the net. That is no goal. So they said that Helly propelled the puck in, and I haven’t seen the word ‘propelled’ in the rulebook,” the Jets’ head coach, Scott Arniel, said in the post-match presser. On the other hand, the Stars’ coach had a different view on the matter. “I think the rule reads that if, I believe, the goalie is making a play on the puck, that it’s a goal…Is it just deflected off him, or is he trying to make a play with the puck? And I think they got it right,” said DeBoer. However, while such controversial moments never really have a proper middle ground for everyone to agree upon, Connor Hellebuyck admitted that the long review process derailed the team’s momentum.
However, it’s not like Hellebuyck has been in bad form. In the 2024-25 regular season, Connor won a stunning 47 games in 63 games. With that, he also posted a sound 2.00 GAA and a .925 save%. He was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as well as the Hart Trophy, cementing his status as an elite netminder. And yet, his postseason performance hasn’t been anywhere close. With a poor .848 save%, the Jets’ goalie has been but a shadow of himself from before the postseason.
But is all the responsibility of today’s defeat on the Jets’ netminder?
Is their regular season record haunting Connor Hellebuyck & Co.?
The Winnipeg Jets had an incredible regular season. With 116 points, the squad clinched the top seed in the entire league before the playoffs commenced. Moreover, thanks to the Capitals’ string of losses in the final days of the tournament, Coach Arniel’s boys even won their first-ever NHL trophy. And that, to many, didn’t sit well.
The curse of the President’s Cup is like an urban legend within the hockey community: Only 8 that have won the title have managed to win the Stanley Cup in the same season. The curse almost claimed another victim in the first round of the postseason, as the Jets had to fight for seven games against the St. Louis Blues before securing their berth to Round 2. The Blues posted only 96 points in the regular season and were a wild-card entry to the playoffs.
Pretty wild, eh? But can Connor Hellebuyck and the rest of the team overcome the woes and get back in the driver’s seat? Game 4 is slated for May 13. Can the Jets bounce back? We’ll have to wait to see!
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