The Winnipeg Jets are a dozen games into their National Hockey League season. Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has appeared in 10 of them. It’s a busy pace, for sure, but one that’s not expected to continue at anything close to the same ratio as the season progresses.
At his current rate, Hellebuyck would play in excess of 68 games this season, which is most assuredly not the plan amongst the coaching staff — whether the former Vezina winner agrees or not.
No, his workload this season is to be managed more efficiently than ever before, with an eye to ensuring the team’s number one guy still has enough juice in the orange for a big squeeze come playoff time.
So when the Jets hit the ice Thursday night against the Nashville Predators to start a five-game homestand, it’s more than an educated guess to believe backup Laurent Brossoit will be in the home net at the north end of Canada Life Centre when the game begins.
It will be a one-game furlough for Hellebuyck, who already leads the league in appearances and minutes played this season, and has navigated the Jets to two straight wins, a 3-1-1 record over his last five starts, and is a major reason why Winnipeg occupies third in the Central Division.
Meanwhile, Thursday’s game presents an important opportunity for Brossoit. A quick check of his two-game totals suggests it’s been a pedestrian start to the season for a Stanley Cup netminder looking for more of the net this year than during his first stint with the organization a few years back.
Ideally, a three-to-one scale is what Winnipeg’s two goalies are expected to work off, although that hasn’t been nearly the case to begin this season — partly because the Jets needed to climb out of an immediate hole when the campaign commenced.
But as the team now buckles itself into a more consistent cruising altitude in terms of the schedule, Brossoit should be more of a factor in goal, just like Thursday night. Because, frankly, Hellebuyck can’t play them all, whether he agrees with that or not.
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