Winnipeg’s reaction to Connor Hellebuyck’s no-show in net spilled well beyond the rink Tuesday night, according to Devils broadcaster Don La Greca.
La Greca said that when he and his fellow New Jersey broadcasters headed back to their hotel after the game, fans were still fired up and making it clear they knew exactly who they were dealing with. Police were also outside the hotel, he said.
“We walked back to the hotel, there were fans following us, screaming at us, ‘Is this where Hellebuyck is?’ because they knew that we were the Devil announcers,” La Greca said on Don, Hahn and Rosenberg.
“‘Is this Hellebuyck’s hotel?’ And there were police outside the hotel.
“I mean, I wasn’t scared.”
“You were with Daneyko, what are you afraid of?” Alan Hahn joked.
La Greca said the only thing on his mind was whether the situation might spill over into something more personal.
“You know what I was afraid of? Are they gonna mess with my food?”
La Greca said, in a nod to the claim that Michael Jordan’s pizza was tampered with before “The Flu Game” in the NBA Finals in Utah. “That’s all I cared about, like I don’t want to get poisoned here when they find out I’m the Devils announcer.
“Most people were nice but there was real hate for this guy.”
The tension in Winnipeg came after the Devils chose not to start Hellebuyck against the Jets, even though he and the team said he wanted to play. General manager Sunny Mehta and head coach Sheldon Keefe instead went with Jake Allen.
That decision only added fuel to a situation that had already been simmering since Hellebuyck requested a trade out of Winnipeg earlier this year. Jets fans were still upset, and the game itself ended with Winnipeg beating New Jersey 4-2.
Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel called the whole thing a “disappointment.”
“To me, it goes back to the ownership, it goes back to the fans, it goes back to the core guys that have been with ‘Helly’ from the very beginning, that he kind of left on,” Arniel said Monday. “That’s the part for me that is hard.
He just gave up on us, and it would be nice to be finally done with this and all it does is drags it out, and nine more game from now, we’re going start into it and talk about it again here. That’s the biggest disappointment for me.”
The teams are set to meet again Nov. 28 at Prudential Center.
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