Connor Hellebuyck’s return to Winnipeg came with all the noise you’d expect - and then some - even though he never took the ice.
The New Jersey Devils’ bizarre decision to keep the three-time Vezina Trophy winner and one-time Hart Trophy winner out of the game only turned the night into a full-on chant session inside a sold-out Canada Life Centre, where Jets fans made sure their former goalie heard plenty from warmup through the final horn. Winnipeg rolled to a 4-2 win, but the soundtrack was almost as memorable as the result.
The simplest message was also one of the loudest: “Coward!”
That one, along with heavy boos, followed Hellebuyck through warmups, which drew a bigger crowd than usual. He was only visible then, too. Once the game started, he stayed tucked away in a video room instead of sitting at the end of the bench like nearly every other backup goalie in hockey.
From there, the crowd kept finding new ways to needle him.
“Where is Connor” broke out after the opening puck drop, and it didn’t stop there. Variations like “Where is Helle” and “Helle’s Hiding!” kept surfacing as the night went on.
The chants got even more pointed once the players involved in the trade started making an impact. Dawson Mercer, one of the key pieces in the return, opened the scoring in the mid first period by beating Jake Allen, and the building answered with “Dawson’s Better.” When Mercer struck again in the third for the go-ahead goal on the power play - the one that stood as the game-winner - the chant came back even louder.
“It wasn’t just an average game or an an ordinary game for those two,” head coach Scott Arniel said of Mercer and Nico Daws, the former Devils goalie also acquired in the trade who got the start and made 19 saves on 21 shots. “They were fired up and they wanted to put their best foot forward and they both did. They were both outstanding.”
The crowd also went after Hellebuyck with “Trump’s Your Daddy!” a nod to the U.S.
President Donald Trump, whom Hellebuyck visited at the White House to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom after the U.S. 2026 Olympic hockey team won gold.
Other chants tied directly to Hellebuyck’s own comments and habits: “He’s Gone Fishing,” “You Can’t Fish Here!,” and “Face the Music!”
“Signed in Pencil!” also made the rounds, a jab at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s August comment that Trump’s signature was “written in pencil.” The chant also played off the fact that Hellebuyck left just two years into the seven-year deal he signed in 2023 to be a “Jet for life.”
Arniel said the atmosphere was unlike most nights in the building.
“Not too often the building is rocking in warmup and right from the drop of the puck,” Arniel said postgame. “I just really like the way guys recognized the two points were extremely important.”
“We weren’t sure how this was going to all play out. At the end of the day it was a fun building, it was a loud building, and we got the two points, which is important,” he continued.
Mercer, who now has three goals and three assists in nine games as a Jet, said the energy stood out from the start.
“I think obviously the energy was pretty crazy, especially how we finished the game, we came back in the third period, which was nice,” Mercer said.
“And then the chants were pretty special. I haven’t heard that before, so that was good.”
“As the home team, you can definitely feel the energy pushing behind you, and it was pretty nice tonight,” he continued.
Daws felt it too.
“It was loud,” Daws said. “Warmups were crazy.
The fans here are awesome. Before I came here I’ve never been here before so it was my first few times seeing it and it’s a great atmosphere.”
“They care a lot about hockey here and they care a lot about the team,” he continued. “It’s fun. It’s fun to be a part of it and it makes you want to battle that extra little bit every night for them.”
The Jets have now won four straight and head to Dallas on Thursday. Their next trip to New Jersey comes Nov. 28, and that date now carries an obvious question: will Hellebuyck have to face the music then?
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