The New Jersey Devils spent Sunday night trying to get out ahead of a messy storyline, and instead they walked straight into it.
After their 4-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, general manager Sunny Mehta announced that Connor Hellebuyck would not start Tuesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets. It would have been Hellebuyck’s first game back in Winnipeg after he publicly requested a trade at the start of training camp, but the Devils said the move was about expected results. Mehta explained that starting Hellebuyck “would potentially give [the Devils] a reduction in [their] expected win probability.”
Head coach Sheldon Keefe offered a different explanation, saying the decision was tied to workload. If Hellebuyck had played Tuesday, it would have been his fourth start in eight days.
“From our perspective, when you zoom out, this is a goaltender that is not going to play every single game of the season. You’re always looking for times to give him a night off,” said Keefe, h/t The Athletic’s Chris Johnston.
Hellebuyck didn’t hide his feelings about the call. After Sunday’s game, he said he was “disappointed” but understood the team’s thinking. Even so, he made it clear he would have preferred to face Winnipeg for the first time since the trade.
“I love Winnipeg,” Hellebuyck said, h/t The Athletic. “Playing there again and just facing the music and seeing the reaction, it’d be nice. It’s out of my hands.”
To soften the blow, the Devils are letting Hellebuyck hold a press conference before the game. That move is unlikely to quiet the noise around the decision.
And the noise has been loud. Around the league, the Devils are getting hammered for sidestepping a return game that players in similar situations have usually handled head-on.
Brady Tkachuk played in his return to Ottawa with the Senators. Quinn Hughes also played in his return to Vancouver against the Canucks, the team he started with before being dealt to the Minnesota Wild last December.
The Devils can point to rest and workload all they want, but the timing made the whole thing look like a preemptive dodge. They announced it two days before the game, which only invited more scrutiny.
The comparison to the Rangers only sharpened the criticism. New York was forced into a goaltending crunch that had Dylan Garand playing 12 straight games until Joonas Korpisalo finally made his debut on Saturday after recovering from a foot infection.
The Rangers had no choice. The Devils did.
So while New Jersey may have hoped to avoid the spectacle of Hellebuyck getting booed in Winnipeg, the decision has turned into a different kind of circus altogether. On Monday, the Devils are the ones getting booed.
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