Hot Hellebuyck taking on Canadiens tonight

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2017 (2864 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck heads to the crease tonight for his fourth straight start as the Jets host the struggling Montreal Canadiens.

It’ll be the ninth start for Hellebuyck, who has yet to lose in regulation time this season.

“The schedule was right when we got into November to start looking at… if we had a guy that was going, run him a little bit more,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice, following this morning’s skate at Bell MTS Place. “He’s had lots of off-days, lots of rest. We haven’t had to go back to back with anybody, yet.”

Hellebuyck’s start to the season has been nothing short of superb. The 24-year-old netminder from Commerce, Mich., is 7-0-1, with a stingy 1.92 goals-against average and rock-solid .938 save percentage.

The Jets (7-3-2) will be out for their fourth straight win tonight. Game time is 6 p.m. They’ll go with the identical roster that upended the Dallas Stars 5-2 two nights ago.

Winnipeg has gone six contests (4-0-2) without a loss in regulation time.

“I think we’re playing fast,” said Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler. “(The) first two games of the year (losses to Toronto and Calgary)… got our eyes opened a little to how fast we need to play. (We) started practising that way, and just tried to get better every day.

“Each game has been a new set of challenges. The last 10 days have been a lot of really tough competition. It’s got us playing a good style of hockey. I think we’re happy with the direction we’re headed but still have some work to do.”

Montreal’s No.1, Carey Price, is out with a lower-body injury, so former Jets goalie Al Montoya gets the start.

“He’s a really competitive guy. We always know to expect the best from Monty. (He) makes some big saves back there,” said Wheeler. “(It’s) always fun to see a familiar face, but he’s a big test, a great goalie, like I said, super competitive, so when he’s in the net, there’s going to be no easy ones.”

Winnipeg right-winger Patrik Laine, who snapped a four-game goalless drought Thursday with his fifth of the year, said he gets a rush playing a team he knew plenty about while growing up in Finland.

“For me, when I thought about Montreal, it was the place where hockey was born and it was an original NHL team and a team that has so much history, those were my thoughts (growing up),” said Laine.

“It’s always nice to play against the Canadian teams, and there’s going to be a lot of Habs fans (in the building), and it’s always nice to play against good teams, so it’s going to be a fun Saturday night, for sure, and, hopefully, it’s going to be a good game.”

But things have not been going well for Montreal (4-8-1), which occupies the basement in the Atlantic Division and is just 2-6-0 on the road. The Canadiens had posted back-to-back victories over the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators but took a step back with uninspired 6-3 defeat to the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minn., two nights ago.

That said, Maurice anticipates the Habs to explode out of the gate.

“Combustibility… really quick (team), 37 shots per game, on average, which means they’re spending a lot of time in their oppositions’ end and they’re getting an awful lot of pucks to the net,” he said. “They’re a very, very quick hockey team. They’re going to come out like a house on fire. We’ve had good starts and we need to be as quick as they are.”

The Jets’ takeoffs have been smooth this season — they’ve netted 20 first-period goals and surrendered only nine.

Maurice said he expects a low-scoring affair tonight.

“I got this as a grinder. My feeling is it’s not going to be a high-scoring game, that it’s going to be a really tight, well-skated game, and a really competitive game,” he said.

Winnipeg centre Adam Lowry (upper body) will miss his ninth straight. He skated this morning and is recuperating, however, his fitness level isn’t quite there, said Maurice.

“He’s healthy, cleared for contact and good. But the injury meant he couldn’t do a lot of conditioning and grinding, and we don’t have to put him in until we get him through that,” he said. “This is more about fitness.”

Maurice also said the strong play of the bottom-six forward crew has afforded him some patience when it comes to Lowry’s eventual return.

“There’s some competition there. I certainly don’t have (Lowry) in the pecking order at the bottom, but coming off an injury we’re healthy enough that he has to be 100 per cent.”

Jets rookie Brendan Lemieux, the son of former Canadiens’ star Claude Lemieux, received plenty of attention from the Montreal media this morning.

The 21-year-old left-winger, who scored his first-ever NHL goal last weekend against the Pittsburgh Penguins and engaged in his first NHL fight Thursday against Stars forward Gemel Smith, said he grew up being a huge fan of the Canadiens and is excited to face them.

He and his father talk daily about his progress, Lemieux said.

“We talk about things I can work on, things I should focus on. Lately, it’s been keep going, keep plugging away,” he said. “I have a role, I know what I bring. I want to make it hard on other guys, just run my routes. Bring the energy that I bring and help this team win and keep things going.”

Lemieux admitted he speaks almost no French.

“Just the bad words,” he said.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell