Putting on my beer league goaltending equipment on, here's my going theory:
Hellebuyck is objectively one of the most technically proficient goalies in the league. To do this, he maximizes his size, play reading and nearly perfect positioning, but also requires a level of predictability in play to do it.
A lot of this predictability goes out the window in the playoffs with opposing players more likely to screen, crash the net, create scrambles, desperately shoot from weird angles, do nearly anything for an opportunity, etc... a lot of scenarios you can't necessarily plan for in practice.
Notably, guys like Luongo, Markstrom really struggle with this. They can't seem to find the puck when the play looks so different than the regular season.
Other goalies like Binnington and Kiprusoff (and Wolf?) seem to weirdly thrive off unpredictability. Maybe it's because they've never had that size to consistently rely on and were able to develop their puck tracking ability beyond that of Hellebuyck.
I think it is as simple as this: he plays deeper in his crease in the playoffs. He is always deep - as deep as any goalie in the league. But come playoffs, he retreats more. And IMO you need to do the opposite in the playoffs - with less time and space, goalies should be challenging the shooters MORE, not backing up.
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I think it is as simple as this: he plays deeper in his crease in the playoffs. He is always deep - as deep as any goalie in the league. But come playoffs, he retreats more. And IMO you need to do the opposite in the playoffs - with less time and space, goalies should be challenging the shooters MORE, not backing up.
I believe it was Kevin Woodley who was on Fan960 talking about Hellebuyck about how Hellebuyck is one of the best goalies in the NHL at anticipating the plays and reading plays.
But if there is an area where he's just "average" it's screened shots, deflections, and tips and IIRC in the regular season the Jets were one of the best teams in the league at eliminating those types of chances but the Blues are feasting on that come playoff time.
Just like both Vegas and Colorado did.
I think the increased traffic and chaos, combined with him playing deeper, and with teams being able to game plan specifically to create those types of chances, leads to what happens with him in the playoffs.
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