Connor Hellebuyck Shows Off The Most Famous Goalie Stick In Team USA History
The stick was used for one of the most-memorable save sin USA Hockey history
There are a bunch of pieces of gear from the Olympic men's and women's gold medal hockey games that should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Perhaps none more so than netminder Connor Hellebuyck's stick.
While Jack Hughes scored the game-winner for the fellas, there's really no question that Hellebuyck is the one who almost single-handedly put Team USA in a position to win, thanks to a goaltending performance for the ages.
I mean, even the President of the United States noticed, and the performance earned the Winnipeg Jets goalie the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
But of the 41 saves he made, none are as iconic as the mind-blowing paddle save he made on Canada's Devon Toews.
It turns out that Hellebuyck still has that twig, and he showed it off during an appearance on the Wingmen podcast, hosted by his Team USA teammates Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.
Hellebuyck said that there was a mark on the stick from that save, but Matthew Tkachuk wasn't buying it.
"Do you want me to go grab it?" he asked. "I have the stick in my house right now."
Hellebuyck retrieved the now-legendary twig and showed that it had a blemish where the blade meets the paddle.
"I can confirm it because I remember looking at this mark right here," he said. "I looked at that after the second, 'I'm like, is this broken or do I need to worry about that?'"
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He flipped it over, and sure enough, there was a big mark on the inside of the paddle.
"I mean, is that not where the puck hit? Like right here," he said.
Who knows how much Hellebuyck switches out his twigs, but I can't imagine he makes a ton of saves with the inside of his paddle in that exact spot.
"It's like the Mona Lisa," Matthew Takchuk said. "Helly, do me a favor: throw that stick in a safe and never show anybody that stick ever again."