Jeff Veillette says video of Connor Hellebuyck's arrival at the Devils' Winnipeg hotel shows far less than the story suggested.
The question making the rounds is whether Jets fans stalked the goalie's hotel after his return to Winnipeg. Hellebuyck was back in the building as a visiting Devils player, but he did not start. Jake Allen did, and the crowd praised him for a good game.
That matters, because the story was specifically about the postgame. The fans praising Allen and the Devils coming off the team bus point to the arrival in question.
Hellebuyck's night was already a lightning rod. Sheldon Keefe's explanation for sitting Hellebuyck kept shifting in the days before the game, and the goalie knew he would hear the boos from the bench.
So when a report of fans bothering him at the hotel surfaced, it landed on a sore spot. It also landed on a story that was never going to be quiet.
Veillette pushed back Friday, saying the video shows two guys chirping at Hellebuyck from a sectioned-off area at a hotel a block away from the rink.
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He called it immature but said the coverage was absurd, mountains out of molehills.
Was Hellebuyck's hotel arrival really a mob scene?
Going by Veillette's description, no. Two fans chirping from behind a barrier is part of what a player gets when he returns to the city where he played, particularly one who skipped the game and still had to walk through the crowd.
It's not a good look for the two guys, and nobody needs to defend it. But a pair of hecklers in a roped-off area is a long way from a goalie being followed to his hotel.
The bigger issue is how fast the first version traveled. The Hellebuyck story was already loaded with questions about who made the call to sit him, and Henrik Lundqvist's doubts about Hellebuyck's say in the decision showed how raw it still is. Adding a harassment angle on top of that was always going to spread, accurate or not.
Hellebuyck's Devils are 14-6-0 and next play at Washington on Saturday. Winnipeg, riding a five-game winning streak, visits Chicago the same day. The hotel video is out there now for anyone who wants to judge it themselves.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
How serious was the chirping at Hellebuyck's hotel?
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