The knee to his head was the night before, but the fire in his belly was still burning bright.

Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck pulled off his gear after practice, Friday, and then pulled no punches over how he felt about Calgary’s Noah Hanifin running into him in Thursday’s 4-1 Flames win.

“My question is why is there no penalty on that?” Hellebuyck began. “It’s not like I dove in front of him. He wasn’t pushed in. He just made a dumb route. You see that more coming around this game. People aren’t really afraid around the goalies anymore.”

The force of Hanifin’s knee on Hellebuyck’s head knocked the goalie’s mask off and left Hellebucyk prone, counting stars for several seconds late in the second period.

Or maybe he was counting the number of times he’s been run into this season.

“Something needs to change there,” Hellebuyck continued. “Because I get called for a penalty in L.A., right? So now I have more penalties called against me than I drew. And I think that’s ridiculous.

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“You can see in the young guys, like (Matthew) Tkachuk – tries to push me into the net. It’s ridiculous. Something needs to be called or something needs to be changed with the goalies. We’re players too.”

An emerging member of the goaltending fraternity, Hellebuyck has clearly had enough.

He sees the lack of goaltender interference calls, either on goal reviews or on plays like Thursday’s, as just the latest attack on the men who play his position.

“They’re really reckless in front of the goalie now,” he said. “They don’t really care, because they know they don’t call as many interferences as they should, and not as many penalties – and not as many fights. So the guys just do what they want.

“I’ve definitely noticed a trend where they’re trying to take a little more from us.”

First the move to smaller equipment, now the additional collisions.

Hellebuyck isn’t holding his breath waiting for things to change.

“They don’t want it to change,” he said. “They like the goals. They want more goals and want to take more from us. He wasn’t shoved in or anything. What needs to happen is a penalty needs to be called, and then their coach is going to say that was a dumb penalty to take, and then he’s not going to come storming at the net when I’m covering the puck.”

Hellebuyck wasn’t accusing Hanifin of intentionally kneeing him on the head. Then again…

“He definitely didn’t try to avoid it. He could have stretched out. I think he more cared about himself than anyone else around him,” Hellebuyck said. “In the back of everyone’s mind (is), ‘I can get away with a little more here. I’m going to start taking it.’ Especially if you’re coming to a hot goaltender.”

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Jets coach Paul Maurice says he’s noticed more contact on goalies, adding players will naturally do what they can get away with.

If the officials don’t begin to discourage it, players will have to.

“For the most part you find there’ll be a few goalie interference penalties and they’ll knock it down a little bit,” Maurice said. “But if we felt it was a trend, we have enough big men back there that can discourage it.”

As surprising as the non-call, Hellebuyck wasn’t called off for a concussion test.

“I absorbed the blow a little bit,” he said. “And it wasn’t like my head smashed on anything. So it was discretionary. It was up to me, and I felt good.”

A finalist for the Vezina Trophy last season, Hellebuyck has shown signs this month of returning to that form.

Since and including the game in New York against the Islanders, Dec. 4, the 25-year-old has posted a saves percentage of .925, boosting his season numbers to .909, behind a 16-10-1 record.

Looking back, he says he was trying to do too much early in the season.

“I needed to take a step back and rebuild it, and say, ‘OK, don’t do too much.’ And once I finally figured that out, I was able to get comfortable and calm in the net and that’s when December happened.”

He’ll try to stay on that course, no matter who’s trying to knock him off it.

pfriesen@postmedia.com

Twitter: @friesensunmedia

Slumping Laine due to break out

There was no media crowd around Patrik Laine on this day, which means he’s probably on the verge of another scoring spree.

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The Winnipeg Jets sniper has gone five games without a goal, one game shy of his longest drought of the season.

Over his last 13 games, Laine has just two goals, the driest 13-game spell in his three-year NHL career.

“As long as I’m getting chances, I’m not going to lose my mind,” Laine said, Friday. “When you work hard and you’re getting as many chances as I’m getting, you’re going to bury one eventually, and then it’ll be easier after that.”

Streaky has defined Laine’s season.

He ended his first five-game drought with a hat-trick in Helsinki, and five goals in three games. Later in November he scored 11 in four games.

He followed a six-game drought to open December with goals in back-to-back games, before embarking on his current five-game slump.

“Yeah, I’ve usually had a lot of streaks when I’m pretty hot,” Laine said. “I would be more happy if I would just score more in a longer-term. You’re going to have streaks when it won’t go in. But then you’re going to make that time up with the hot streaks.

“Hopefully just add some consistency and try to help my team win, if I’m not scoring then some other stuff.”

Linemate Bryan Little says when Laine is hot, it seems everything goes in.

“When he is struggling to put it in… he’s extra hard on himself,” Little said. “I think that’s something he’ll get better at as he’s older.”