2 weeks Ago
RALEIGH, N.C. — When the New Jersey Devils missed the playoffs last season, general manager Tom Fitzgerald’s offseason priority was clear: Get a goalie.
Fitzgerald did just that, trading a 2025 first-round pick and young defenseman Kevin Bahl to the Calgary Flames for veteran Jacob Markstrom. The move worked. The 35-year-old Markstrom stabilized New Jersey’s last line of defense, and even when Jack Hughes was lost for the season, the Devils, thanks in part to their goaltending, returned to the playoffs as planned.
Advertisement The Carolina Hurricanes, meanwhile, returned Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov from the common sentiment that the NHL’s most suffocating team had one glaring weakness and it was in net. Even when midseason injuries to the team’s top two goalies had first-year GM Eric Tulsky scrambling for reserves — No. 3 Spencer Martin gave way to previously unemployed Dustin Tokarski, with a dash of ECHL goalie Yaniv Perets thrown in — Carolina stayed the course, no matter how many pundits had written John Gibson in ink on their lineup card.
So when Andersen returned from knee surgery in the third week of January, he and Kochetkov began a rotation that carried through the trade deadline and the end of the regular season. With that hiccup hurdled, the question entering the playoffs was whether the Hurricanes would continue to alternate their goalies or it was time to settle on a No. 1.
“We don’t have it set in stone,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said before the start of the postseason. “We liked how we did it just because, I think, it keeps guys fresh. But at this time of the year, is that the right move?” After Andersen’s economical performance in Game 1 — 23 saves on 24 shots — Brind’Amour answered that question by going back to the 35-year-old Dane in Game 2.
The result? Another near-perfect performance: Andersen stopped 25 of 26 to give Carolina a 2-0 series lead heading into Friday’s Game 3 in Newark. The past week marked the first time Andersen has played consecutive games this season, starting the regular-season finale last Thursday before getting the nod in Games 1 and 2. Brind’Amour hasn’t committed to starting Andersen in Game 3 but said his lineup, including his goalie, would likely remain the same.
“Are we going to keep doing this? We’ll see how he feels and gauge everything,” Brind’Amour said after Game 2. “I think we know we’ve got to watch it with him because he hasn’t had as much of a workload. But also, that’s a bonus too, that he hasn’t played that much this year.
He’s maybe the freshest guy out there.” Advertisement There’s also Andersen’s veteran presence in net. While coaches and players are quick to express their confidence in Kochetkov, it’s clear Andersen’s steady demeanor on and off the ice radiates to his teammates during a game.
“I think that’s just Freddie on a day-to-day basis,” Jordan Martinook said after Game 2. “Obviously in the net, he’s calm and collected. And (then) it seems like the play is going 100 miles an hour, and he’s just back there, just doing his thing.
You see the guys in front of him jumping around trying to do everything, and he’s just sitting back there. “Obviously we know he’s competing as hard as he can, but his demeanor is calm, and it definitely helps us out there too because when you look back and he’s just doing his thing, it’s fun to play in front of him.” Andersen’s philosophy is pretty succinct.
“Be in that moment and do your best,” he said, “and then trust that your abilities are good enough to have success.” Andersen has had plenty of that in his career, though perhaps not in the playoffs. During his five seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team’s inability to get out of Round 1 was often pinned on the goalie.
Despite his reputation there as a postseason bust, Andersen’s numbers — a .916 save percentage overshadowed by a 10-14 record — weren’t abysmal. His 21 postseason starts with the Hurricanes have been similar, albeit with better win-loss results.
He’s now 13-7 with a .915 save percentage in the playoffs since coming to Raleigh. According to MoneyPuck , Andersen had the third-best goals saved above expected per 60 among goalies early in this postseason through Wednesday, trailing only Markstrom and the Washington Capitals’ Logan Thompson.
The two days of rest before Game 3 would seemingly make Brind’Amour’s decision an easy one. “It certainly gives you reason to not worry about that issue as much, that’s for sure,” the coach said. While the back-and-forth rotation with Andersen and Kochetkov worked in the regular season, a team that prides itself on consistency — its top line of skill players employs the same style of play as the fourth — and not letting the circumstances of the game dictate the way they play can’t help but benefit from a goalie who approaches every game, period, shift and shot with fresh eyes.
Advertisement “For us players, whether we’re up or down or in a tight game, we don’t change anything,” captain Jordan Staal said Thursday. “He seems to be very similar, that very even keel. And it’s always a nice feeling as a player to have a goalie that kind of has that in the veins.
” Brind’Amour added, “You see his demeanor. Whether he has a great game or a game that he’d like to have back, you would never know. He’s just very, very calm.
And I think the way he plays in net is very calming too. ..
. When it’s very chaotic, stressful, it doesn’t really feel like it when he’s in the net.” The Devils may have fixed their net woes with the addition of Markstrom.
But despite Markstrom’s good play in losing efforts in the series’ first two games, one can’t help but notice that the Hurricanes — Andrei Svechnikov, in particular — are getting under his skin. Andersen, meanwhile, will probably look the same if Friday’s matchup was Game 3 of the first round or the third game of the preseason. “I think that’s the biggest thing for a goalie,” Andersen said.
“Focus on what’s in front of you and the next shift or the next chance against or whatever it is.” (Top photo of Frederik Andersen: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images).
