With rotation on hold, Hurricanes’ goalie situation goes from no-lose to no-answers
One of the goal lights at Prudential Center kept turning itself on and off in irregular spasms Monday, the one behind the net Antti Raanta was manning. Electronic hangover from Sunday? Omen for Tuesday? Merely a weird annoyance?
Those are all questions the Carolina Hurricanes would prefer to contemplate than the state of their goaltending situation, which went from no-lose to a no-answers in the space of a few days on either side of Sunday’s 8-4 Schlock at the Rock.
Frederik Andersen, making his fourth straight start for the first time all year, wasn’t able to capture the momentum from his first three playoff appearances, getting caught up in the steamroll as the Devils piled it on.
Pyotr Kochetkov, in relief of Andersen only 53 seconds into the second period, having not played an NHL game in six weeks or an AHL game in four, had the opportunity to be an unlikely hero coming in down 4-0 but didn’t end up making any case to start Game 4 on Tuesday
Which leaves Raanta, who was an unexpected scratch from Game 2 with an illness, didn’t dress for Game 3 on Sunday and returned to the ice for practice Monday. Raanta was first off the ice, usually the sign of the next game’s starter, but Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour was noncommittal whether Raanta would even play.
“Not sure yet,” Brind’Amour said. “Hopefully? It’s nice to have some options. Until we reconvene and see how he’s doing, I’m not sure.”
Which means Tuesday may yet be a bounce-back opportunity for Andersen, who wasn’t beating himself up over Sunday. If his time watching most of the final two periods wasn’t enough to clear what happened in the first from his mind, he going back and watching the video per his usual routine did.
All of that only confirmed his initial judgments. The first was a lost puck battle behind the net, the second a Jack Hughes laser with unexpected timing after Stefan Noesen tipped the set-up pass and the third … well, the third didn’t look good, and Andersen knows it. But he also knows there was more going on there than meets the eye.
“I think it’s a good mental thing for me to see it again and see what happened — even it’s a good game, just kind of flush it,” Andersen said. “It’s easier to move past stuff when you focus on the next task once you have completed that task. I do it after every game, look at things in the game.
“You’ll find stuff you could have done better, and just like yesterday, there’s stuff I wouldn’t trade for anything. It just happened to be — for example, the third goal doesn’t look good, but I have to respect the backhand, he’s trying to go to the backhand and he loses the puck. To some people, it looks terrible.”
That not all Andersen could take comfort in heading into Game 4. There’s also the potential return of his partnership with Raanta, a critical factor in their combined success by managing both of their workloads. That rotation has been forestalled in the playoffs, first by Andersen’s illness and then injury and now by Raanta’s illness.
But their history over the past two seasons means Raanta’s potential availability is less of a threat than it is a relief, no matter who plays Tuesday night.
“It’s reassuring to know you’re not shouldering the load on your own,” Andersen said. “That’s just kind of how we are as a team as well. It has to be done collectively, and if everyone’s not buying in it’s not going to work. We’re not the first team that’s done it that way, but it works for us.”
There have really only been three games where the Hurricanes even had a real choice: Game 1 and Game 6 against the New York Islanders, and Game 1 of this series. If Raanta’s healthy and ready to go Tuesday, that’ll be a fourth.
It’s not necessarily the choice the Hurricanes would want to make, between a goalie who got pulled and one who may be rusty, but it’s still a choice.
Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at tinyurl.com/lukeslatest to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports
This story was originally published May 8, 2023 at 4:04 PM with the headline "With rotation on hold, Hurricanes’ goalie situation goes from no-lose to no-answers."
