Frederik Andersen’s absence is different. Hurricanes still know how to win without him
The puck, flipped high into the air, fell neatly to Casey Mittelstadt. As he charged across the blue line, nothing but open ice between him and Antti Raanta, Raanta had a beat to decide: Stay or go.
He went.
Raanta tore out of his crease at Mittelstadt in a game of hockey chicken as old as time. He got his stick to the puck and poked it away, but the puck caromed back to Mittelstadt. Raanta, all the way out to the right faceoff circle, was entirely at sea. As his teammates sprinted toward the open net behind him, Raanta got a stick on the puck, again. The score, midway through the third period, remained tied.
“I wanted to see what the world looks like from there,” Raanta said. “It’s not any brighter.”
Raanta was in uncharted waters. The Carolina Hurricanes, minus Frederik Andersen for the foreseeable future, are not.
Tuesday night’s 3-2 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres ended with yet another Martin Necas overtime goal, but it started with Raanta making big saves early to get his team through a rough start in its first game without Andersen, diagnosed Monday with a blood-clotting disorder that will take some time to sort out.
It’s not the first time the Hurricanes have been without Andersen for an extended period of time, even if the uncertainty of his situation casts an entirely different aura over things. They’ve found ways to win without him before, time and time again, regular season and postseason, and there’s nothing new about that.
“It would be easier to deal with the injury if it’s a groin or a knee and you have a timetable when you’re going to come back,” Raanta said. “At first it was more like a shock and feeling super bad for Freddie and hoping everything goes well. It’s early in the season, lots of games to play, and probably the mindset is staying pretty much the same.”
But the geography of the locker room has changed. Pyotr Kochetkov, back from the minors, is in Andersen’s old locker, at the front of the room. Jaroslav Halak, on a tryout contract, has his gear in Kochetkov’s old corner locker. And Raanta is where he always has been, opposite Andersen’s usual spot, ready when called upon, whether that’s once a month or three times a week.
“Being without Freddie, we’ve probably played half the time he’s been here without him,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It’s not like, ‘Oh no!’ ‘Koochie’ has come up and he’s done his part. ‘Raants,’ we know what we’re getting from both guys. He was solid tonight and that’s what we need.”
His early save on Peyton Krebs on Tuesday probably averted early disaster. Krebs thought he scored when his shot glanced off Raanta’s pad, but it landed softly in Raanta’s mitt. As Krebs started to celebrate, Raanta was the only one who actually knew where the puck was for a moment, although it became quickly apparent.
The first goal he allowed was unstoppable after Seth Jarvis had his pocket picked just feet from the net. The second he’d like to have back, although it was a rolling puck dispatched from a place few players would shoot. Rasmus Dahlin did, though, after pinging the puck off the boards to swoop past Teuvo Teravainen. An elite play, from an elite player. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap.
Which is what every opponent seems to be saying about Necas these days, at least at three-on-three. Necas chipped a Sebastian Aho pass over Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in tight quarters for his second overtime winner this season.
Some things really don’t change. The Hurricanes will soldier on without Andersen, again, but at least they know what they’re getting into.
“Obviously we’re feeling for him right now, but we know Raants is obviously a top goaltender too,” said Brady Skjei, who had a goal and an assist. “We’ve got two No. 1s and when he’s stepped in he’s always played well for us. Koochie, same way. We have confidence in all our goalies and we play the same way whoever’s in the net.”
Or way the heck out of it, apparently.
Andersen was the Hurricanes’ best goaltender over the first month of the season. Their first game without him, they didn’t miss a beat.
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