Frederik Andersen, coast-to-coast dangler?
OK, so the Carolina Hurricanes goaltender didn’t rag the puck from one red line to the other during Tuesday’s clash with the New York Rangers, but he got halfway. Maybe that’s the goalie equivalent.
On a delayed Rangers penalty early in the second period, Andersen took off for the Canes bench. While he was en route, teammate Martin Necas attempted to stickhandle around him and ended up handing the puck off to Andersen instead.
And off Freddie went. He stickhandled around, of all people, silky-mitted Rangers superstar Artemi Panarin, carrying the puck to the center line before hurling a backhand pass back into the Canes zone to blueliner Tony DeAngelo. Watch:
Andersen has never earned headlines for his puckhandling the way Martin Brodeur or Marty Turco did in their heydays, nor has Andersen been placed in the same class as Mike Smith in this generation. But Andersen has always been an above-average puckhandler and he showcased it Tuesday.
The play was reminiscent of this one from Andersen’s childhood idol, Patrick Roy:
So Andersen now owns one of the best goalie highlights of 2021-22. Will he also own some individual hardware by season’s end? The Vezina Trophy remains Igor Shesterkin’s to lose but, entering Tuesday’s games, Andersen led the NHL in goals-against average while sitting third in wins and fourth in save percentage.
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