Carolina has a goalie problem with Bussi’s recent struggles

A feel-good story in this NHL season has seen some hardships as of late.

Carolina Hurricanes rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi was one of the biggest names in the NHL this season thanks to a historic debut. The Western Michigan University product has set a number of records so far this season. He became the first goaltender in NHL history to win 10 of his first 11 games, and followed that up by becoming the fastest goaltender to 20 career wins, achieving the feat in just 24 games. That led to Bussi signing a three-year contract extension with the Canes.

Yet, the Long Island native has hit a rough patch, losing each of his past three starts, giving up at least four goals in four of his past five games. During that time, Frederik Andersen has started to find his groove, winning four games in a row.

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss what has gone wrong with Bussi, and what the Canes might have to do at the position.

Tyler Yaremchuk: [Bussi’s] struggling to keep pucks out of the net, no matter how many shots he’s faced. Could we see a situation here where Carolina’s maybe forced to go back to the experience guy in Freddy Andersen down the stretch?

Carter Hutton: I think you can, and I think right now that is a little bit of a factor. When you look at the way the games have gone so far – Freddy wins the other night in overtime, he wasn’t great, but they found a way to score. He’s won his last four starts, Freddy Andersen, and Busse’s lost his last three, and it becomes a factor where I think for a while, Brandon Bussi wasn’t producing statistically. He wasn’t getting it done, but he was finding ways to win hockey games. To say you could have an .896 [save percentage], which is right at league average, and to be 25-6-1 just goes to show you you’re getting the offense at the right time, finding a way to win.

If that starts to go dry, if the team starts to grip a little bit, I think it becomes concerning because when you talk about the lack of experience for Brandon Bussi in those playoff moments, again, just like [Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen], this is a team in Carolina, there’s a lot of expectations. Freddy Andersen has 85 playoff games. And yes, you can say all you want about Freddy Andersen, he still is a very good goalie at his age. He can get it done. This could be a one-two punch. It will be interesting down the stretch to see who gets that game one.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…