No Frederik Andersen as Hurricanes Ready for Rangers’ Series

Raanta helped lead the Hurricanes to a seven-game, round-one series win against the Boston Bruins. His goals-against-average in that series was 2.37 and he had a save percentage of .927. He’ll be the main goalie for Carolina during this upcoming series.

Andersen’s Not Even Been Practicing

Although at the time of his injury, Andersen’s first prognosis was day-to-day, it’s now more like month-to-month. That means that, if the Hurricanes are going to advance to the next round, they’ll likely do it on the strength of a goalie who had not carried them during the regular season.

Although Andersen is unlikely to play against the Rangers during the Eastern Conference second round, there’s some hope it might not mean he’ll be out for the entire postseason. In fact, Hurricanes’ coach Rod Brind’Amour said he hoped Andersen could play at some point in the postseason.

When asked if Andersen might be back, Brind’Amour noted that “I would hope so, especially if we can move on.” However, Brind’Amour hinted that he might be tired of the question because he also noted: “Until he (Andersen) gets out there with us, you might as well stop asking me.”

Raanta’s The Goalie of Record for the Next Round

The Hurricanes are the home team and Game 1 against the Rangers starts on Wednesday. Raanta played well enough during the first-round series against the Bruins. However, in the back of Hurricanes fans minds, there must be some dread. Although Raanta made 27 saves in a 3-2 win in Game 7 on Saturday, he missed Game 3 because of an upper-body injury.

Hurricanes fans who are wondering where David Ayres might be, we’re not sure. For those who don’t recall, on February 22, 2020, when both Hurricanes’ goaltenders (James Reimer and Petr Mrázek) went down with injuries in a game against the Maple Leafs, Ayres came into the game in the second period as the emergency backup goalie. Although he allowed two goals on 10 shots, he was the winning goalie in that game.

We’re sure that the Hurricanes have other contingencies.