The 35-year-old netminder had already been out for weeks with a lower-body injury.
The 35-year-old netminder had already been out for weeks with a lower-body injury.
So it seems like the Carolina Hurricanes are going to be without goaltender Frederik Andersen for much longer than originally anticipated.
After the Canes practice on Friday, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour gave an update on the team's Danish netminder.
"The update that I got given was... we were hoping it was going to be week-to-week, but now it's going to be, I'd say... way longer," Brind'Amour said. "Let's just leave it at that because I don't really have much to go on other than that it's not week-to-week."
Andersen, 35, has been out of the lineup since suffering a lower-body injury Oct. 26 against the Seattle Kraken.
Despite finishing that game, the Danish netminder was ruled out the following day and hasn't been on the ice since.
Andersen has dealt with a plethora of injury concerns throughout his Hurricanes career, the most serious being a blood-clotting issue last season, and it seems like this is yet another one.
It's a tough blow for him and the team as he had had a tremendous start to the year with a 3-1-0 record, 0.941 save percentage and 1.48 goals against average.
To make matters worse, starting goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov is day-to-day himself putting the Canes in a bit of a bind.
"Injuries, in general, are worrisome because you don't have your team, but the goaltending position is the backbone of the whole thing," Brind'Amour said. "[Andersen's] thing is, I guess, a little more worrisome. [Kochetkov] will be back maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. We're not too concerned with that, but [Andersen's] is obviously a little more concerning."
Perhaps hindsight is 20/20, but it seems like relying on Andersen to stay healthy was just a plan doomed to fail from the start.