After weeks sidelined, Frederik Andersen returns to net. He aims to break a winless streak and recapture his elite form, facing a tough Panthers challenge.
For the first time in nearly three weeks, Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen is slated to be back in the net as the Canes prepare to take on the Florida Panthers before the holiday break.
The Danish netminder entered the season as Carolina's de facto number one netminder, but inconsistent results have plagued him for the last month or so.
Andersen currently has a 5-7-0 record and a 0.875 save percentage on the season, and hasn't won a game since Nov. 6.
However, the veteran goaltender believes that his play is better than the numbers have reflected.
"When you talk about numbers, there's a lot of circumstances that can affect that in ways both good and bad," Andersen told The Hockey News. "So as a goalie, you can't really read into that. Deep down, you know what you could have done differently on good plays, on bad plays and what you could have done or what you wanted to do and how you could have executed the way you wanted to. That's goaltending. It's not anything new. Just the nature of it."
A large part of Andersen's struggles too can be boiled down to just plain bad luck, but at the end of the day, the game's a result-driven business.
And when both Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov, who have taken the opportunity presented by Andersen's inability to come up with a win and ran with it, posting a combined record of 17-3-1 and a 0.908 save percentage, then it's easy to see why Andersen hasn't seen the net as of late.
"The other two guys were playing lights out, so it was hard to take starts away from them," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "But we also know that if we can get him going at the level he's capable of, then it'll make it that much better for us. It's not a perfect situation, but it is when the other two guys were playing lights out."
Even though a tumble down the depth charts could be quite a blow to the pride of a veteran, accomplished goaltender like Andersen, he isn't allowing those thoughts to creep in.
"You're under the circumstance of three goalies and you have to take what you can get in terms of practice time and just try to stay with it and each day, try to get better and do what you can to just continue the process of getting better every day," Andersen said.
Tuesday night will be a tall task for Andersen, especially as Carolina is missing quite a few key pieces, but if there's one one thing going for the Dane, it's that he's no stranger to long layoffs.
The 36-year-old goaltender has dealt with a myriad of health concerns over the past few seasons, frequently taking him out of the lineup for long stretches.
"He's done just that for the last five years," Brind'Amour said. 'He's missed a lot of time, but it's time for him to get back in there. We don't want to leave him out to dry so to speak. We obviously have another little break coming, so it would have just been a real, real long layoff. Gotta get him going."
But this start will be the first time where he's had to wait a while while being fully healthy.
"I've been feeling good, feeling healthy and stuff so it's been nice in that department obviously with the adversity the last couple of years," Andersen said.
Asked if he feels more pressure to perform in this next outing given the way the season's gone, Andersen kept the same level headed composure in his answer that has been his calling card his entire career.
"It's not going to help any or do any good to think too much about it," Andersen said. "My goal is to try and be out there and try to make the next save so we have a chance of winning. That's really what it comes down to. Can't focus on much else. To get the wins, it's a team thing. A lot of things have to go right to get the wins."
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