Andersen’s playoff perfection fuels Hurricanes. He’s bee dominant, with elite saves, and now he aims to carry momentum against a surging Flyers team.
The first round of the NHL playoffs has come and gone and after all the action, Frederik Andersen stands atop the crowd as the best playoff goaltender so far.
The Carolina Hurricanes veteran netminder manned the crease in all four games of his team's sweep of the Ottawa Senators and he was one of the key reasons for their dominance.
"Can't understate that, especially when you consider how well the other guy was playing in their end," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "Like, it was a goalie matchup and they were going save for save. And we needed it. Otherwise this thing could have looked a lot different. Freddie... that was probably the best hockey he's played for us since being a Hurricane."
In four games, Andersen put up a perfect 4-0 record, a 0.955 save percentage, a 1.1 goals against average and a shutout.
Looking even further beneath the hood, the Danish netminder actually led the entire league in goals saved above expected (7.6) according to MoneyPuck.com, meaning he wasn't just being insulated by the Canes' defense either.
Andersen was just that good in that first round series, allowing only five goals in total and just three of those at 5v5.
"I feel good," Andersen about his game. "Obviously happy to close out [the first round] in four. When you have a chance to put a team away, you want to do that as soon as possible and we were happy to get that done."
Now in the second round, Andersen will face a Philadelphia Flyers squad that finished the regular season as one of the league's hottest teams and took out the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.
For his career, the veteran goaltender has been pretty good in the second round, much like the first.
Andersen has a 14-6 record in round two and won three of the four series he's played in.
In those games, he's posted a career save percentage of 0.915 and a 0.908 save percentage as a Hurricane.
To be honest, the only real drop off for him in second round was in that 2024 New York Rangers series, where he posted a 0.878 save percentage in five games.
Take that series out and he'd have a career save percentage of 0.928 in the second round, which is pretty good.
For Andersen, there's also normally a bit of worry about workload given his age and injury history, but this year's been a unique one in the fact that he's played quite a small amount of games and has been pretty much injury free.
Add in the extra rest from the first-round sweep and Andersen said he feels good to go for Round 2.
"Loved it," Andersen said on his postseason workload. "It's fun out there."
The Hurricanes have done well to balance rest and practice time for their netminder and Andersen himself took Friday's practice off in preparation for Saturday's showdown.
"You want to prioritize some recovery versus getting on the ice, but I think we handled that well," Andersen said.
For the Hurricanes to reach their ultimate goal this year, they're going to need consistent performances in net and, so far, Andersen is delivering on his side of the bargain.
"It's just been solid start after solid start and he's been very calming back there," Brind'Amour said. "It never felt like we were under any real duress even though we certainly were at times. I think it's just been his demeanor in the net and then obviously making key saves at crucial times."
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