Canes Make Trade Deadline Splashes On Nov. 2, Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen was playing in front of a sellout crowd at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, battling with his teammates as the journey towards another Stanley Cup Playoff run was just getting underway. A few days later, the Danish netminder's world was turned upside down. The team announced on Nov. 6 that Andersen would be out indefinitely with what was later revealed as deep-vein thrombosis with subsequent pulmonary embolism. When that diagnosis was first handed down, there were fears that his season, and potentially even his career, were at jeopardy. "It was a scary time," Andersen said. "Obviously I haven't dealt with this before." After the diagnosis, the 34-year-old's life became a whirlwind of testing, consultation and learning. "I tried to just get educated as much as I can to really understand the situation I was in," Andersen said. "Then I leaned on the great team of doctors that I've seen and taken their advice and their recommendations in making decisions." And slowly but surely, Andersen started to get his condition under control and before too long, the 'Great Dane' was back to training. At the beginning, all of his training was off-ice as he wasn't medically cleared to skate, but once he got the green light from his doctors at the end of January, it became almost like a sprint. "When I found out, I tried to treat it like an offseason," Andersen said. "I knew it was going to be a few months and I just tried to stay as ready as possible even though I wasn't on the ice as much. The second I got the go-ahead to be on the ice, I was out there trying to get my feet back under me again." Andersen began skating right away and within three weeks, he was back on the ice with his teammates, fully taking part in practice. It wouldn't be for another three weeks until he was finally cleared from IR, but last night, Andersen made it all the way back and not only did he play, he won. "Very, very happy," Andersen said. "It was just exciting to be out there with the guys again and feel the energy of the crowd. Being back was pretty nice." The man they call 'Freddie' turned aside 23 of the 24 shots he faced to pick up his first NHL win in over four months and he had to work for it too. "He made countless good ones when we needed it and that's really the key," Brind'Amour said Andersen said that he knew he was going to have to knock some rust off, but from up top, it didn't look like it took long for the rust to go. If Carolina can get Andersen back into the swing of things as a consistent performer, the Canes have to like their looks at a Stanley Cup run. They've already added Jake Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov to the group and tightening up the goaltending would be huge. But beyond the player element, from a human standpoint, Andersen being able to conquer his diagnosis and not only make a return to the ice, but do it in just a four-month span is inspiring. "I know he had a lot of doubts about even ever lacing them up again," Brind'Amour said. "To just knock that one out and feel good about getting back out there, whether we won or loss, and doing something that he loves to do, that was probably the biggest takeaway."
