Who has the goaltending edge as the Canes host the Lightning in Game 1 of their series?
.jpg "Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic makes a pad save on a shot from Tampa Bay Lightning’s Ryan McDonagh as Steven Lorentz (78) defends during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)")
Alex Nedeljkovic of the Carolina Hurricanes is the kind of person and goalie who rarely gets caught up with who’s in the other net, playing for the other guys.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter,” Nedeljkovic said Saturday.
In the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs it was Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators. Saros was brilliant at times and twice won double-overtime games, but Nedeljkovic and the Canes won the series in six games.
But the second round brings a sterner test, perhaps the ultimate playoff test. The Canes face the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2020 Stanley Cup champion. They have Andrei Vasilevskiy, arguably the best goalie in the NHL and the world.
On paper, and in the opinion of many who follow the NHL, that’s a key mismatch — Vasilevskiy versus Nedeljkovic — and one could be the winning edge for Tampa Bay in the Central Division second-round series.
Vasilevskiy, 26, has the Stanley Cup championship ring. He won the 2019 Vezina Trophy and could win it again this year, and has led the league in wins the past four seasons. He will making his 60th career playoff start Sunday in Game 1 against the Canes at PNC Arena.
“He’s one of the best in the league and he’s been that way for a long time now,” Nedeljkovic said. “He knows what it takes to get to the end.”
The “end” being raising up the Cup in victory.
There’s also this to consider: In beating the Florida Panthers in six games in the opening round, Vasilevskiy was on the ice for 364 minutes. Nedeljkovic, in six games against the Predators, played 433 minutes, although he did face fewer shots (206) than Vasilevskiy (226).
Nedeljkovic, 25, has a simple approach to handling that kind of workload: Keep a clear head, focus on the next puck.
“Rinse and repeat,” he said. “Keep doing the same thing over and over.”
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said he no longer considered Nedeljkovic, who started 23 games in the regular season, a rookie after clinching the Nashville playoff series. Canes captain Jordan Staal feels much the same about the player known as “Ned” to his teammates, fans, family and friends.
“He looked calm and comfortable and he’s got a lot of gamer attitude of making those big saves when you need them,” Staal said Saturday. “Obviously he has consistently played the puck really well for our D and our forwards and helped us break out a lot. He has just done a lot of the little things that help us win and the boys feel comfortable when he’s in net.”
The Predators were impressed with Nedeljkovic’s puck-handling ability, tying to keep him from being in position to play it as the series wore on. That’s a keep-away approach the Lightning could copy.
Tripp Tracy, the Canes’ TV analyst and a former goalie, has watched Nedeljkovic develop from a second-round NHL draft pick to the American Hockey League to being the Canes starter in the playoffs.
Tracy, in a recent interview, said he likes the way Nedeljkovic goes about his business, about his positive demeanor on the ice. He said Nedeljkovic has adopted an “I want to dominate” kind of mentality — “An alpha thing,” Tracy said — that all the really good goalies have.
“That means he’s looking at any goalie in the league, though he’s not directly going against the goaltender at the other end, and believe he can absolutely be the guy who wins the goaltending dimension,” Tracy said. “And you absolutely have to have that self-belief. You’ve got to have that belief that you can be the difference. And Alex Nedeljkovic has those things.”
Nedeljkovic allowed three goals in three games against the Lightning this season, shutting out Tampa Bay 4-0 on Feb. 20. He was 2-1-0, all against Vasilevskiy, and won 4-1 in his last start against the Lightning on April 20 in Tampa.
Nedeljkovic had a .922 save percentage against the Predators in the first round. Vasilevskiy closed at . 929 in his six games against Florida, allowing six goals in a Game 3 loss but shutting out the Panthers 4-0 with 29 saves in Game 6 to close out the series.
Nedeljkovic said he watched some of Lightning-Panthers series, but only a little, saying, “Sometimes it’s good to get away from the rink a little bit, including watching other games. You just try to re-set and recharge and refocus.”
Nedeljkovic goes into the second-round series realizing there will be good times and bad, respectful of the firepower of a Tampa Bay lineup that now has winger Nikita Kucherov back in it. Kucherov’s 11 playoff points lead the NHL.
But playoff pressure?
“It’s really no different than any other position that I’ve been in,” Nedeljkovic said “There’s obviously more people in the buildings now, so it’s a bigger audience, and more cameras in your face. You’ve got to stay as even keel as possible. Ride the highs and try to get out of the lows as quick as you can, because they’re going to be there. It’s trying to avoid them as best you can and try to keep them as small as you can.”
Carolina Hurricanes vs Tampa Bay Lightning
What: Game 1, Stanley Cup playoff series
When: Sunday. 5 p.m.
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh
TV: NBCSN
This story was originally published May 29, 2021 at 6:30 PM.
