Hurricanes players hope for best amid uncertainty surrounding injured goalie
Sunday’s Hurricanes-Devils game produced a far-too-familiar scene for Carolina center Sebastian Aho, who watched as the Canes’ starting goalie, Frederik Andersen, tumbled backward into his own net, the victim of a hit from New Jersey forward Timo Meier.
“You never want to see stuff like that happen, when your brother goes down,” Aho said. “Obviously, Freddie has been playing unreal for us.”
Unreal, since his most recent return from injury — most recent of an unfortunate “many.”
Andersen has endured several injuries and illnesses since arriving in Raleigh, many of them of the “long-term” variety. Aho has been witness to them all. And the Finnish center has also seen the team rally behind Andersen when it’s mattered most.
“At the same time, we have confidence for ‘Koochie’ (Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov), and even though it wasn’t the best start for him, he then kind of locked in and played a great game for us and got us a win (in Game 4).
“That’s winning hockey. The next guy steps in. Obviously he did, and it was big for us and hopefully Freddie will be all right.”
Monday, with the Canes taking a day off from skating, Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said he still was waiting on an update on Andersen.
“I don’t know anything yet. He’s getting evaluated as we speak,” Brind’Amour said at a midday media availability at Lenovo Center.
Andersen’s latest injury came Sunday in the second period of Game 4 of the Canes’ Stanley Cup playoff series with the Devils, when Meier barreled into Andersen in the goal crease. Initially, officials did not call a penalty. After the injury, they huddled and assessed Meier a five-minute major, which triggered a video review. But, the officials’ only options there were to either uphold the major or call nothing. The infraction, they deemed, did not rise to a major penalty, so none was called.
After a shaky start — he allowed a soft goal to Meier on the second shot he faced — Kochetkov finished out the 5-2 victory, stopping 14 of 15 shots.
“It obviously was a little dicey there at the start,” Brind’Amour said. “He doesn’t want that goal to go in too often.
“But again, how do you respond? He looked fine. He didn’t look shaky. That. to me, is the key. He hadn’t been in for a while and obviously with that happening it could have gone the other way. It didn’t, so I give him a lot of credit.”
Brind’Amour was asked Monday if Andersen was placed in the NHL’s concussion protocol after being taken off the ice.
“I can’t give you an update,” he said. “He left the game and he wasn’t in good shape, and he’s going to get checked out. That’s all I can tell you.”
Andersen, 35, has had knee and concussion concerns during his career, and also missed much of the 2023-24 season with a serious blood clotting issue. He was limited to 22 games in the 2024-25 regular season, undergoing knee surgery in November and not playing until the third week of January.
Andersen had played well in the first three games of the first-round series with the Devils and was off to a solid start Sunday before the collision with Meier.
Kochetkov, 25, played in 47 games for the Canes in the regular season, with a 27-16-3 record. Sunday’s playoff appearance was the seventh of his career.
