Goaltending struggles highlight Carolina Hurricanes’ 5-1 loss to Toronto

Goaltending struggles highlight Carolina Hurricanes’ 5-1 loss to Toronto

All right, 5-1 was the score. Canes lost. Toronto was in town. There was a little bit of a time off before it. So, so, you know, I and I think many were hoping that the Canes, you know, fresh legs, ready to roll, uh maybe healthier. Turns out, maybe not healthier. Keandre Miller uh wasn’t able to go with a with an illness, which which shuffled up, I’m sure, some of the plans. Uh, I want to start with the the water on the fire, the wet blanket. I want to start with the calm down of it all before we ramp up the uh maybe overreaction of it all. They’re second in the Eastern Conference. The Carolina Hurricanes are second in the Eastern Conference with plenty of time left in the season. Okay. So, so if if like I’ve been saying all along, we judge the Carolina Hurricanes the way you should judge the Carolina Hurricanes this season, which would be by how they do in the postseason. We’re not to panic time. We’re not to get mad time. We’re not to get depressed time. We’re not to the the the any kind of alarm time. It is December 5th. the postseason is a long way away and they are still comfortably in position to be right where they want to be when the postseason begins. So everything right they I always say uh it’s the old old sales um cliche, right? Don’t accept a no from someone that can’t tell you yes, right? Right? When you’re trying to like you’re trying to sell to a business, don’t let uh you know, if if the only person that can say yes to a gigantic purchase order is the boss, don’t let anyone but the boss tell you no, right? It’s an old old cliche. So similar, right? If if they if the Canes were playing lights out right now, if they were on a 10ame win streak, they they were averaging five and a half goals a game, giving up two. If they were lights out, I’d be going, “Yeah, I mean, what are they going to do? win another President’s Trophy. Like, what are they going to do? Win the division? No. It’s about what they do to get to the cup. Can they win in the Eastern Conference Finals? So, if I wouldn’t accept positive for reasons they’re playing right now, don’t panic with the negative. Have a little bit of faith, a little bit of trust. Yeah. I mean, there’s going to be games where it’s just not clicking. And last night, just again, like just didn’t seem to be a ton of energy, creativity in terms of offense. Obviously, you know, some struggles on the defensive end as well. And it is weird how I think someone pointed this out in our YouTube chat. It feels like every time they have a little bit of a layoff, a little bit of extra time to rest and get healthy and and get ready, they do come out a little bit flat after that. I don’t remember if it was last year or a couple seasons ago they were coming off a layoff uh and they played a game I think it was against Winnipeg I want to say and you’d think they they’d come out firing and then all those days off they end up I think they had like a fiveday break then and they just laid an egg against uh against the Jets uh in a game you know a couple seasons ago. I think it was kind of around the trade deadline as well. Um it’s it’s a weird thing. I think this team, it’s kind of like uh you when we talk about the Panthers and Dave Canales, they talk about the running backs like needing to get into a lather. Like I think they kind of play better when they get into that rhythm and they’re kind of, you know, able to keep the momentum going a little bit. And I I fall for it every single time. When they get like four days off, I’m like, “Oh, they’re going to be great.” And and then they start slow and I I fall for it every single time. So maybe y’all can help me uh watch guard that one. Um, the one thing I think that is is not being overreacted to is the goalie, right? I and and and even yesterday, right, you can go back and listen to our show yesterday going into the game. Uh, I had this big this big uh practically a sermon, definitely a monologue about patience and about, you know, a lot of these problems I believe will be healed over time. Uh, but every single time that we had that conversation or every single time I made what I felt felt was a big dramatic point, I I added the qualifier. Of course, this is separating goalie of because if we’re judging by the postseason, then this entire season is about figuring out who you want in goal. Are they good enough in goal in the postseason? Right? If we’re judging them by the postseason, then the the regular season is just all a pretest, right? It’s all the practice test. And I think we’ll learn actions speak louder than words when it comes to to Freddy Anderson and how they’re going to be handled going forward because you know I like everybody. Um and I know you were actually, you know, your little side hustle there. You’re you’re in the building. There were some uh some faux cheers for Freddy Anderson yesterday. Uh Paul Aander and I were talking about it this morning on on Next Up. calls it the the Bronx cheer, I believe. Just the sarcastic. It’s like uh when Patrick Wah left Montreal and there’s the famous clip of like the puck rolls in on him from the neutral zone and the whole crowd starts cheering and he puts his hands up to like kind of mock celebrate and kind of give it back to him and after that he got traded to Colorado and you the rest of that is is history. And I’m not saying Freddy Anderson is Patrick Wave when I make that comparison by the way. Let’s make that clear. It’s It’s You’re getting good at this media thing because because you could see that happening in slow motion. Yeah. I have to I have to make sure that that qualifier is in there. And look, like I’m not personally a fan of that. Like if if you’re supporting your team, like support your team. That’s the way it is for me. And obviously he’s struggling and and and Freddy knows that. I’m sure he knows he’d like to be playing better. It’s probably not fun for him to to be struggling right now. But at the same time, there’s also a responsibility for the coaches to put the best players on the ice. Uh, you know, to give the team a chance to win. And Freddy has not really given them that chance recently. And it’s the it’s the early shots, too. You got to get through that first segment of the game without giving up a goal. And like there were jokes around the building, like in the buildup, too. It’s like, all right, you know, if he saves the first two or three, like maybe we’ll be in this game. and then, you know, immediately that shot off the post and in early and they’re already playing from behind less than a minute in. Uh, it’s it’s tough. So, there’s got to be some kind of changes, some kind of decisions made on on the goending rotation. Obviously, I don’t think Freddy Anderson is just going to be phased out of it immediately. But, I think he has it in him to bounce back and be better than what we’ve seen. cuz if not, it’s looking eerily reminiscent to me of when Auntie Ront kind of had his final season in Carolina a few years ago as well. Let’s hear from Freddy himself after the game on uh on if he still has his game. Here’s uh Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. I don’t want that one. I want to hear Rod Bindmore first. Rod Bindore talking about uh uh that he doesn’t really fault Anderson on the goals. I mean, that’s, you know, tough because you don’t really fault him, I don’t think, on the goals. Just there was only a handful of really good quality tenses. They just they were able to capitalize. I mean, that’s what they do. That’s a great team offensively. And, you know, there was I think the second one is just a tough one. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s bad bounce totally. And then now we’re down two and then, you know, they did a real nice job kind of hunkering in. They didn’t have to open it up. And then when we kind of try to, they capitalize. I think actions, the reason why I said that earlier, actions will speak louder than words because they have options, right? All right. If Pico Kochov comes back and and Busy stays solid, they don’t have to play Freddy. So saying like, “Oh, we still believe a there wasn’t.” You can say whatever you want. We’ll see who’s in net over the next however many games. That’s going to say a lot more. Uh Freddy Anderson after the game was asked if he still has his game. As I teased earlier, this is what that sounded like. The way I look at it, I played I played Wars Hog in better numbers. It’s not really It’s It doesn’t look good. Uh, obviously we’re not getting the wins uh with with me in net lately, but uh I still feel like I got my game um maybe not perfectly where where I wanted, but uh like I said, I’ve had worse stretches where where things have looked better and and got more wins. So that’s uh how I look at it. Try to be try to be positive and and it is this is what it comes down to for me for Freddy. Okay. And I and I like Freddy. I think uh you know during the postseason last year at times he was really really good. Like I I I think goalies, pitchers, quarterbacks, they get more of the blame than they deserve and they get more of the credit than they deserve when things are going poorly or well and and you you can guess how that all goes. Um the third goal had to be stopped last night. I think that’s one that that you know he’s he’ll see when he closes his eyes laying on laying to go to sleep. He’ll see that one on replay. I mean, that was a ridiculous individual effort, though. True. By by Matthew N. Just to be able to even have a get a shot off there, but even more so, right? An individual crazy effort that gets blanked. So important. Um, I thought the first one he probably could have could have got. Other than that, you know, he would have had to make a play. But that’s I think the most frustrating part with Anderson is occasionally you just need to bail your teammates out as a goalie, right? Occasionally you need to get to one that that maybe you shouldn’t, right? OA occasionally you need to um you know, I’m thinking baseball terms, be an outfielder that gets to one like outside your range that only had a.3% uh catch percentage, right? So your pitcher gets a better erra, maybe a little undeserved, but they got bailed out by a teammate. Make a web gem. For those of you from back in the day, get Carl Ravich saying web gem for you. Like like that’s a part of being a goalie. It just is. It’s a part of being a goalie is getting the one occasionally when your team needs it. That wouldn’t have been a bad goal if he allowed it. and and Freddy hasn’t done that enough, which is a tall ask, don’t get me wrong, but how many times do we see, particularly in the postseason, particularly when things are getting to crunch time, particularly when the Canes are having their hearts ripped out, a great look by a Kane’s forward, a great look by a Kane’s winger, and a goalie makes a stop that they shouldn’t, right? That you’re going, how? And that’s what it all turns on. in the last the last loss before last night against Rangers last week uh on Wednesday. I mean, that’s what Shist Sturken was doing. I think they played a good game in that one and ended up losing four to one because Shistkurkin was just he’s able to to kind of pull them out of those situations cuz he’s so good. Even though the the the Rangers themselves, I don’t think are are that great of a team, but you know, when you have that that goalender back there, they’re a he’s able to to really do a lot for you. I we’ve now referenced Tashik Ro uh Patrick Wah and uh and and Shurken. I don’t need I don’t need Freddy. I don’t need anybody to be that right at their best. You just you you just got to do the goalie thing. It’s it’s the the it factor, whatever you want to call it thing. We haven’t been seeing it enough. Uh well, besides the being like the it factor, even just average numbers would be a little bit of an improvement over, you know, what we’ve seen from Freddy so far this year. And you know, the statistic is 11-1 in games not started by Freddy and then 57 and two in his games and they’ve lost the last six that he’s started. And I’m just hoping that in the interest of saying both sides of the story though, I do think hockey is a large sample size sport, right? Uh you know, if you have a bad fiveame stretch by the end of the year, we’re not talking about the bad fiveame stretch. You’re looking at, you know, save percentages and everything over the season. Um I I just think it’s it’s worth experimenting now, right? Like I said, it’s December 5th. There’s a lot of time to experiment. If you if you wanted to if you’re Rod Brenda or your Eric Tolski or whoever’s in their little inner circle, if you wanted to find out if Brandon Busy was for real, give him some real volume, this is a time I’d be okay with it. Yeah. I think he plays two of these next three. And Freddy and Freddy’s been he’s missed chunks of seasons before for injury and not been any worse for the wear, right, when he when he returned. So, you know, I don’t I don’t think you wor Maybe it’ll help if you give him a long time off, but I don’t think you’re you’re you know, worried about that.

Tim Donnelly & Max Goren react to the Carolina Hurricanes’ tough loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Freddie Andersen’s struggles in net, and the current scoring and powerplay issues plaguing the Canes.

Find us anywhere!

The Fan App for iPhones: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/99-9-the-fan/id6749218703
The Fan App for Androids: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bal.thefan&pcampaignid=web_share&pli=1
Website: https://www.999thefan.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/999thefan
X (Formerly Twitter): https://x.com/999TheFan
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@999thefan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/999thefan/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/99.9TheFan

#hurricanes #nhl #hockey #prohockey #professionalhockey #canes #carolinahurricanes #carolina #kochetkov #andreisvechnikov #sebastianaho #jaccobslavin #stefannoesen #teuvoteravainen #pyotrkochetkov #JalenChatfield #MartinNecas #Marty #TonyDeAngelo #AnttiRaanta #JackDrury #JordanStaal #JordanMartinook #BradySkjei #JakeGuentzel #Guentzel #Kuznetsov #EvgenyKuznetsov #letsgocanes #causechaos #nhlplayoffs #stanleycup #stanleycupplayoffs #sports #999thefan #takewarning #raiseup #BrindAmour #stanleycup #stanleycupplayoffs #causechaos