How tough lessons made Frederik Andersen the MVP-c…

MONTREAL — The best players know when to flip their proverbial switch on the ice. The favorite teammates know when to do the same off of it, too.

Both of those statements describe Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen.

“Freddie is an interesting guy like that,” defenseman K’Andre Miller said. “You see how good he is in the net, and out there, he’s very vocal, always helping you out and showing up huge. Then in the dressing room he’s quiet, reserved, and doesn’t talk all that much — until he does. And suddenly he’s this funny guy and really quickly turns into the life of the party.”

Right now, Andersen and the Hurricanes are having a time. Carolina is deep into its third Eastern Conference finals appearance in four seasons, and the Hurricanes have Andersen to thank not only for how they got there but also for their 3-1 series lead over the Montreal Canadiens.

Heading into the series, Andersen was 8-0 with a .950 save percentage and 1.12 goals-against average as Carolina swept its way through the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers. This series hasn’t been quite as smooth sailing for Andersen individually. He’s 3-1, but his numbers have drifted to an .859 save percentage and 2.12 goals-against average. But Carolina’s 4-0 victory in Game 4 marked Andersen’s third shutout of the playoffs (and fifth of his career, a new Hurricanes franchise record).

All of it has resulted in a chance to secure a spot in the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, pending a Game 5 win in Raleigh on Friday (8 p.m. ET).

The duplicity of Andersen’s character makes it hard to tell whether he’s pleased or perturbed by the postseason thus far.

“I saw him walking out of [the media room]; he didn’t look too excited,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said ahead of Game 4, when asked if he’s seeing a different version of Andersen this postseason. “That might be you guys, though. No, he’s very even-keeled, and for that position that’s really important, I think, and certainly the way he plays is to be that way. You wouldn’t know [from his demeanor] if he had a good game or bad game.”

That demeanor might come from his experience — and lessons learned — from prior conference finals appearances.

Backstopping the Anaheim Ducks in the 2015 Western Conference finals, the series was tied 2-2 and the Ducks survived to win Game 5 in overtime, but Andersen wasn’t the same after that. He lost the next two games, with an .813 save percentage and 4.69 goals-against average as the Blackhawks advanced.

After a stint in Toronto from 2016 to 2021, Andersen moved on to Carolina and has been a bright spot for the Hurricanes despite rough results in their past conference finals showings. He had a .921 save percentage and 1.87 goals-against average in 2023 … but went 0-3 as Carolina was swept by Florida. The Hurricanes lost to the Panthers again in 2025, and while Andersen earned one win, his numbers were significantly worse (.838 save percentage and 3.63 goals-against average).

To repeatedly come up just short of a Cup Final could wear anyone down. It has seemed to energize Andersen, so he can now fully embrace the current situation.

“I’m just thankful for the opportunity, really,” Andersen said. “I’ve been through a lot. So I can be grateful for just still being around and being able to play for this long. It’s been really cool. We all dream about these times a year, and it’s really special.”

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ANDERSEN HAD NO ASSURANCES about his station on the Hurricanes’ depth chart heading into this season — just another motivating factor for him to cherish this potential of reaching hockey’s promised land.

The veteran has been through several health challenges over the years. Missing time with rehabs and forced downtime — including due to serious blood clotting during the 2023-24 season — has impacted his overall performance. While he was in and out of the lineup, Carolina has turned to other veteran starters, such as Antti Raanta, and trotted out some new potential stars including Pyotr Kochetkov and Brandon Bussi.

The latter took over as Carolina’s go-to netminder for much of the 2025-26 regular season. Andersen began as the Hurricanes’ starter but was usurped by Bussi after Carolina claimed him off waivers from Florida in October as insurance that paid unexpectedly high dividends. Andersen’s dry spell in the fall included being left behind on a road trip to New York in November so he could “work on his game,” according to Brind’Amour, while the team turned to Kochetkov for the start with Bussi behind him.

At that stage, the Hurricanes were determined to keep Andersen, Bussi and Kochetkov. But Andersen appeared in only 15 games from there until the NHL returned from its Olympic break in late February — and that’s when the lights began flickering on again. Andersen went 9-4 to finish the regular season, and while his numbers weren’t stellar (.879 save percentage, 2.70 goals-against average) it was enough for Brind’Amour to give him the nod over Bussi for Game 1 of the playoffs.

He and the Hurricanes haven’t looked back.

“It’s about being really shortsighted,” Andersen said of his strategy for coming alive at the right moment. “Be focused on today, and really, what can you get out of today that’s going to help us out for the [next] big game? And I think we’ve been really good at doing that as a group, focusing on these small details in the game, and then I think we’ve just enjoyed this journey too.

“It’s been a ton of fun, so I think it makes it really fun to wake up every day and see the guys and just be in this battle and this fun experience together.”

Carolina general manager Eric Tulsky bet on Andersen to be where he is now when he offered the pending free agent a one-year, $2.75 million contract in May 2025. It was something of a show-me deal for Andersen that could have left Tulsky with some egg on his face if all Andersen had to show for it was a 16-14-5 regular-season record alongside a career-worst .874 save percentage.

However, the switch flipped when it mattered, and Tulsky’s low-risk move is reaping its own rewards now that Andersen has secured more wins for Carolina (three) in a conference finals round than they’d combined for throughout those entire last two series against Florida (one).

“We’ve had a belief that if he stayed with it and continued playing well, he would succeed like this,” Tulsky said. “He has a really long history of playing at a high level, and he has been good for us for many years. Even this year when his numbers weren’t great, his play was solid.

“And it’s not always on the goalie — the games Freddie played in December, there were more pucks that went into our net off our own skaters than into the other net. Hard to win that way. But he is very steady, he’s very levelheaded, and shakes things off, and moves to the next shot. We knew, sooner or later, the results would come for him.”

Andersen has earned the “Steady Freddie” moniker, as it’s the most commonly used adjective to describe him. That unflappability manifests in some of the toughest situations a goaltender can face. In this series against Montreal, Andersen has been practically on an island over the last three wins as Carolina’s hard-hitting style continuously stymies the Canadiens’ progress through the neutral zone. It has been a marked difference from Game 1, when Montreal shellacked the Hurricanes — coming off a 12-day break following their sweep of the Flyers — with four goals in the first period to win 6-2 and hand Carolina its first loss of the postseason.

The carnage through those first 20 minutes was hardly on Andersen — the defensive breakdowns in front of him turned into multiple breakaways for the Canadiens — but it can be challenging for a netminder to be standing around waiting for the next puck to fly his way than it is to be under siege.

“You’d like to have all the easy shots, right? So you’re feeling it; that’s just part of being a goalie,” Andersen said. “[Not having that], it’s something you’ve got to learn. As you get older, you get more experience with it. And playing on this team, we have the puck a lot, we pressure hard, so these kinds of [low-shooting] games happen quite often, as you’ve already seen. It’s just taking that experience and battling with yourself to be focused on what’s next.”

Andersen made 21 saves on those 25 shots in Games 2 and 3 to guide Carolina to a pair of post-regulation victories. It’s the quality and not just quantity of saves that can be a difference-marker on the score sheet. Those aforementioned lessons picked up along the way have aided Andersen in staying engaged while the Hurricanes play keep-away with the puck in front of him so when the Canadiens do attack he can come up big.

“Fred has tons of experience being in situations that are big games,” defenseman Sean Walker said. “It’s like even the nights that he’s not facing a lot of shots, he seems to be making key saves for us at important times at night. That’s why he’s been a huge key to our success throughout this playoff so far.”

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THE MANTRA TO “play every game like it’s Game 7” resonates with all ages in the NHL — and it especially drives Andersen’s teammates to ensure he has a shot at what comes next with a series victory.

Defenseman Jaccob Slavin took the heat for Carolina’s meltdown in Game 1 in what was the worst performance of his then 95-game postseason career (with the minus-four rating to show for it). Leaving Andersen out to dry was part of what pained Slavin, considering all that the goalie has been through to get the Hurricanes to where they are.

“He’s been a brick wall for us back there, a real backstop,” Slavin said. “And that’s awesome for him; it’s awesome to see him play that way. We’ve always known it’s in there, right? He’s such a calm demeanor back there, and so for him to be playing that way is the reason we’re having so much success.”

If anyone on the outside doubted Andersen could be both an average regular-season performer and top-tier postseason goaltender, then according to Sebastian Aho, they simply don’t know Freddie — the man, or the player.

“Yeah, he’s calm, collected, all those things. But he’s funny and surprising and there are just so many sides to Freddie,” Aho said. “I’ve seen him playing great hockey for us in the postseason before. He knows this time of year very well. I had all the faith in the world for him to perform at the start of the playoffs, and it definitely hasn’t been shaken along the way.”

That steadfast nature has put Andersen in good standing up until now. Cultivating a sense of urgency in the postseason is nothing new, but there is a fresh perspective on it the deeper one gets into their final years.

“You can’t take it for granted, and I think the older guys, for sure, get it,” Brind’Amour said of the Canes being on the cusp of a Cup Final. “But [you] try to do a good job in making sure younger guys understand that, too. You can’t take a day in this league for granted, let alone a Stanley Cup playoff game. It’s easier for the older guys to appreciate that, and I know [Andersen], he certainly does.”