Tragedy strikes a very important player of the Canadiens and Hurricanes series
Frederik Andersen gave Rod Brind'Amour exactly what the Carolina Hurricanes needed Friday night.
That's been the story for weeks now.
When Brind'Amour talks about Andersen, one point keeps coming back: no matter the moment, the goalie looks the same.
That isn't faint praise. It's the foundation of Andersen's game.
Good stretch, bad stretch, high-pressure stretch, his posture and pace rarely change.
That calm showed again in Carolina's 6-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final.
Andersen stopped 23 of 24 shots and never looked rattled.
Montreal didn't generate much once Carolina took control, but Andersen was sharp from puck drop to the final buzzer.
He gave the Hurricanes exactly what they expect from their crease.
Carolina has rolled through the playoffs like a machine, winning 12 of 13 games before the Stanley Cup Final.
Against Montreal, they outshot the Canadiens 167-89 in the series.
Andersen's night carried more than hockey weight, he faced a tragedy
At his best, Andersen fits this team perfectly. He can go long stretches without much action, then answer when the one dangerous look finally shows up.
One teammate called those premium opportunities «$10 chances.» Andersen has been swallowing those moments all spring, and Friday brought another layer to it.
Just one day earlier, news broke that Claude Lemieux, Andersen's longtime agent and someone he called «like family,» had died.
After the win, Andersen told TNT it was «surreal» reaching the Final.
The emotion hit the room hard. Jordan Martinook tried to explain what Andersen had carried into that game, then struggled to get through it.
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Brind'Amour understood the weight of it, too.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 29, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Taylor Hall | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Logan Stankoven | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jackson Blake | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexander Nikishin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Phillip Danault | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||