LAS VEGAS — The first\u00a0Carolina Hurricanes\u00a0player to receive the Stanley Cup from captain\u00a0Jordan Staal\u00a0was a goaltender. Just not the one responsible for their Game 6\u00a03-0 win\u00a0over the\u00a0Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Staal, 37, handed the Cup to\u00a0Frederik Andersen, 36, his teammate on the Hurricanes for the past five years. He started the first 16 games of Carolina’s Stanley Cup run, winning 13 of them, before leaving the series in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was shocked. I was a deer in the headlights. I was not really ready for that,” Andersen said. “I think it still has to sink in. You still have to figure out if you’re dreaming or not.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hurricanes fans in the Golden Knights’ arena chanted “Fred-die!” as he skated the Cup. But for most of the night, they were chanting something else: “Bus-si!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brandon Bussi\u00a0replaced Andersen in the third period of Game 3, stopping 18 of 19 shots before the Hurricanes lost in double overtime to Vegas. He won the next three games of the series to clinch the Cup for the Hurricanes, saving the best for last: a 22-save shutout in Game 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bussi made his NHL debut with Carolina this season as a 27-year-old journeyman. He’s the first rookie goalie to record a shutout in a Cup-clinching game since Earl Robertson of the\u00a0Detroit Red Wings\u00a0in 1937.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bussi finished with a 1.60 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage in the Final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When I was younger, I went to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I honestly can’t even remember if you’re allowed to touch the Cup or not, but I said I’m not touching it,” Bussi said, referencing one of hockey’s great superstitions. “You work so hard for it. You never know if the opportunity’s going to come. And I’m glad it did with this group.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After he left Game 3, Andersen, scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent next month, was a scratch for the rest of the series. He revealed that he tweaked his knee in Game 2, effectively turning the crease over to Bussi and backup\u00a0Pyotr Kochetkov\u00a0the rest of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bussi had been the team’s primary starter for most of the regular season, going 31-6-2 in 39 games, with a .895 save percentage and a 2.47 average. But Game 3 was the first time he played since April 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His journey to the Stanley Cup was an unlikely one. He joined the\u00a0Boston Bruins\u00a0organization as an undrafted free agent after playing three seasons at Western Michigan. He was a minor league goalie, never getting his shot in the NHL. Last July, he signed a free agent contract with the Stanley Cup champion\u00a0Florida Panthers, but their crowded goaltending pipeline meant he was placed on waivers in October. That’s where the Hurricanes claimed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bussi acknowledged his story was somewhat of a sports fable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Never give up, always have fun, keep your head down. All kind of the cliches, but it’s true, right?” he told Sportsnet after Game 6. “I didn’t let anybody tell me no. If there was some adversity, I took it head on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been a big week for Bussi. Not only is the Long Island native a Stanley Cup champion, but he’s also a New York Knicks fan who watched his favorite team win their first NBA championship in 53 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was so cool to see,” he said. “So cool for New York.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when it comes to the Hurricanes’ win, Bussi gives the credit to Andersen. “He’s the reason why we’re here,” he said. “I only got, what, three and a half games? He obviously deserves more of the credit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andersen’s teammates echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He deserves it probably more than anybody. That guy grinded his absolute nuts off to be in this position and get us here,” forward\u00a0Seth Jarvis\u00a0said. “To see him lift that cup after everything he’s been through. I can’t say enough good things about him. I couldn’t be happier for him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andersen went 12-1 with a .931 save percentage and a 1.41 goals-against average to power Carolina through the Eastern Conference and spark MVP speculation. But his numbers began declining in the conference final against Montreal and bottomed out in the Stanley Cup Final, when he gave up 12 goals in eight periods for a .815 save percentage and a 4.44 goals-against average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has been playing with a heavy heart. Andersen was one of the first prominent clients for Claude Lemieux, who became a successful player agent after his 21-season NHL career, in which he won four Stanley Cups. Lemieux, 60,\u00a0died by suicide on May 28, according to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He would be so proud,” Andersen told Sportsnet. “He’s a competitor. He always wanted the best for me and his players and his family. It’s tough to really describe how much he has meant to me and how cool it is to have my name on that trophy with him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andersen’s name will be etched on the Stanley Cup for the first time. The same goes for Bussi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m just happy that Bus was amazing like he was,” Andersen said. “I can’t really say enough about how impressive that was to come in like that and perform that way like he had.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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LAS VEGAS — The first\u00a0Carolina Hurricanes\u00a0player to receive the Stanley Cup from captain\u00a0Jordan Staal\u00a0was a goaltender. Just not the one responsible for their Game 6\u00a03-0 win\u00a0over the\u00a0Vegas Golden Knights. Staal, 37, handed the Cup to\u00a0Frederik Andersen, 36, his teammate on the Hurricanes for the past five years. He started the first 16 games of Carolina’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416253,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416252\/revisions\/416253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}