RALEIGH, N.C. — Jordan Martinook is asked if he could imagine playing an important hockey game under the emotional weight that teammate Frederik Andersen did in Saturday’s conference-clinching Game 5, and the veteran’s eyes well up quicker than a Carolina Hurricanes zone exit.
“No, no. I can’t. And the way that he played, the way that he handled himself… like, I’ll remember that… oh, man,” Martinook starts. And then stops.
The tough, thickly bearded man needs a deep breath and a clear throat. Don’t let a tear drop in public during your first Stanley Cup Media Day.
“I’ll remember that embrace with him after the game for my entire life. And Fishy's speech after the game, knowing that he knew that we all knew what he was going through, it just speaks volumes,” Martinook allows. But that’s more than enough.
“I can’t talk about it anymore. I’m getting choked up.”
We’re often told how dressing rooms, the good ones, get renovated into family rooms. How brotherhoods are formed through chirps and scrums, comeback wins and gutting losses.
But in the case of Andersen’s friend and long-serving agent, Claude Lemieux — the four-time Cup champion who died by suicide Thursday, according to authorities — only a tragic extreme allows those outside the team’s bolted doors to feel that bond.
“We go through stuff in life, sometimes it’s impossible not to bring it into the room. We’ve had guys going to the birth of children. Obviously, that’s on a very different end of the spectrum. But I can’t really say enough about the way everyone supports each other,” Andersen says Monday, his Cup Final debut just a sleep away. “Everyone goes through stuff. And really just being there for each other — it’s cool that we get to lean on each other like that.”
Andersen is in his 11th NHL season. His teams — first the Ducks, then the Maple Leafs, now the Hurricanes — have always made the post-season. They’ve never made it this far.
And the 36-year-old goaltender streaking up the Conn Smythe power rankings is a major reason why.
The great Dane had a rather underwhelming performance for an elite regular-season squad. Andersen lost more games than he won (16-14-5) and posted a career-worst .874 save percentage.
As Carolina’s most experienced option, he had been given the net to start the playoffs, but surely Brandon Bussi or Pavel Kochetkov would be quick to parachute in if he faltered or got injured.
Well, all Andersen has done is backstop the most dominant three-round post-season performance we’ve seen in a generation. His .931 save percentage, 12-1 record, 1.41 goals-against average, and three shutouts top all peers. Oh, and he has already saved 10.2 goals above average.
“The mind has to be right,” says Andersen, who also credits a foundation of structural work, sharpened by all those bonus practice days you get from sweeping pretenders.
“I’m just in a good spot, honestly. Letting the game come to me. And just feel like I have an answer for every situation. Just playing the moment, really, it’s been a big key for me.”
Saturday’s heavy-hearted moment might have swallowed most of us. It has only emboldened Andersen, who thought about all those grimy Cup tales Lemieux would share with him and imagined his friend and mentor telling him to go get it.
Andersen arrives, finally, to Round 4 with the angel of perspective. It’s not only about having his name, a rare Danish one, etched into those curved, silver edges. It’s about what winning would mean to the families and friends of the Raleigh brotherhood. And it’s not just the winning.
“Looking back here, we’re in it for the ride, too. We’re not just going for the end goal here. We’re living life right now, and I think that’s really cool too,” Andersen says.
Having people like Lemieux in his life has shaped the athlete’s worldview.
Lemieux’s final public appearance was at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens icon carried out the torch to help rile up a Montreal home crowd that wanted nothing more than for the local heroes to pump pucks past Lemieux’s original client.
Conflict of interest?
“I’ll share this,” Andersen says. “He made sure to call me beforehand.”
Lemieux told the Canadiens that he needed to talk to Andersen first and make sure his friend was on board with his holding the flame aloft in enemy colours.
“But right away, obviously, I said, ‘Go for it.’ It’s a very big honour for a very big, storied franchise to get to do that,” Andersen says.
“It speaks really highly of how he thinks of his loved ones to ask that first.”
Nikolaj Ehlers could have signed with several teams last summer. The speedy sniper was the most coveted forward up for auction as a free agent. He chose Carolina, in part, because he wanted to compete alongside another Danish guy.
“Freddy, especially,” Ehlers says. “I’ve known him for over 10 years. And to come here and have him, from Day 1, was a huge help. He drove me around. He was my private chauffeur the first few days, which is nice too. But, yeah, just chitchat. You know, it’s always nice to have someone where you can speak another language with, and kind of get that feeling of home as well when you don't get to go home during the season. So, he’s been great.”
Ehlers understands the supportive role the Lemieuxs have played for Andersen over the years.
“This is hard for Freddie, but we’re all there for him. We're all behind him,” Ehlers says. “He wants to win this Cup even more now, for Claude and the Lemieux family.
“You could see he was playing for something more than just a hockey game.”
When Andersen stood tall in Saturday’s 6-1 clincher and Carolina’s Sebastian “Fishy” Aho passed him the player-of-the-game rope, acknowledging at once the goalie’s great win and great loss, defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere fell into the Martinook trap.
Tough to keep it together.
“We saw how emotional he was, especially at the end of the game. And Freddy’s kind of a calm, cool, collected guy. So even to see him get a little emotional after the win made us a little emotional, for sure. But I think as a team we helped him get it through it,” Gostisbehere says.
“I’m pretty close to Freddy. I talked to him about it, just to make sure he’s doing OK as a person and how he’s doing mentally, just to make sure he’s ready to go. Hockey's on the back burner with situations like that. So, I'm checking on the person first, and then the hockey player.”
Aho echoes the responsibility: “Honestly, just be there for him. Be a good teammate. If he needs to talk, you’re going to be there, all ears.”
We learn how close the family is when life deals one member a seemingly impossible blow.
“I just can’t thank the guys enough for the way the guys supported me the last two days. It’s been special,” Andersen says.
“Let’s go get four more.”
