Worth the wait: Antti Raanta makes statement in Hurricanes Stanley Cup Playoff debut
Antti Raanta is the very rare hockey player who has spent a day with the Stanley Cup without being able to point to his name on it. At 32, thanks to a combination of first youth and then misfortune — injuries, bad teams — he had played some or all of eight seasons in the NHL without starting a playoff game before Monday night.
That’s an extraordinarily long wait for a goalie of Raanta’s pedigree, the end of a winding and circuitous road that led him here, to leading the Carolina Hurricanes onto the ice for the first playoff game of 2022. This was more than one game for Raanta, the elder statesman of the Hurricanes’ flock of Finns. It was the completion of a goal long delayed.
And how far he had come to get to this 35-save performance in a 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins to open the postseason. His first year in the NHL, he backed up Corey Crawford for the Chicago Blackhawks’ first playoff game in St. Louis, overwhelmed and wide-eyed – anything but the calm and poised veteran who had known for days this start was coming, with his name on it.
“At that time I was just like, I couldn’t be there, that’s way too loud and way too physical,” Raanta said. “But as the years go by, you’ve been able to be in those situations as a backup. You see what it takes. And obviously I’ve got a couple games under my belt, just haven’t gotten the start. It’s a big thing, to get that first one.”
Raanta won the Cup with the Blackhawks in 2015, but without appearing in a playoff game or enough regular-season games to join the list of championship players. (The goalie ahead of him on the depth chart, who did play: The infamous Scott Darling.) That earned Raanta a day with the trophy and a ring, but not the engraving to go with it. At other stops, with the New York Rangers and Arizona Coyotes, he appeared in five postseason games but only in relief, always the second option.
That’s been the case to a certain extent with the Hurricanes this season. Of the two goalies brought in last summer, Frederik Andersen claimed the net early and never really let go. He’s the Vezina Trophy candidate. He’s been the workhorse. He’s also injured to start the playoffs, probably a week away at the least from returning.
So after all these years, Raanta’s time finally arrived. He got some help Monday night, with Ian Cole and Brendan Smith diving behind him to knock loose pucks off the goal line, but he was also more than up to the task when the Hurricanes needed him.
That was especially true in the opening 10 minutes, when the Hurricanes were the more physical team but the Bruins the more effective. By the end of the second period, the Hurricanes had started to wear Boston down. Raanta held off the Bruins long enough for his teammates to find their legs and their game and neither they nor he ever looked back.
“Little butterflies, here and there,” Raanta said. “But as you come on the ice, it was crazy in here, to hear the crowd, you just started to get the energy from them. When the game started, it was just focusing on one puck at a time, one shot at a time. The first shot was obviously tricky, almost sneaking in from the short side, but after that it just felt really comfortable. It was an awesome, awesome feeling to play and get the win.”
It was a resounding start to the postseason, the kind of series-opening win that can not only hold serve but set a tone going forward, exactly what the Hurricanes wanted even if the manner of it left some room for improvement.
And the biggest question going into the series — how the Hurricanes would fare with Andersen out — turned out to have an easy answer. Andersen’s absence seemed like a big deal to people who hadn’t been paying attention to Raanta, but suddenly all the goaltending concerns are going the other direction. Linus Ullmark gave up four goals, including Vincent Trocheck’s short-side, tight-angle backhand — a hybrid, if you will — to make it 4-1.
“We brought (Raanta) in here for that reason,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You’ve got to have two guys. Obviously the situation is what it is. That’s why we brought him in here. Good for him. He had a great first game and we’re going to need more of it.”
It’s not unusual for there to be goaltending issues in a Carolina-Boston series; it’s slightly unusual for the Bruins to have them. With Andersen hurt and Tuukka Rask retired, neither team has a clear No. 1; it won’t be surprising if Boston goes with rookie Jeremy Swayman in Game 2, just as it wouldn’t have been surprising if the Hurricanes had turned to Pyotr Kochetov if Raanta faltered. But Raanta did not falter.
“He was awesome tonight,” said rookie Seth Jarvis, another playoff debutant. “He was really good. But we expect that from him. He’s an incredible goaltender. I didn’t know it was his first playoff (start). That’s awesome for him, and what more can you ask for?”
Raata grasped his moment, long delayed, in the spotlight and never looked back. In the seconds before the celebration, as his teammates skated toward him, arms raised, he bent over and scooped the puck off the ice. Often, other players will make sure to claim an important milestone puck for a teammate. Raanta made sure to take care of it himself.
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This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 6:07 AM with the headline "Worth the wait: Antti Raanta makes statement in Hurricanes Stanley Cup Playoff debut."
