Carolina Hurricanes: Nedeljkovic and Forsberg have to hold the fort

Early Returns

Nedeljkovic was the first to see action, surrendering 4 goals on 16 shots in the loss to Dallas.  No, that’s not good, but his teammates did almost nothing to mitigate the damage.  The first goal came from Tyler Seguin—not a guy you want to leave unchecked—wide-open three feet from the crease.

The defensive coverage didn’t get any better from there and I’ll give you that.  I will, however, also point out that Nedeljkovic did spit out a rebound that was easily wrangled by Seguin and buried in the back of the net.

He fared considerably better in his next appearance, a relief showing against the Montreal Canadiens.  With his team down 3-0 (again), Brind’Amour pulled Forsberg—who got little help—in favor of Nedeljkovic.

The Hurricanes rallied to tie the game and the 24-year-old stopped all 18 shots he faced until a questionable corner dump by Teuvo Teravainen in overtime led to a Jeff Petry breakaway that sealed the win for Montreal.

More bad puck management leading to a goalie hung out to dry.  Another loss courtesy of poor awareness.

Forsberg had a much more auspicious debut, stopping 29 of 32 Colorado shots but was ultimately outdueled by Pavel Francouz.

Again, the defense was asleep at the wheel, as a neutral zone misplay by Jake Gardiner led to a 2-on-1, capped by a goal from Tyson Jost.  In the second period, a failed clear saw the Avalanche catch the Hurricanes off guard and Jost beat newcomer Brady Skjei to the goalmouth before stuffing home his second of the game.

https://twitter.com/Avalanche/status/1233549998668894222

Despite losing, Forsberg’s solid effort earned him a start against Montreal and again a defensive lapse—this time it was Phillip Danault beating everyone to the net—found Carolina down early.  A scramble in the low slot saw an unmarked Max Domi firing a loose puck home.  Like a pilot trying to recover from a stall by pulling back on the yoke, the Hurricanes were dropping fast.

Here’s a look at the numbers through 3 games:

Alex Nedeljkovic: 2GP; 0-1-1; 3.11 GAA; .857 SV%

Anton Forsberg: 2GP; 0-1-0; 4.41 GAA; .885 SV%

No, that’s nothing to write home about, unless you want to depress your family.  That said, both goaltenders have shown the ability to make saves, they just haven’t gotten much defensive support.

You can argue all day that the goalie’s job is to stop the puck and I’ll counter that it’s the defencemen’s job to mitigate opportunities against and not give up an endless stream of odd-man rushes.