Carolina Hurricanes: Keys to Game 2 Vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets

Ned’s Golden Opportunity

Petr Mrazek going down was obviously a HUGE blow to the Carolina Hurricanes. The fan favorite netminder was off to a blistering start this season, and one of the biggest reasons the Canes as a team came out of the gates firing.

With him going down, James Reimer has since been a tad overworked, which we saw pretty clearly yesterday. He didn’t have his typical push to get on top of his crease and play large consistently, leaving too much room for shots from distance to find twine.

This shouldn’t be all that surprising; Reimer is who he is: a solid 1B goalie. Not quite a starter, but better than what you would typically classify as a backup. The soon-to-be 33-year old doesn’t handle a heavy workload well at this stage of his career. The Canes need a second goaltender to give him adequate rest and, hopefully, get him back to the level he played at last season.

First opportunity: Polarizing former top prospect Alex Nedeljkovic.

Most of us know Ned’s story by now. Here’s the short version, for those who don’t: the Francis-regime 2014 second-round draft pick was once seen as the future of the organization between the pipes. He has had an adjustment period at every level he’s gone to (except the OHL where he posted a stellar 19-2-2 record, 2.28 goals-against average, and .923 save percentage as a rookie), but adjust he has, before rising to the top of those levels. He won the OHL’s Goaltender of the Year Award in the 2013-14 season, boasting a .925 save percentage despite playing for a team that badly lacked talent, then the same honor in the AHL while backstopping the Charlotte Checkers’ Calder Cup run in ’18-’19.

With all this said, how did he just clear waivers a couple weeks ago? None of the 31 NHL teams wanted to take a chance on that?

The flip side is, his AHL performance has been frustratingly inconsistent. He’s an extremely aggressive goalie, which he needs to be due to his 6’0 frame, but at times it causes issues for his angles and leaves him susceptible moving side-to-side when he can’t recover quickly enough. He has great athleticism that leads to highlight reel saves on occasion, but when he’s struggling to track the puck, there simply seem to be a lot of holes to beat him through. He has to stay on top of his crease to play big.

Nedeljkovic’s NHL stints have been similarly inconsistent (in the small, six-game sample), but the “good” leaves plenty of reason for optimism. The Ohio native made his NHL debut in the same arena he will make his fifth start in tonight, and while he will not be able to have friends and family in the stands this time, he can hopefully still take some comfort in the hometown vibes.

This key isn’t all about Ned, either; the Canes need to be sound in front of him. Ideally, Ned feels the puck a couple times early, even if it’s just playing the puck on a dump-in or clear. That handling of the puck is an area he really excels at. If the Canes play their usual brand of strong defense, containing shots to outside of the high-danger areas, keeping lanes in front of Ned clear so he can see and track the puck, and cleaning up any rebounds that may lead to disaster, this could be a big step for the 25-year-old (also, please do not let Patrik Laine fire away all night, again).

If these things happen and Ned builds up some early confidence, perhaps this turns from a key to win #8 to a key to the rest of the 2021 season. Goaltenders are volatile, and sometimes you never really know what you have until you see them in the NHL a handful of times. It’s pretty much now or never for Alex Nedeljkovic as a Hurricane.