LAS VEGAS — Just hours before the opening game of the Stanley Cup Final, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour had kind words for backup goaltender Brandon Bussi — while also admitting he was relieved the team hadn’t needed to call on him yet during the playoffs.
“Haven’t had to use him, (and) to be honest, I hope we don’t because something’s gone wrong,” Brind’Amour said.
As it turned out, the late-blooming netminder did get his call — and he made the most of it, guiding the Hurricanes all the way to the Stanley Cup championship.
Starter Frederik Andersen had been between the pipes for every single minute of Carolina’s first three playoff rounds and the beginning of the Final. But Bussi took over during Game 3 and never looked back. He turned aside 81 of the 87 shots he faced against Vegas, all while Andersen’s availability remained a mystery. It was only after the series ended that the team revealed the veteran Danish goaltender had been dealing with a knee injury, which kept him out of the lineup from Game 4 onward.
“Freddie battled,” Brind’Amour said. “He got a little nicked up, wasn’t 100%. I felt for him, but he got us here and then Bus took over. This is a team.”
When Game 6 wrapped up Sunday night, Bussi and Andersen shared an emotional embrace on the ice. Andersen — at 36, the second-oldest player on the roster — was the first person that captain and playoff MVP Jordan Staal handed the Stanley Cup to after receiving it from Commissioner Gary Bettman.
“It’s disbelief, really,” Andersen said. “I did not expect that. It really beat every emotion I could think of or what I’ve been feeling.”
Bussi, 27 and a native of Long Island, was far from a stranger to the Hurricanes organization. He had appeared in nearly half of Carolina’s regular-season games, winning 31 of his 39 starts and helping the team claim the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Back in February, he signed a three-year contract extension at a team-friendly $5.7 million total value.
But not long ago, his career trajectory looked far more ordinary. Going undrafted, Bussi spent several years working his way through the Boston Bruins’ farm system — suiting up for the Maine Mariners in the ECHL and the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League. The Florida Panthers liked what they saw and signed him last summer to serve as their third goaltender, behind Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasov.
When the Panthers attempted to send him to their AHL affiliate in Charlotte, they lost him — the Hurricanes scooped Bussi off waivers. He and his fiancée, Mary Raclawski, were already 10 hours into a drive from South Florida to North Carolina when his agent called with the news.
“The next thing you know, the following day I’m in Raleigh and I’m on the opening night roster,” Bussi said. “It’s crazy.”
Injuries to both Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov pushed Bussi into a much bigger role for one of the league’s top contenders. That role grew even larger in the Final. He entered the game at the second intermission of Game 3 with Carolina trailing 4-0 and proceeded to stop all 18 shots he faced, fueling a remarkable comeback. The only blemish on his record came in double overtime, when a puck took an unlucky bounce off the end boards and Bussi inadvertently kicked it in for the Golden Knights’ winning goal.
In the championship-clinching Game 6, Bussi came up huge when it mattered most. He turned away playoff leading goal-scorer Brett Howden on a breakaway in the first period. In the second, he denied Tomas Hertl on a 2-on-1 rush — much to the delight of his family watching from the stands. Then, in the closing minutes of regulation, he robbed both Hertl and Mark Stone on high-quality scoring opportunities.
Hurricanes fans packed into the arena in Las Vegas chanted “Buss-i! Buss-i!” as their goaltender earned his third career shutout and secured the championship. The journeyman label is gone — Bussi is now a Stanley Cup champion.
So is Andersen.
“This is something everyone dreams of,” Andersen said. “You don’t really know what it feels like until you try it, and now we’re here.”
