Carolina and Boston will start their first round of the NHL playoffs on Tuesday. Antti Raanta has not started a game in the playoffs in the NHL.
The NHL playoffs will start early on Finnish time on Tuesday.
Antti Raannan32, wasn’t supposed to be Carolina’s starting goalkeeper in the playoffs, but the No. 1 goalie Frederik Andersenin an injury a couple of weeks ago suddenly changed the situation at the mouth of the hurricane herd.
When the first round of the playoffs against Boston Finnish time starts on Tuesday, Raanta will skate to the finish line.
Raanta, who has not started any match in the playoffs in his NHL career.
Rauma, who won the Stanley Cup in Chicago in the summer of 2015 in the role of the third goalkeeper, has played in five playoffs but did not start at all.
Of course, Raanna has a golden playoff experience in the Finnish Championship. He defeated Pori’s Aces for the fabulous championship in the spring of 2013.
Now the goalkeeper is taking responsibility in a bigger circus as the third-best team in the regular season earnestly aspires to the NHL championship.
– Of course there is a good feeling, it cannot be denied. The goal of each player is to get to play when the playoffs start, Raanta tells Sport a couple of days before the h-moment.
At the same time, Raanta, who has suffered from numerous injuries in recent years, knows very well how his colleague feels.
Andersen has worked hard to get back to reality even during the first round, according to information from Carolina, but on Tuesday the Dane will hardly play.
Raanna does not have more information to offer about the return schedule.
– Annoying for Freddie. He has played really well throughout the season and then comes such an injury. I don’t know about his schedule, these things aren’t spoiled especially during the playoffs. Every player goes at this point one day at a time, including the goalkeepers, Raanta continues.
A personal award warms you up
However, Raanta refuses to take the pressure out of the still life – and there is no reason, on the other hand, to face the Boston duo (Jeremy Swayman, Linus Ullmark) with a total of 18 minutes of NHL playoffs.
Raanta is the most experienced of the three, although there is an unseen card in the playoffs.
– I’m not starting to think about it any more. I don’t have to be a super goalkeeper all of a sudden. I understand there will be the same puck and the same players as in the regular season. The paint is the same size, Raanta laughs.
– I focus on doing my own thing. Of course, I want to show that I can play in these really really bright lights. I’m going to do the same thing I’ve done so far.
Raanna is really worth doing that. Carolina conceded 200 goals in the regular season, the lowest in the series.
That’s why Andersen and Raanta are kicking off at the NHL awards ceremony this summer William M. Jennings according to the nominated trophy, which is handed out annually to the team of the team with the least goals.
The personal award is the first in Raanna’s NHL career.
– Of course, the award warms the mind and feels good as a goalkeeper. Darryl Sutter (Calgary’s head coach) sometimes said well that that’s the only personal he would want his team to win. However, it shows that the whole team has played well and put everything in the league. A big thank you goes to Freddy and the whole gang, Raanta praises.
“A little is left in the tooth cavity”
As a team, Carolina will be tough in the starting series, even though it will be a favorite. In the spring and winter, as a result of an active playing style and a relentless match schedule, the hurricane team, which was a little tired, did not play its potential in the upper register.
Boston, which suffered injuries from key players, was even ahead of Carolina for the last couple of months.
On the other hand Erik Haulan represented by Boston did not beat Carolina in the regular season once. Not to mention, of course, that Boston knocked out Carolina in two (2019 and 2020) playoffs with 8-1 races in a row.
– From what I’ve talked about here, it’s become clear that a little bit of a dent has been left in the tooth cavity. Boston has put us in the song a couple of times. Yes, everyone here had the idea that they would come against Boston again, Raanta says.
In addition to the always important goalkeeper game in advance, it is worth watching at least special situation games in the series.
At the end of the regular season, Boston pulled 39 goal-free superiority game tubes and didn’t sustain Carolina’s superiority for the previous two months to more than fifteen percent. In defense of Boston, it must be said that some of its key players were injured on the sidelines during a dry pipe.
Although Boston’s superiority hasn’t worked in recent weeks, Raanta doesn’t want to wake up the sleeping bear.
Veskari is particularly reminded of the cooler, as Carolina has taken the third most coolers in the NHL since early February. The ratio of coolers purchased and taken by the team is 21 coolers in the freezer for three months.
The ratio is the second weakest in the league from February to April.
– We’ve had a lot of useless coolers lately. You need to get rid of them. Our game is not going to take 4-5 chills per game.
There will be an equally relentless chore ahead, especially at the Eastern Conference, where Florida, the winner of the regular season, was “awarded” in Washington and the second best team in the conference at Carolina Boston.
The competition for the Eastern Conference trophy is tougher this spring than perhaps ever before.
– No one can walk on from any of the series. Whoever goes to the finals from this side gets a lot of work to do. There is nothing like going one game and winning at a time.