Is Brandon Bussi’s magical run coming to an end?
One of the feel-good stories in the NHL this year has started to stumble a little bit, and not at the best time during the season.
Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Brandon Bussi had an incredible start to his rookie season. The Western Michigan University product set a number of records so far this season. He became the first goaltender in NHL history to win 10 of his first 11 games, and followed that up by becoming the fastest goaltender to 20 career wins, achieving the feat in just 24 games. That led to Bussi signing a three-year contract extension with the Canes.
However, Bussi has hit a bit of a rough patch as of late. While he was riding a nine-game win streak before losing to the Calgary Flames on Saturday, the Long Island native has given up at least four goals in three straight games and four times in the past seven contests.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discussed whether Bussi’s time in the limelight is dwindling.
Tyler Yaremchuk: His numbers are still fine on the year, although the same percentage has now dipped below .900. In the American League over the last three seasons – 32 games, he did play 41 games one year, but then 33 games last year. He’s already at the 30-game mark. Do you think there’s anything to the fact that Bussi’s happened to play a lot of NHL hockey in his first NHL season?
Carter Hutton: 100%. It’s a big adjustment to play this way. The only thing I will say that tips the scales in his favor a bit is they don’t give up a ton of quantity of shots, right? A lot of times you look at stat lines and the numbers are lower, they protect a little bit. But that was a stat that I got from Stephen Valiquette, and that was off the rush, right? So they’re 32nd, 5-on-5, goals against off the rush. The other teams are Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim and New Jersey. I think when you picture Carolina, you picture them being so sound defensively, and off the rush is one of the hardest saves to make as a goalie.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…