Frederik Andersen reveals the nature of the significant injury that prevented him from playing in the playoffs

While the loss certainly stung for Kochetkov and Raanta, it's arguable that it hurt the most for Frederik Andersen, who played his way into the Vezina conversation, putting together a strong bounce-back year for the Canes before suffering an injury just a couple of weeks before the start of the playoffs. There's nothing worse for a professional athlete than sitting up in the press box, wishing that you could help your team, but being unable to contribute.

On Wednesday, Andersen finally revealed the extent of the injury he had been dealing with since mid-April. Given the severity of the injury, it's no wonder he was out of action for as long as he was. According to Andersen, he tore his MCL on April 16th in Denver.

What's worse is that if the Canes had gotten past the Rangers and closed it out in Game 6 or Game 7, Andersen may have been ready to go in the Eastern Conference Finals. Now, I guess we'll never know.

Andersen has not played in back-to-back postseasons now, as Jack Campbell was the Leafs' number one last year, playing in all 7 games for the Buds in their round 1 loss to the Habs in 2020-21.