Lemieux won the Stanley Cup four times as a player, and Andersen knows Lemieux would’ve enjoyed this celebration as much as he did.
“I’ll be proud to see my name next to his or close by,” Andersen said. “I don’t know how close they’ll be, but they’ll definitely be there for a bit, I think. … I’ll be very proud to see his name there and be able to look down to me.”
It had been a nerve-racking night for Andersen because he didn’t play. He revealed after the game that he injured his knee in a 4-3 overtime win in Game 2 of the Final. He tried to play through it in a 5-4 double-overtime loss in Game 3 before Brandon Bussi replaced him at the start of the third period.
Andersen became a stressed spectator while Bussi played the remainder of the series. He did not dress for the final three games, but put his full equipment on to watch the end of Game 6 from the locker room.
“I was nervously shaking the whole time in the back and trying to watch,” Andersen said. “Not something I liked. I think anyone who’s playing would say that.”
Bussi made things a bit easier by closing out the Golden Knights with a 22-save shutout.
“I’m just happy that ‘Bus’ was amazing like he was,” Andersen said. “And I can’t really say enough about how impressive that was to come in like that and perform that way like he has all season. It’s impressive the way he obviously sat out for a while. He didn’t play a lot of games. He had a lot of practice time, and just the way he put in work to stay ready was awesome to see.”
Although Andersen didn’t play in the last three games of the series, his teammates recognized how big of a role he had in helping them win the Cup. He was 13-2 with a 1.89 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and three shutouts in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including 12-1 with a 1.41 GAA, .931 save percentage and three shutouts in the first three rounds.
“He’s the reason why we’re obviously here,” Bussi said. “His play throughout the playoffs was awesome and he’s as much a part of it as anyone else.”
That’s among the reasons Staal decided to give the Cup to Andersen first. He’d been through a lot of the tough times with Carolina, including losing in the Eastern Conference Final in 2023 and 2025.
Andersen played in the Western Conference Final back in his second NHL season with the Anaheim Ducks in 2015, losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7, and played on some good teams during his five seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs (2016-2021), but was never able to get over the postseason hump.
Until now.
“Obviously, he’s been grinding the longest and I think he got us going here in the playoffs,” Staal said. “Unfortunate to be out of the lineup. I’m sure he wanted to keep it going and he couldn’t, but I figured he’d be a great start, and I think I’m just proud of the way he played for us and gave us a great rest early in the playoffs and a chance to keep moving forward.”
