Frederik Andersen's early-season woes continue in 7-3 loss to Tampa

TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 25 - Frederik Andersen #31 of the Toronto Maple Leafs checks the clock during the second period against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Air Canada Centre on October 25, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)
Frederik Andersen #31 of the Toronto Maple Leafs checks the clock during the second period against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Air Canada Centre on October 25, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)

Frederik Andersen’s struggles with the Toronto Maple leafs worsened in the team’s 7-3 Tuesday loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Andersen stopped just 17 of 24 Lightning shots goal to drop his save percentage to .851 on the season and boost his goal-against average to 4.29. The 27-year-old netminder, who was acquired last summer to be the team’s starting goaltender of the future, is just 1-1-3.

“I don’t know where to start, but didn’t feel good right away, felt like everything bounced the wrong way,” Andersen said. “I wasn’t able to make any saves when we needed (them).”

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Even though Andersen had problems early, Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock kept the netminder in the game hoping Andersen could figure out his issues. Toronto clawed their way out of a 4-0 deficit to 5-3 at the 9:47 mark to put the team within striking distance.

But then Andersen allowed two power play goals, one by Vladislav Namestnikov and another by Jonathan Drouin to put the game at 7-3.

“You’ve just got to learn from it, that’s all it is,” Andersen said. “I’ve got to be better and got to go back and work harder.”

When Toronto acquired Andersen last summer, he was coming off a season where he held a 2.30 goal-against average and .919 save percentage with the Anaheim Ducks. In the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Andersen led his team to within one win of a Stanley Cup Final. The Maple Leafs signed him to a five-year contract extension worth $27.5 million in hopes he could grow with the team as it tried to take its next step in a rebuild around Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

The Maple Leafs still see the deal as money well spent, but it has taken longer for Andersen to find his footing in a new market.

“We’re very confident in his ability. We do a lot of work in advance to know what he’s capable of doing, he’s done it for three years straight. It hasn’t gone very good for him. Tonight would be, I think, a point for him where he’d want to regroup from,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock. He’s a proud guy and it’s very important that we support him, but he’s got to get to work too and do his part. It’s all part of being on a team. You’ve got to pick one another up. It didn’t bounce his way tonight for sure. He’s not feeling as good about himself as he should be. In order to do that you’ve got to earn the right to feel good by doing good work.”

The Maple Leafs believe Andersen will have to find the path out of these issues, himself.

“You know, when you get a new goalie you almost leave him alone,” Babcock said. “You do shots and you do the stuff with him, but you leave him alone until you figure out who he is a little bit too. We’ve been with him for a bit – he was injured for quite a while – so we’ve been with him for a bit now and now we’ve got to help him help himself.”

Said Andersen, “You’ve got to challenge yourself to work harder. That’s the only thing to get out of it if you aren’t feeling like you’re being hit with the puck or seeing the puck. You’ve got to work hard to see it and I think that’s the only way to get out of it.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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