Hammond is normal in life, exceptional while in goal
Time to address the notion of good fortune and Lady Luck shining down on the Ottawa Senators and The Hamburglar during the unexpected run at a playoff spot.
Nobody is carrying around a tiny Buddha doll in his shaving kit, a la Tom Chorske. Nobody is following the lead of Bruce Gardiner and dipping his stick in the holy water of the toilet bowl.
And there are certainly no eccentric superstitions surrounding Andrew Hammond, who ran his incredible streak as a starting NHL goaltender to 7-0-1 in Friday’s 3-2 comeback win over the Buffalo Sabres. In fact, what stands out about Hammond is just how unassuming he is, playing a position so often associated with odd behaviours.
Returning home to Ottawa after leading the team to its most successful road trip in franchise history, Hammond discovered that Senators followers were literally singing his praises. For evidence, witness TSN 1200’s Ballad of the Hamburglar, sung to the tune of Billy Idol’s White Wedding.
But Hammond was the same guy as he was before the road trip, understanding – but not getting caught up – in the fuss about his hot streak.
“He’s the most normal goaltender I’ve ever met,” says defenceman Mark Borowiecki. “He’s an easy guy to talk to. He’s not weird on game days. He’s just a normal guy and I think that’s what is so cool about him. You get some goalies, where they’re either so intense on game days you can’t even look at them, or some of them that have so many weird superstitions.”
That said, the environment in the past two weeks has no shortage of weirdness written all over it, beginning with the loss of Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner to injuries. Into the void stepped Hammond, with a run of outstanding netminding.
Due to that stellar play and the Hamburglar character on his mask, Hammond has brought back memories of a 35-year-old McDonald’s advertising campaign. It’s the least McDonald’s can do to offer free hamburgers to Friday’s ticket holders. If the company really wanted to embrace the blast from the past, they would go a step further and bring back Grimace to offer up Shamrock Shakes, as well.
Hammond gets what it’s all about, understanding he’s in the entertainment business, even though he’s not getting lost in the sudden attention.
“I’m having a lot of fun with it,” he says. “It’s something that if it ended today and I looked back on it and I wasn’t having fun, it wouldn’t be worth it. This is something I’ve worked hard for. There’s a fine line between having fun and doing your job and I think I’m still able to manage it.”
Appropriately enough, Aerosmith’s Dream On was playing in the background Friday as the video scoreboard replayed the highlights from the performance of Hammond and his teammates during the road trip.
For all the warnings about it being a dangerous trap game for the Senators, the night didn’t start well. Philip Varone slipped behind the Senators defence and chipped the puck over Hammond to open the scoring. Late in the first period, Tyler Ennis scored on a sharp angle shot past a screened Hammond. From there, the Senators worked their way back into the game, taking the play to the inexperienced Sabres lineup, getting goals from Erik Karlsson, Mika Zibanejad and Mark Stone to put even more pressure on the Bruins for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
At some point, Hammond will hit a bump in the road, but no matter what happens from here, he has earned himself respect from the fans. Everyone loves an underdog and there’s clearly an Everyone element to Hammond’s rise from a relative unknown into a household name in Ottawa.
“I understand why it’s a big story,” he says. “I understand why it’s perceived that I came out of nowhere and I get that, but at the same time, I’ve worked really hard for it. I feel like I’ve earned it and it’s something that I’m proud of.”
The fact that Hammond rediscovered his love for the sport after quitting for three weeks as a teenager — taking a step back and re-tracing his steps with the Vancouver-based Junior B Grandview Steelers before earning a scholarship to Bowling Green University — also sends a message fans can associate with.
“If anybody can take something from my story in their lives, that’s great,” he says. “There was a point in my life where I thought hockey was over and when you work hard and recommit yourself to the game, you can see what happens. People in different walks of life can take that into their own lives.”
On a much larger scale, it’s that survival instinct which made Tim Thomas such an appealing character, fighting through rejections and a series of backwards and sideways steps before establishing himself as an elite NHL goaltender with the Boston Bruins.
It was a great story until Thomas made himself an oddity, going public on Facebook with a political manifesto that put him firmly in that class of weird goaltending characters. Hammond is nothing of the sort, a straightforward type who is like the kid from next door. When opportunity knocked on that door, well, you know the rest of the story.