NEW SENS DRAMA WITH HAMMOND IN NET AGAIN
After saying Anderson would start, Cameron had to revise his statement
When it comes to goaltending drama, the Senators have no end of material.
Who could forget Damian Rhodes, after hearing he was traded to Ottawa from the Maple Leafs in 1995, saying, “first my dad dies ... and now this.”
Dominik Hasek had lingering adductor issues that killed a Stanley Cup shot, Ray Emery had automobile and team flight mishaps. Tom Barrasso stared up at the ceiling when we asked him questions about his lucky goalposts and snapped, “Do you want me to stop the ones going wide, too?”
Don’t sell this latest goaltending melodrama short, though. It’s right up there.
A recap: Senators head coach Dave Cameron, having already hinted that No. 1 goalie Craig Anderson would start Wednesday’s game here versus the Jets, confirms the fact in a hotel mezzanine media scrum. It would be Anderson’s first start since Jan. 21, when he bruised his hand in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and it would bring to a halt the fabulous six-game run of AHL call-up Andrew Hammond, whose shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday moved his NHL record to 5-0-1, undefeated in regulation.
“I’m just gonna use my depth,” Cameron said, by way of explanation. He added he was “very, very comfortable putting Anderson in.”
Evidently, a lot more comfortable than Anderson himself. About five minutes later, Cameron walked back to where reporters were still standing.
“Hammond is starting,” Cameron said. What? “Andy is not comfortable going in.”
By now, the coach had been summoned by his trainer, Gerry Townend, who had been consulted by Anderson, and told Anderson’s hand was not “comfortable.”
This was no game-day setback — there was no morning skate, no shots to block.
The Senators didn’t even have an off-ice workout, just the briefest of meetings, from which Cameron emerged to announce Anderson as his starting goalie.
Until, in a take-back he must have found utterly embarrassing, Cameron declared the change. Hammond starts.
During Cameron’s initial conference, and beforehand when Senators players were being interviewed, Anderson was lingering. I thought he was waiting to speak to us, once it was confirmed he was starting. Then, he walked over to a couch at the far end of the mezzanine, tilted his head back, against the wall. Looking pained.
It crossed my mind — he’s either ill (flu has hit players and media on this trip), or annoyed at having to wait so long to speak to us.
But no, he was waiting for Townend to arrive to deliver the message to Cameron that he would not be backstopping a dogtired Senators team, coming off a fast-paced, 65-minutes-plusshootout game in Minnesota the previous night.
Winnipeg was the last stop on a five-game, 10-day trip to California, Minnesota and Manitoba. With Wednesday’s 3-1 win over the Jets, the Senators took nine of a possible 10 points on the trip, a playoff push still a faint dream.
“He’s going to play in a big game for us and I think he’s going to play really well,” Cameron had said, in one of those brief moments when he thought his No. 1 goalie would come back after nursing a hand bruise for 42 days.
“Do you think I’m going to go the rest of the year and not play him?” Cameron said, when challenged about hooking the red-hot Hammond.
“He’s (Anderson) been out six weeks, it’s a challenge for him. That’s what injuries do. There’s going to be other injuries; guys will come back and once they’re healthy we’ll decide when’s the best time to use them.”
Or the player will decide when he’s ready to go. On Wednesday, Hammond stepped into the breach once more.
As Cameron said of Hammond taking advantage of his opportunity, “he didn’t open the door, he kicked it down.”
No wonder Senators players want to play for him. He shows up for work.
Defenceman Erik Karlsson played 35 minutes, 12 seconds against the Wild, the longest TOI of his career during the regular season. He says he’s fine, and won’t feel the toll of the season until it’s over. But he admitted one particular shift of roughly three minutes, starting with an Ottawa power play and ending with a furious push by Minnesota in Ottawa’s end, was exhausting.
“It’s tough,” Karlsson said. “It’s easy when you’re in the offensive zone. You know what you’re doing a little bit more. In the defensive zone, you’re mostly chasing around, and don’t try to burn yourself out and try to limit their chances, which I think we did, but yeah, you get pretty winded by the end of it.”
“You’re starting to see stuff in your eyes, toward the end of it,” Bobby Ryan said of that marathon shift. “Being a little under the weather, I’m already labouring to breathe.” Shift over, Ryan gave a couple of teammates hugs.
Karlsson’s defence partner, Marc Methot admitted it was a tired Ottawa team facing Winnipeg, but still sees “hope” of a miracle playoff push.
“I think especially the fact that we’re kind of on that run right now,” Methot said, prior to the Jets game. “We’re playing great hockey. We’ve got some great goaltending happening for us. Even all the young guys are playing great, too. You never know. Anything can happen at this point.”