EAT YOUR HEART OUT
Hamburglar key to Sens run
On Thursday, the deputy mayor presented the key to the city to former Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson.
Now, the city needs to cut another symbolic key to the community — for the latest, least expected hockey saviour of all: Andrew ‘The Hamburglar’ Hammond. The unassuming goalie was at it again in Winnipeg Wednesday, stoning a hungry Jets team with save upon save — one a spectacular stretch with the right pad off Andrew Ladd, another off his Hamburglar/ Alfred E. Neuman mask.
“I’ll take them any way I can get them,” Hammond said, after a 3-1 victory that put the Senators within barking distance — four points — of the Boston Bruins and the final Eastern Conference wild card spot before the Bruins faced Calgary Thursday. Key to the city? If nothing else, Hammond is suddenly the key to an improbable playoff dream.
That the Senators are back in the playoff hunt is astonishing, considering where they were a month ago. On Feb. 8, the Senators were 14th in the east, with 49 points in 51 games, closer to the basement than to the playoff teams. The wild card spot was 14 points to the north, and much of the fan base was advocating ‘tanking’ for a prime draft position.
By the time goaltenders Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner got hurt, leaving the Senators without a credible NHL goalie, the #tank theme was in full bloom. What did it matter, really, winning occasional games just to finish 11th or 12th rather than 14th?
In stepped Hammond, a struggling goalie from a pedestrian AHL Binghamton team, ingloriously at first, giving up two goals on five shots in relief of Lehner when the big Swede was concussed in a Feb. 16 game against Carolina. How that ignominious relief appearance sparked a Hammond starting run of 6-0-1 is beyond understanding. But the 27-year-old journeyman has inspired a dressing room and ignited a community.
The Senators have never had a more impressive road trip — nine of 10 points and a historic sweep of California, with shutouts in Anaheim and Los Angeles — but they’ve never had a story like Hammond, a system goaltender not considered a prospect, not just winning but winning spectacularly. Wednesday’s 35-save performance was typical, as he made two or three first-period “10-beller” (Bobby Ryan’s term) stops to keep his team in it when the Jets were dominating.
Was Wednesday his best? It’s a happy debate. He’s given up eight goals in seven games and just five in the five-game road trip to California, Minnesota and Manitoba, with a save percentage of .970.
“Honestly, I don’t you think you can limit (the discussion) to one game,” centre Kyle Turris said, assessing Hammond over the Jets. “I mean, back-to-back shutouts in L.A. and Anaheim? We can’t say enough good things about him. We love him.
“He’s playing great. And we’re just trying to rally for him.”
Erik Condra says Winnipeg was just one of five in the running for Hammond’s best games.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Condra said. “He doesn’t say peep, comes in and does his work. And we battle for him. It’s fun.”
Hammond insists he’s been hot like this before. We just didn’t know it, because it was while with the Vernon Vipers of the BCHL or as a junior with Bowling Green State University. He recognizes that feeling in the dressing room.
“It’s hard to explain, it’s just hard work from everyone on the team,” Hammond says. “We have that special feeling now and it’s carrying from game to game, where it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We feel if we hang in there and play we can be successful.”
No doubt. As if guided by a higher force, the Senators are finding a way, whether it’s by building a lead over Anaheim or Winnipeg, or fighting from behind as against San Jose and Minnesota. Nothing rankles. Nothing intimidates. But don’t tell Hammond there’s no pressure.
“I think there’s been pressure the whole time because I think we’re a team that’s known if we don’t put these points together consecutively we’re going to be out of the playoff race,” Hammond said. “The pressure’s been there the whole time; it’s all about handling it. And I feel we’ve handled it, as a team, great.” And as a goalie, greater. Hammond wasn’t even supposed to start in Winnipeg, as Anderson was named the starter in the morning until he pulled out, due to hand discomfort. Or maybe he too didn’t want to stand in the way of the runaway Hammy train.
Head coach Dave Cameron admitted it’s not going to be easy to take Hammond out of the net (so, why even think of it?), all but confirming Hammond faces the lowly Buffalo Sabres Friday, a trap game if ever there was one.
“Well, after a performance like that, and what he’s done, yeah,” Cameron said, in response to the ‘not-easy-to-change-goalies’ question. “He certainly makes you look like a good coach.”
Cameron does seem new and improved behind the bench, energized by the emergence of young guns like Mika Zibanejad, Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman on this trip, along with the blueline corps. So, coach, how about all the talk about the Senators as a possible playoff team?
“That’s all it is, a conversation,” Cameron says. “We’re not in it yet. We can’t take our foot off anything, we’ve got to keep fighting and fighting and playing the way we did on this trip to get inside that eight-team group, and even then when you get inside there you’ve got to keep going.”