Sunday, April 22, 2018

Common Denominator: Turris, Subban and Hammond!

"Played in the (same) first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs. Three years later, all on new teams, played in the first round again."

One for the travel industry. Kyle Turris, P.K. Subban, and the surprising Andrew Hammond.

The 2014/15 Ottawa Senators made an amazing march to the playoffs. Their season had begun with a game against, of all teams, Nashville. Despite a 9-5-4 start, the team really skidded from there. By February 7th, they were only 20-22-9. Would you believe it? Andrew Hammond, the team's new goalie, caught fire and finished the season with a record of 20-1-2. From there, it seemed they just couldn't lose. The Sens finished the season with a record of 43 wins, 26 losses and 13 OT or shootout defeats. 99 points! Not bad. Good enough for a 7th place finish in the Eastern Conference. Kyle Turris himself helped out the cause in Ottawa. He finished the year with 24 goals and 40 assists. But neither Kyle nor the Montreal Canadians' star defenceman P.K. Subban could overshadow the new Sens star!



But the Canadians were a little too much for them in the playoffs. Hammond started the first two games and lost. P.K. Subban and his team wasn't about to let a bunch of upstarts stop them. They prevailed in six games, winning game six, 1-0, right there in Ottawa.

Much happened in the three seasons since. Subban and Turris ended up in Nashville. In the same, three-team trade that sent Turris to the Preds, it was Hammond that ended up on the Colorado Avalanche.

Of the three, it was Hammond that seemed to be an afterthought. You see, he just wasn't going to be able to wrest the starter's job from Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson. The big difference between the two was Anderson is money in the playoffs (By the end of the 2017 season, Craig's stats in the playoffs: 23 wins, 22 losses, 2.35 GAA and .929 S%) and Hammond was staring at a 0 wins 2 losses record there.



Soon, Andrew seemed to be just a minor league goalie. He was there most of 2016/17 while Anderson starred. For almost all of the next season, same deal. Despite the trade, would he ever play again. Then, fate came calling late in the 2017/18 NHL season.

The Avs not only did well that year, they just didn't need Andrew, you see? They had Seymon Varlamov as their starter. They had Jonathan Bernier as their backup. Two pretty good goalies. You see how Andrew Hammond isn't in the equation in Colorado? This team was going to the playoffs, and those two other goalies were playing some of their best hockey, ever. Why change?

Sometimes, though, you are forced to. As the team surged to the postseason, Varlamov went down with a knee injury on March 31st. Not helping matters was their first round opponents, the Nashville Predators. Hammond, meanwhile got into a game, at last. A losing effort on the 28th of March. Still, he stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal. Would he play in the playoffs?

P.K. and Kyle helped Nashville to a first place overall finish. So, another upstart team against Subban's team. No problem. First game, 5-2. Second game, 5-4.

It was Bernier with the saves and Nathan MacKinnon with two goals. Up 4-0, the home team, Colorado, let up a bit. But they won, 5-3, didn't they?

Reality hit home times two in game four, alas. Before you knew it, the rude visiting Preds led 3-0 after 40. Andrew Hammond got into the game, playing the third period. He stopped all eight shots that came his way. He inspired his team, as they scored twice. Alas, the series was heading back to Nashville. And the Preds were up 3-1.

And Jonathan Bernier was down. He, too, was hurt. Hammond was in for game five! And amazingly enough, he kept Colorado in this series. All Andrew did was stop P.K. Subban four times and Kyle Turris three times.

Trailing 1-0 with less than four minutes to go in the game (And season, perhaps), the Avs rallied. Gabriel Landeskog tied it at 15:49. Sven Andrighetto (Scoring his first goal of the playoffs) won it with just 1:28 to go! Hammond had 44 saves in a nice, 2-1 win. His first playoff win could not have been sweeter. Or at a better time.



Tonight at 7:00 ET, it's game six in Colorado. This exciting series, with three men who have duked it out before in the same series three short years ago, resumes. Will P.K. and Turris win their first playoff series together? Or does the return of the Hamburglar inspire the underdog Avs to an improbable upset?


References


“Official Site of the National Hockey League” | NHL.com. National Hockey League. Web. 22 Apr. 2018.  <https://www.nhl.com>.

Schlager, Brandon. “NHL Playoffs 2018: Legend Of Andrew 'Hamburglar' Hammond Grows As Avalanche Force Game 6.” Sporting News. Sporting News. Web. 21 Apr. 2018. <www.sportingnews.com/ca/nhl/news/nhl-playoffs-2018-andrew-hammond-hamburglar-avalanche-predators-kick-goal-video-review/1u86v108pylta17l13e9x91t9v>.

Sports Reference LLC.  Hockey-Reference.com - Hockey Statistics and History. Web. http://www.hockey-reference.com/. Web. 22 Apr. 2018.

Youtube. Web. 22 Apr. 2018. <https://www.youtube.com/>.

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