Ottawa Senators forward Erik Condra (22) reacts with teammates including Jean-Gabriel Pageau (44) and Patrick Wiercioch (46) after scoring a goal against Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (31)during the second period at the Bell Centre.Eric Bolte
There is a Newtonian aspect to goaltending – sooner or later gravity grabs hold and asserts itself.
Ottawa Senators rookie Andrew Hammond has made a brilliant 8-0-1 start to his NHL career, which is beginning at an age where most of his peers have entered their prime.
No one is immune to the laws of physics or statistics, but perhaps Hammond can be said to have a strong resistance.
Anyone looking for a hint of regression may have seen one inside the opening two minutes at the Bell Centre in Hammond's first road start against the Montreal Canadiens, who can justly be described as having descended into a funk.
As a puck skittered down into the Ottawa end, the 27-year-old made to go fetch it, changed his mind and, with no one around him, fell on his backside.
The home fans approved of the pratfall.
When Montreal took the lead after Max Pacioretty tipped in a ferocious P.K. Subban slap shot on the power play (Alex Chiasson had earned a double-minor for high-sticking), they cheered louder.
And 2 minutes 11 seconds later, when Pacioretty cruised in alone on a shorthanded breakaway and coolly slipped a backhand past Hammond's glove, it looked like the good ship Hamburglar had sprung a potentially fatal leak.
At the other end, Hammond's fellow British Columbia native Carey Price was doing Carey Price things such as stopping Ottawa's Bobby Ryan with a phlegmatic right-pad save as the big winger stood at the top of his crease.
But the Ottawa Senators have a great deal to play for, despite losing a crucial game this week to a Boston Bruins club that occupies the playoff spot they covet. So when Ryan kissed a shot off the post in the opening stages of the second, it might as well have been an alarm bell.
A short time later, David Legwand's cross-ice pass was batted into the top corner by brilliant Ottawa defenceman Erik Karlsson (it may have changed direction on Montreal centre Jacob De La Rose's outstretched stick).
When pint-sized dynamo Jean-Gabriel Pageau blazed up the ice with 100 seconds to play in the second, the outcome seemed preordained.
Pageau would be an emerging superstar if he played all his games against Montreal. As it was, he outwaited Price and slid a cheeky pass that bounced in off the skates of teammate Erik Condra and his Montreal checker Tomas Plekanec.
In the interim, Hammond was finding his feet. He stopped Brendan Gallagher (another B.C. boy) on the power play. Then he made a crucial poke-check to erase a gruesome defensive turnover and deny recent healthy scratch Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau as he loitered alone near the Ottawa net.
In the opening minute of the third, Pageau drew a tripping penalty on Plekanec and Mark Stone duly scored on a nifty tip.
The Habs earned another four-minute power play after Matt Puempel cross-checked Parenteau in the face, but Hammond stabbed out his glove to deny Jeff Petry and then used his right toe to deny a David Desharnais chance. Seconds later, Karlsson would tip a feed from the rejuvenated Milan Michalek for his second goal and third point of the night. Then Marc Methot made it 5-2, the first time Price has allowed more than four goals since Nov. 4 (a span of 40 games). Because of course.
The Canadiens just don't seem to have an antidote to their closest geographic rival – the Sens had won two of the first three meetings going in (including Hammond's first NHL start) and have enjoyed the upper hand since 2013, when they upset the Habs in the first round. Since the beginning of the lockout-shortened season, Ottawa has lost just four of the 17 games between the teams in regulation (they have won 10).
"Playing in this building is lots of fun … it's such an energetic atmosphere. The rivalry just brings out the emotions in everybody," Ottawa centre Kyle Turris said beforehand with a broad grin. "It gets pretty competitive."
It also helps that the Senators plainly want to help out Hammond, who is as charming a success story as the club has had. Also, it may not have been the first time Hammond faced Price.
"There was a [minor hockey] tournament that I played at in Coquitlam [B.C.], I remember. My captain in junior hockey was good friends with Carey and I remember playing against him … I couldn't swear that Carey was there though," he said before the game.
Price and Hammond were born six months apart, but when Price was breaking into the NHL in 2008, Hammond was still playing in the BCHL, a Tier II circuit.
After an unremarkable four-year stint with a middling Bowling Green University team, Hammond moved on to the minors. But in pro sports, the destination matters more than the route. Hammond credits his slow maturation with equipping him to handle the spotlight.
"You can get swallowed up by the moment and how great things are," he said, but "you kind of need to stay even-keeled … that's the only way I've ever approached it."