Warrenspiece: Andrew Hammond a star again, big defense numbers and prospect Jarventie shines on the farm

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In some ways, Saturday’s victory over the Ottawa Senators must have felt like a home ice win for goaltender Andrew Hammond.

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After all, he had the support of Senators fans for what he did in 2014-15 (the first period hamburger toss was a nice touch), while also being embraced by the heavy load of Montreal Canadiens fans inside Canadian Tire Centre.

When it was over, he had a deja-vu moment, selected as one of the game’s three stars after stopping 25 of 26 shots.

Now 2-0 in his return to the NHL, Hammond was unflappable throughout, lowering his goals against average to 1.44 and raising his save percentage to .949.

“I have no animosity or anything like that (towards the Senators), but I think it’s natural any time you’re playing your former team, you’d like to win,” he said.

After the Canadiens arrived in Ottawa on Friday, Hammond and former Senators defenseman Chris Wideman retraced their footsteps for some catching up.

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“(Wideman) and I went to one of the local restaurants we used to go to after games when we played here,” Hammond said. “I saw the owner at Napoli’s and hung out with some friends there. I think both of us thought it would be a little bit sweeter to get the win against them.”

Naturally, the Senators didn’t like losing to Hammond, but there is respect for his game and his comeback to the big leagues.

“I played in Belleville with him,” Colin White said. “It’s great to see him back in the NHL. He’s doing great and he played a great game (Saturday).

THE NUMBERS GAME

Defenseman Victor Mete was going about his business Saturday, expecting to be a healthy scratch. I skated in the morning and had an off-ice workout. Then came the word late in the afternoon that he would be needed due to the undisclosed illnesses (unrelated to COVID-19) to Thomas Chabot and Nikita Zaitsev.

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From there, the remaining five defensemen tried to get through the game, shifting from left to the right side whenever needed.

“It was a little different, you’ve just got to be ready for anything,” said Mete, who had never before in the NHL started a game with only five defensemen. “It’s tough for sure. Guys who haven’t played the right side at all and shifting it up. It’s definitely not as easy as it looks.”

Mete finished with 19:40 of ice time, just shy of his Senators high of 20:40.

Artem Zub, who played 10:42 in the first period alone, ended up skating 24:59, while the clock also climbed for Nick Holden (24:08), Erik Brannstrom (25:19) and Josh Brown (20:36) . It’s the most Brown has played in a game since joining the Senators and just shy of his career-high of 22:14, established while playing with Florida and against the Senators on March 28, 2019.

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Mete says the pre-game message for the defensemen was to keep the game as simple as possible.

“When you’ve got five defensemen, you’ve got to play with a certain set of rules,” said coach DJ Smith.

“You can’t turn the puck over on the rush, because with five, you’re constantly changing, so that when you turn it over, it’s essentially an odd man rush. We didn’t have the puck in their zone enough to give our defense a breather. We had some bad pinches (by forwards) and not covering some guys.”

KUDOS TO THE CROWD

While there are some pre-game complaints about long lineups into the parking lots and the arena, the atmosphere inside Canadian Tire Center was outstanding. “It’s night and day, from when you have 500 fans or 5,000 fans,” Smith said. “There was way more energy in the building tonight” … Meanwhile, the Lightning will face the Senators Tuesday fresh from defeating the Nashville Predators 3-2 in front of 68,619 fans at the outdoor game at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium Saturday….

JARVENTIE SCORES TWO

Roby Jarventie scored twice, including the game winner in the final minute, to lead the Belleville Senators to a comeback 4-3 win over the Laval Rocket on Saturday. Jarventie, 19, was the Senators 33rd overall selection in the 2020 draft. He has eight goals and 16 assists in 42 games for Belleville. Goaltender Kevin Mandolese made 29 saves for the win.