Andrew Hammond injury: Goalie Controversy?

Senators G Andrew Hammond will miss at least two weeks to open the regular season, story via NHL.com. It was announced during a press conference early Friday afternoon with Ottawa GM Bryan Murray.

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Depending how you look at the situation, this could have its positives and negatives. On the one hand, Craig Anderson is your indisputable starter to begin the season.

Secondly, you don’t have to cater to two good goalies who both are looking for as many starts as possible. So maybe you can help avoid something that could potentially become a distraction.

But there’s another side to this. Free-agent signing prospect Matt O’Connor gets recalled and steps in to assume the backup role to begin the season with the injury to Andrew Hammond. For those unfamiliar with O’Connor. He played at Boston U last season where he accumulated a 25-4-4 record with a 2.18 GAA and .927 Save %.

He followed that up with an outstanding showing in the Sens rookie camp. He was never going to beat Craig Anderson or Andrew Hammond for a roster spot, even though he continued his success through NHL training camp. Matt O’Connor even outplayed former Sens goalie Robin Lehner in a win over Buffalo in the preseason.

Now it is just preseason, and we need to careful not to over-evaluate these guys based on the type of sample size we’re working with. But let’s face it, O’Connor has the pedigree to be yet another quality goaltender to help confuse matters in the Nation’s Capital.

What happens if Craig Anderson plays well, but Matt O’Connor steps in and plays that much better. Maybe not to the extreme Andrew Hammond did down the stretch last season, but what if it’s enough to merit consideration in keeping him with the big club?

I don’t imagine they would want to carry three goalies on the roster like they have in the past. Especially since you wanna give all three as many minutes as you can. But who would you trade of the three if the Sens find themselves in this situation?

Can you still send Matt O’Connor down with the logic that its his first year of pro experience and needs a time in the AHL regardless if he plays outstanding? I tend to agree with the latter. It probably doesn’t matter how he plays in whatever limited amount of starts he sees.

But when you’re already struggling to figure out how to give Craig Anderson and Andrew Hammond enough starts, I wonder what kind of mess another emerging goalie could cause. Especially with a team that has some question marks and holes that could be filled in other areas.

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