Nobody can beat Andrew Hammond right now. (USATSI)
Nobody can beat Andrew Hammond right now. (USATSI)

When the 2014-15 regular season comes to a close, the Ottawa Senators will still probably fall short of the Eastern Conference playoffs. But thanks almost entirely to the recent play of a previously unknown goalie, Andrew Hammond, they have managed to at least make things a little bit more interesting down the stretch and have kept their playoff hopes alive after they seemed to be completely gone just a little more than a month ago.

On Sunday, Hammond continued his unbelievable play when he stopped 27 out of 28 Philadelphia Flyers shots through overtime, and then all three shootout attempts, in a 2-1 shootout win to improve his record to 10-0-1 on the season. Since he made his first start back on Feb. 18, Ottawa has earned 23 out of a possible 26 points in the standings and failed to earn at least a point in only one game -- one of the two games that Hammond did not start over that stretch.

When it all began, Ottawa was 10 points out of a playoff spot and still behind Florida and Philadelphia among non-playoff teams. Since then they have jumped over the Panthers and Flyers and gained five points on the Bruins. On one hand, that shows how difficult it is to make up points this late in the season and why they are still likely to fall short (winning almost every game over a month only got them five points closer!).

On the other hand it's incredible that we're still even talking about the Senators at this point in the season.

And it's pretty much entirely due to Hammond, and none of it makes any sense.

First, the fact that the 27-year-old Hammond is even in the NHL at this point is rare enough.

Just consider that since the start of the 2000-01 NHL season only 34 goalies, including Hammond, made their first NHL start after their 26th birthday. You can see the entire list over at Hockey-Reference. Tim Thomas obviously sticks out as going on to have a great career, while Eddie Lack, Cristobal Huet and Niklas Backstrom have had some success. Cam Talbot, who has been solid as Henrik Lundqvist's backup the past two seasons and is filling in wonderfully for him this season, is also on there. But other than that it's a bunch of players that either had some early success and quickly fizzled out, or a bunch of players who were just never able to stick. 

Goalies can be difficult to develop. They can be impossible to project. And they can take some time to become quality NHL regulars, if they ever do. But they don't usually begin their careers in the NHL when they are in their late 20s and then go on to become successful long-term starters.

It can happen, but it's the exception, not the rule.

Playing four years of college hockey at Bowling Green State University, and then going undrafted, obviously played a role in delaying the start of Hammond's pro career. Following the 2012-13 season he signed a two-year entry level deal with the Senators and started the following season playing for their AHL team in Binghamton.

And that is where this early NHL success really starts to defy any rational belief. This is something that can't be stressed enough when talking about the start to his NHL career -- he wasn't very good in the American Hockey League.

In 73 starts over two seasons, he managed just a .905 save percentage with Binghamton, while his play regressed so much this season that at the time of his callup to the NHL in February he had the third-worst save percentage in the AHL (.898) and was one of only three goalies in the entire league below .900 (Jonas Gustavsson and destroyer of nets David Leggio).

He wasn't stopping AHL shooters with any regularity this season, and now the best players in the world cannot beat him. He has yet to allow more than two goals in a game in his 11 starts, the type of run to start a career that the NHL has not seen since Hall of Famer Frank Brimsek went 12 straight games back in 1939 (via the Ottawa Citizen).

You don't need a history lesson to know that a goalie maintaining a .955 save percentage isn't sustainable long term, or that he's more likely to become just another run-of-the-mill goalie than some sort of a long-term answer.

But for now it's one of the best and most unbelievable stories in the league, and is yet another example of how the position as a whole can be nothing more than a pile of unpredictable madness. We have seen it many times just this season. Devan Dubnyk is on his fourth team since the start of last season, when he was the worst goalie in the league. Now he is carrying the Minnesota Wild to the playoffs. Steve Mason has gone from complete dud for years in Columbus to a legitimate starter in Philadelphia. Cam Talbot is helping the Rangers win just as much as they did with Henrik Lundqvist.

And now Andrew Hammond, after being one of the least productive goalies in the AHL this very season, is becoming a hero in Ottawa and trying to single-handedly save the Senators' season.

Goalies. You just never know with these guys.