Giroux's Grand Home Finale
Two points. That's all Claude Giroux needed to cement his name (more than it already is) in NHL history by crossing the 1000 career point plateau coming into last night. Combine that with the fact that it was the Senators final game at Canadian Tire Centre for the season and he had his family in tow and the stage could not have been better set.
It took just under six minutes for Giroux to reach 999 points when he snapped the feed from Brady Tkachuk past Frederik Andersen for his 33rd goal of the season.
On the verge of history, the only thing on the mind of all 18,688 fans in attendance and 19/20 Senators players that laced up that night was Claude Giroux hitting his 1000th point. The one person not thinking about it, Claude Giroux.
"I don't like thinking about it," said Giroux when asked when he started thinking about hitting 1000 points. "It kind of keeps you from playing the right way."
Well lucky for Giroux he didn't have to keep it off his mind for much longer. At the 17:26 mark of the first period, Giroux passed the puck to a streaking Tim Stützle, who took care of the rest to push Giroux into quadruple digits for his career.
Immediately after Stützle potted the goal, captain Brady Tkachuk immediately skated to Giroux and bombarded him with a hug. While Stützle went and hunted down the puck for Giroux, the rest of the Senators flocked off the bench to celebrate with their veteran leader.
The energy in the stadium was electric as the Senators headed into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead. After a couple intermission activations and while the Zamboni flooded the ice for the second period, the Senators in-game crew ran a video tribute for Giroux to celebrate the moment 16 years in the making.
Now that the moment everyone had been waiting for had come and gone, Carolina was able to mount a comeback. Netting their first goal at the 15:30 mark of the second period, before drawing the game even on a power play just 2:23 into the third period.
Well with the game all tied up, who else but the man of the hour to step up and restore the lead. With 10:23 left in the game, Shane Pinto dropped a pass behind him to a trailing Giroux who flipped the puck off his back hand almost effortlessly to tally his 34th goal of the season, matching his career high.
The Senators were able to hold onto the 3-2 lead and make sure that the team got the win on Giroux's special night. Of course, as with all Senators victories, there was a pair of goggles to hand out to the player of the game. Who else but Mr. 1000 could have taken the final pair of goggles in the last home game of the season.
With a career like Giroux's it's almost unfair to call this a revitalizing season since he's never really had a dip in production. However, at 35 years old he's matched his career high in goals, is set to play in a full 82 games for the first time since the 2018-19 season and will finish with the fifth most points of his 16-year NHL career.
These are no small feats and it would be hard to ignore how well he's gelled with the Senators young core, specifically his linemates Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle. The pair made sure to be right alongside him as he took his official photo with his 1000th point puck.
While hitting this milestone with this group and in front of his family is a nice reward for his first year in the black, red, white and gold, Giroux has his sights set on bigger things. This group came within just a couple games of tasting the playoffs for the first time since 2017 and won't be satisfied until they get there. Suffice it to say this is just the beginning of Claude Giroux's legacy as an Ottawa Senator.
