Senators’ Claude Giroux relishes playoff opportunity at home

OTTAWA — It wasn’t long ago that Claude Giroux seemed like the only adult in the room. 

With the Ottawa Senators in the depths of their rebuild, losses would mount and Giroux would often be the one left to speak to reporters of what went wrong, what needed to be done — his wan look a grim reminder of how difficult losing is to a competitor like Giroux. 

There is only so much that one veteran player can say or do to help a young team with a lot of growing up to do. 

These days, Giroux doesn’t have to wonder when the kids will mature and play like men. They’re doing it. 

As for his role as the veteran voice to the media, Giroux has plenty of company now with the additions of David Perron, Nick Cousins, Michael Amadio and Linus Ullmark, among others. 

Though always pleasant to deal with, Giroux is wearing a smile these days that lights up the dressing room. Rink rats often remark how happy Giroux looks, in his third Ottawa season. 

“What’s up with that?” jokes winger Drake Batherson, asked about ‘G’s grin. “Did he get a new set of irons or something?”

Perhaps. Giroux is an avid golfer. But a more likely explanation is that Giroux has it all going these days, at home and at work. With wife Ryanne, they are the parents of three young boys — Gavin, 5, Palmer, 3, and Charlie, six months. Watching Gavin and Palmer tear around the rink brings us back to when the young Alfredsson boys were buzzing in and out of the Senators dressing room. 

For the first time since former general manager Pierre Dorion signed Giroux to a three-year free agent deal in July 2022, Giroux is heading into the playoffs with his hometown Ottawa team. (Born in Hearst, Ont., Giroux and his family moved to the Ottawa area when he was a bantam player).

“Obviously, it’s a lot more fun when you win,” Giroux says. “When you win, a lot of things get fixed by themselves.”

Giroux says he has been most impressed with this group’s commitment to play defence under new head coach Travis Green. They could always score, these young Sens led by the skills of Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot. This season they reduced their goals allowed to 2.8 from 3.4 a year ago, fourth best in the Atlantic Division. 

Giroux, 37, signed with the Senators for this very reason — to be a contender. He’s back where he wanted to be after experiencing eight playoff seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, half of them as captain, and one with Florida. 

“I knew that as a young team, that we would have a lot to learn as a group,” he says, sitting with a reporter at the Canadian Tire Centre. “We’ve grown as a team. We’ve started playing a different way to win hockey games. I’m proud of our team and how we’ve been able to do that.”

Which had the bigger impact — the growth of the young core or the addition of key veterans?

Giroux says it is not any one thing, but a confluence of factors. A new No. 1 goalie in Ullmark. A revamped coaching staff and hockey operations group. The ownership of Michael Andlauer, dating back to 2023.

As the Senators get set to renew hostilities — literally — in the Battle of Ontario, Giroux likes the fact the Sens had setbacks this season, losing streaks that raised doubts about their ability to reach the post-season. They blew those doubts out of the water, cruising into the first wild-card spot without having to break a sweat in the last week of the regular season. 

“We had stretches where it didn’t go our way and there was a little adversity,” Giroux says. “And that’s great. You need that. If you just cruise through the season, it’s usually not good. You want that adversity. You want to get yourself out of it after losing a few in a row. You learn from that.”

For every one of the eight Senators players drafted by Ottawa on the current roster, this will be their first taste of playoff experience. If that sounds like something to overcome, it also represents an opportunity to tap into the youthful energy of the group. 

The message to the playoff rookies is simple:

“It’s the best time of the year,” Giroux says. Nothing to be afraid of. Butterfly nerves are normal. Welcome, even. 

“Personally, I will be nervous,” Giroux says. “It’s why you play the game, to be in these big games that put you on your toes.”

From his years in Philadelphia and that one spring with Florida, Giroux has playoff memories good and bad. He says he has learned from the best and worst moments. 

“It’s not going to be any different (from the regular season),” he says. “It might be playoffs, but it’s still just hockey.”

You have to go behind Ottawa’s bench to find anyone with a true connection to previous Battle of Ontario showdowns. Senators head coach Travis Green was a defenceman for Toronto in the 2002 series, which the Leafs won in seven games. 

Assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson was Ottawa’s captain and undoubtedly Public Enemy No. 1 in Toronto for those four series from 2000 to 2004, all won by the Leafs. 

Coaching consultant Jacques Martin was the Senators’ head coach throughout. 

Giroux might be an elder statesman today, but those series were so long ago, he was a 16-year-old about to join the Jr. A Cumberland Grads the last time the Sens and Leafs met in the playoffs. Giroux went on to star for the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques. 

Stützle was four months old when Alfie hit Darcy Tucker in 2002. 

Tkachuk was in diapers when the Sens-Leafs tradition began in the spring of 2000. 

These players are being updated on the history and would love nothing more than to write a new chapter, with a different ending, to this edition of the Battle of Ontario. 

When it’s over, however long Ottawa’s spring fling lasts, Giroux will be a pending UFA and have the matter of a new contract to consider. 

Though not the prolific scorer he was, Giroux remains a top-line player, a 50-point centre and by far the best faceoff man in the NHL.

At any given time, Giroux is one of the smartest players on the ice. The little things he does to help keep a puck in at one end or get it out in the other are worth the price of admission to watch him live at the CTC. 

He feels he has more to give. 

“That’s so far off my mind right now,” Giroux says, about his next contract. “It’s something to tackle in the summer.”

There seems little doubt the team would love to have him back for another year or two. 

And it’s Giroux’s first choice to play for his hometown team and win a Stanley Cup. 

“I mean,” he says, “I love it here.”

Up next: Giroux’s first experience with provincial hockey warfare.  

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