The Ottawa Senators returned to the playoffs for the primary time since 2017 once they qualified for a first-round matchup against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. It didn’t go as planned over their first two games, because the Maple Leafs took a 2-0 series lead. Nonetheless, Claude Giroux used the Senators’ momentum from their first home game to open the scoring in Game 3.
It broke a 13-year goalless drought within the playoffs for Giroux, who last scored in Game 1 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Final for the Philadelphia Flyers. The Senators needed Giroux to perform higher to get themselves back within the series, and he lived as much as his end of the cut price. Nonetheless, the victory wasn’t meant to be for Ottawa, as Simon Benoit scored an additional time winner later in the sport to provide the Leafs a 3-0 series lead.
The Senators don’t have anything to hold their heads about going into Game 4. It has been two heartbreaking additional time losses in a row, which tells them they were two bounces in the precise direction away from a 2-1 lead as a substitute of a 3-0 deficit. The one thing they will hope for now could be that the Maple Leafs feel the pressure of closing out the series and discover a strategy to lose a few games.
Feel-good story for Claude Giroux and the Senators
Related Ottawa Senators NewsArticle continues below
Giroux moved to Ottawa to further his hockey profession when he was 14, which eventually proved to be a terrific move when he made the National Hockey League. After a lengthy stint with the Flyers, Giroux searched for a fresh start and went to the Florida Panthers on the 2022 trade deadline. It didn’t work out in Florida, so he signed along with his adopted home and joined an up-and-coming Senators squad.
The playoff debut didn’t occur as quickly as Giroux hoped when he signed, but he finally got a taste of postseason hockey on the Canadian Tire Centre in his third season with the team. It was only fitting that Giroux was the one to attain the primary home goal after putting his trust within the organization in the course of the 2022 offseason. It’ll now take one other great story for Giroux to advance to the second round.
The excellent news for the young Senators is that this series will act as a lesson moving forward. It won’t work out this season, but Ottawa should get excited concerning the team’s future.
