Persistent Claude Giroux deserves Masterton nomination after 'frustrating' Senators season

Claude Giroux is hardly the biggest guy in the Senators' dressing room. 

He does, though, carry a heavy burden on those determined shoulders, as the lone player over 30 years old who is an everyday starter on a young Ottawa roster. 

Giroux, 36, has proven his leadership and resolve over 16 NHL seasons and 1,175 games. One of the smartest and most competitive players in the game, Giroux has been a steady producer, mentor, and fixture in the lineup since joining his hometown Senators in the summer of 2022. 

For these reasons and more, Giroux has been voted as the Senators’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. 

The award is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association (the Ottawa chapter in this case) and commemorates Bill Masterton of the Minnesota North Stars, who died of head injuries suffered in a game in 1968. 

“It’s an honour and a good feeling,” said Giroux, who was also nominated by Philadelphia media in 2018, when Giroux was captain of the Flyers. 

No doubt, this would have been a happier occasion if Giroux and the Senators were on the eve of playoff participation, or at least going down to the wire in a wild card chase. 

Instead, for the second straight season of Giroux’s time in Ottawa, the Sens are playing out the string. While he has had playoff experience with Philadelphia and Florida, Giroux did not sign on in Ottawa to rebuild – but rather to take the next step. Sadly, another stumble before that step. This season has to rank among the most difficult of Giroux’s long career. 

“It’s very frustrating,” Giroux says, prior to game No. 75, against the visiting Panthers Thursday, a 6-0 rout by Florida. “Obviously it’s not the position we’d like to be in right now. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this season and just overall, it’s been pretty frustrating.”

Asked about hopes that the team’s recent improved play (prior to Florida’s arrival) could carry into next year, Giroux responds: “Yeah, of course. That’s what we said last year. We couldn’t do that. 

“We like the pieces in this locker room, we feel like we’re a good hockey team. We just need to be a bit more consistent. We should be better next year.”

It’s lonely work being the only adult in the room. The only veteran adult, that is. Save for an injured Travis Hamonic here and a traded-away Vladimir Tarasenko there, Giroux is and has been, for the most part, the only Senator able to draw upon such vast experience in the league. 

Interim head coach Jacques Martin, who frequently expresses this team’s need for veteran help in the off-season, believes Giroux’s role on the Senators took a personal toll. 

“I feel for him because, at one time, I felt it was kind of affecting his play a little bit,” Martin said. “He was putting a lot of energy into trying to help others, and also the fact that I used him a lot.  Because there was hardly any practice time, there wasn’t much time to recuperate. He was getting kind of fatigued. He got over that and is giving us some good hockey again.”

Giroux’s numbers in his first Ottawa season were off-the-charts good: a career-high in goals with 35 and nearly a point per game with 79 points in 82 games played. 

Though his numbers are down slightly this season, they are more than respectable. For a tenth time, Giroux has hit the 20-goal plateau and he has 60 points in 75 games. 

As far as his production, Giroux credits his health and fitness as well as being able to play alongside Ottawa’s young talent. That cuts both ways. Players like Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Drake Batherson and others also benefit from Giroux’s wily play. As a young captain, Tkachuk is learning a lot from a longtime wearer of the ‘C’ in Giroux. Off the ice as well as on it. 

“One of his biggest assets is his intelligence on the ice,” Martin says. “His ability to read the play, to be in the right spot at the right time. He’s a player who has great anticipation. He can shoot the puck but he’s probably more of a playmaker as well.”

Along with the production, Giroux provides a nightly clinic for his younger teammates on the small details of the game that often go unnoticed, a sneaky check along the wall or laying out to keep a puck in. 

Perhaps the most remarkable element of Giroux’s brief time in Ottawa – beyond his presence, he IS present. Game after game. The man’s durability is impressive. 

After playing in all 82 games last season, Giroux has continued that streak into the final two weeks of 2023-24. If he stays healthy for all 82 again, he will rank 13th in franchise history for consecutive games played. 

And as for starting a career with the Sens, Giroux and his 157 games are already third on the consecutive games list behind Kyle Turris (307 straight games from the time he joined the Senators) and Dany Heatley (207). 

“Eighty-two games is a lot, it’s a grind, but you’ve got to find ways to motivate yourself to play to the best of your abilities,” Giroux says. “If you’re feeling like you’re not playing great during a game, you’re just trying to keep it simple and try not to hurt the team.”

As for his young mates, even if we have seen signs of visible frustration on the ice at times, they are growing. Gradually. 

“Every year they’re getting there,” Giroux says. “They’re just working on their game. They’re getting better and you know, that’s how hockey is.”