In Craig Anderson's final NHL game, he faced his former team, the Ottawa Senators, and couldn't possibly have scripted a better ending.
The Ottawa Senators' season ended in Buffalo Thursday night with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Sabres. Blowing a 3-2 third period lead and losing to a team that's likely be a fierce divisional rival for the next five years is generally not how you like to punctuate a season. But this loss came with a nostalgic silver lining, allowing former Senator Craig Anderson to enjoy one last victory as he and his young family walked off into the NHL sunset.
Anderson turns 42 next month and a final game matchup with the Senators, the team he spent a decade with, seemed like the perfect way to go out. A 30 save, overtime victory over his old mates made it even more special.
Anderson hadn't officially confirmed his retirement but everything that happened on the ice after the game did the talking for him. When Buffalo centre Casey Mittelstadt ripped home the winning goal in overtime, no one skated to him to celebrate the win. Every Sabre immediately sprinted the length of the ice to be with Anderson in the victory as his career came to an end.
The almost rebuilt Senators have changed a lot since Anderson left in 2020. Only three Sens who played in Thursday's game actually played with Anderson back then: Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and Erik Brannstrom. Led by the captain, those three were among the first to skate over and congratulate their former teammate.
Cam Talbot, who's now a free agent and has probably played his final game as a Senator, also paid his respect to Anderson, as he famously did in Edmonton in 2016. That was the night Anderson returned from a leave of absence to be with his wife, Nicholle, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. After being named the second star in the game, Talbot stayed out, standing and applauding a teary-eyed Anderson, who was named the first star in Ottawa's 2-0 shutout victory over Talbot's Oilers.
Later that season, Anderson was selected as the NHL's Masterton Trophy winner and also led the Senators to within one goal of a 2017 Stanley Cup Final, losing Game 7 of the Eastern Final to Pittsburgh in double overtime. Ottawa hasn't been back to the playoffs since.
Now cancer-free, Nicholle and their two sons were also rinkside Thursday night, armed with a big, giant hug for Dad, as Sabre fans cheered loud and long for the outgoing veteran. After the game was over, Anderson confirmed what everyone already knew. His career is over.
"This is it," Anderson admitted to a media scrum. “I think I left it all out there. At the end of the day, I did everything I possibly could to make sure that I was competitive and gave the team a chance to win. You’ve got to be honest with yourself. And that’s just the way this game goes, father time always catches up to you.”
Anderson played just two years and 57 games in Buffalo, which pales in comparison to his ten years and 435 games with Ottawa. He leads the Sens in career wins and saves and is generally regarded as the best goalie in club history.
With the Senators rebooting their Ring of Honour this season, Anderson seems like an obvious choice to one day get the call to enter the ring with Wade Redden and former GM Bryan Murray.
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