Claude Giroux may be 38, but Senators coach Travis Green saw something on the first day of training camp that made him sound like a much younger player.
Green, who does not usually hand out praise lightly, pointed to Giroux after Thursday’s opening session and said the veteran “looked like he was 25 again.”
That’s not just a throwaway compliment. Giroux is the ninth-oldest active player under contract in the NHL, and he stands out in an Ottawa room where the next oldest players at camp - Ben Hutton, Nick Cousins and Linus Ullmark - are all 33. But even with that age gap, Giroux remains a central piece for the Senators as he enters his fifth season in Ottawa.
His presence showed up again on Sunday when the Senators worked through special teams for the first time since camp opened. Giroux stayed on the second power-play unit with Thomas Chabot and Shane Pinto, while Carter Yakemchuk and Andre Burakovsky rotated in, along with Fabian Zetterlund and Stephen Halliday. Giroux also took penalty-kill reps.
“I think just working on the basics today, making sure that everybody knows their position, knows what kind of plays we want to be looking for, but it was a good first day for the power play and the PK,” Giroux said.
Halliday, who has drawn some inevitable comparisons with his long red hair spilling out from under his helmet, has quickly noticed how much Giroux still brings to the ice. The 24-year-old said on Saturday that Giroux was moving well right away.
“Like Greener said in his press conference, he was flying around the first day. Can't tell [his age] at all. He's still giving guys the gears and stuff too,” Halliday said.
Halliday also said he makes a point of keeping pace with Giroux in drills.
“I don't want to be last to ‘G’ in anything. He’s still got it pretty good, especially on face-offs, so yeah, it's super motivating seeing the guy still works on his game a lot, and just seeing the training that he did this summer - he's been in the league for 20 years, has however many points he has in the game, so yeah, it's definitely a motivator.”
Giroux has also enjoyed skating alongside Halliday and Tyler Boucher over the first few days of camp, though Boucher was not with the main group on Sunday as Ottawa prepares to send an NHL-heavy roster to Trois-Rivières for its first preseason game.
Giroux said he has known Boucher for years, going back to dinners at the Bouchers’ home when Tyler was a kid.
“His dad [Brian] was my stallmate for a few years, and we got along very well. He's a funny guy, and spent a lot of time with his dad, so to play with him was pretty cool,” Giroux said on Sunday.
“That’s a long time ago, but it’s pretty cool we’re in the same organization now.”
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