Ottawa Senators: 4 takeaways from 2-1 win over San Jose Sharks

3) Craig Anderson excels once again

As Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun recently wrote, there is a very good chance this is Craig Anderson‘s final season with the Senators. He’s in the last year of his contract, will be 39 in May, and the team is ready to give Marcus Hogberg and Anders Nilsson their chance to claim the number one role between the pipes.

As Garrioch noted, Anderson is just happy to have the chance to finish the season in Ottawa, after not being moved at the trade deadline. However, he’d had his struggles of late with three consecutive losses and there was a scenario where he could finish the 2019-20 campaign with a whimper; not a good way to go out if this is indeed his last season in Canada’s capital.

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However, the Park Ridge, Illinois native managed to get back on track in his last start, claiming the win and the game’s second star with a tremendous performance against the New York Islanders. And he continued his good form on Saturday night in San Jose.

Anderson was once again excellent in goal for the Senators, as he stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced and brought back memories of his heyday. Afterwards, he was deservedly awarded the game’s first star.

As you’d expect, the goaltender was typically humble about his play, instead preferring to talk about his teammates, including how delighted he was for Tierney to score the game-winner against his former club. As such, as reported by Ken Warren of the National Post, it was up to coach D.J. Smith to sing the praises of Anderson, albeit in an understated way:

"“It was pretty wide open. A lot of chances. Both teams were really good. Our goalie, at the end of the day, happened to be a little bit better than their goalie and we win.”"

The Senators have just 13 regular-season games remaining, and there is no telling how many of them Anderson will play in. Regardless, Senators fans should make sure they fully appreciate each and every time he does start, as they may not get another chance once the 2019-20 campaign concludes.