It was an emotional evening for Ottawa Senators fans, as their hometown club not only played their final home game of the regular season, but it may have been the final home game involving Senators Captain Erik Karlsson.
Erik Karlsson grabs the puck and sneakily tucks it in his pants after the final Ottawa home game of the season pic.twitter.com/a94YgraL6B
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) April 3, 2018
At the end of a 6-5 loss to the powerful Winnipeg Jets, cameras caught captain Karlsson skating towards an empty net and retrieving the game puck. When asked about why he decided to fish the puck out of the net, Karlsson shrugged off the questions, saying that he “decided to keep the puck” and he hadn’t thought about this being his final home game.
Karlsson brushing off any sentimental reason for fetching the puck ignited the Sens Army on Twitter, as many users didn’t believe that Karlsson’s actions were meaningless.
Of course he’ll say that
— sad sens (@SadSens) April 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/JordanMcNaught/status/981022376241410048
https://twitter.com/CanadianWalker7/status/981003033466343425
You have to think the potential of leaving the Senators is on the mind of Karlsson, as it has been rumored for months at this point.
Once summer hits, the rumors involving Karlsson will once again pick up, as the Senators’ management needs to either commit or ship the Swedish defenceman.
Karlsson fetched the puck out of the #Senators net after the final buzzer and stuffed it in his pants. The significance of this game is clearly not lost on him. Likely his last at CTC
— Don Brennan (@SunDoniB) April 3, 2018