The Ottawa Senators have cleared out their lockers for the season, following Thursday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final.
But one bit of good news shone through, and it was shared by goalie Craig Anderson.
Speaking to reporters, Anderson said his wife Nicholle’s recent cancer testing has had a good result.
“She had a PET scan, and MRIs and stuff, and as of right now everything’s clean,” he said. “We’ll just cross our fingers. We go to scans every three months. As of right now, things are positive, but we’re not out of the woods until we get, I think, two years of cancer-free news.”
Anderson said it has been a “rollercoaster” of a season for him, between the playoff run and Nicholle’s cancer diagnosis. He says she helped him make the tough decision to return to the game.
“I wanted to stay with her,” Anderson said, speaking of Nicholle’s diagnosis in October. “We didn’t know what the extent of anything was. If the cancer was life-threatening and she had had three months to live, I would have felt horrible going back. But she insisted that I go back. My hockey family needed me. We were in Pennsylvania with her family, so she had support, which was huge and allowed me to go back.”
Anderson says he plans to spend time pool-side and with family over the summer and just enjoy life.
“I’m sure I’ll get dragged out to the golf course a few times,” he said.
