Giroux: Road to his recovery surprisingly long

VOORHEES TWP, N.J. >> It wouldn’t take anything beyond a brief glance at a stats sheet, but through various long looks at Claude Giroux this season it was obvious he was dealing with something beyond a scoring slump.

That he’d had surgery on a torn right labrum in his hip in mid-May was something to be shrugged off, ignored or outright denied in interviews broaching the subject, not a surprise since Giroux is a modern disciple of the NHL’s injury code of silence.

Even prior to the start of training camp, Giroux was pronouncing himself completely recovered from the hip surgery, with Flyers general medical manager Ron Hextall largely speculating the same thing. After a relatively fast start to the season, Giroux was clearly struggling with his game, however. He chastised himself publicly for an ugly plus-minus rating that has dogged him all season, and his scoring numbers were way off their usual pace.

Lately, Giroux’s individual performances have been overshadowed by the Flyers’ ongoing slippage from playoff positioning. But despite his team’s inconsistencies, Giroux entered a game Sunday night against Carolina riding a six-game points streak, during which he’s scored two goals and registered four assists.

Overall, he had 14 goals and 51 points, tempered with a minus-17 rating, entering the game against the Hurricanes. But to say he’s been better of late, primarily because he’s healthier than any other time of year?

Even Giroux that Sunday.

“When you’ve got that jump in your play, you feel a little bit more confident in keeping the puck, and you just try to make the right play out there,” Giroux said. “Confidence, I think, is a big part of anybody’s play . ... At the end you’ve got to keep working and keep trying to get better.”

Giroux and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere had similar labrum repair surgeries on the same May day. It was evident at the start of the season Gostisbehere simply wasn’t back physically to the level he’d flashed during his fantastic rookie season. The Ghost was slower on his skates, which took a toll on him mentally. He was was finally owning up to benched on occasion, and all through, he maintained that it was part of the learning curve and not so much the result of the surgery.

Like Giroux, though, Gostisbehere has been much better of late. Despite team-policy declarations to the contrary, it seems the surgeries took a real toll on both players throughout what has turned into a disappointing season.

That’s not likely a mere coincidence, but was only one factor in the Flyers’ apparent early spring fate.

“I really noticed the pace and the speed of his game has been very good over the last 10 days or two weeks,” coach Dave Hakstol said of Giroux. “The quickness and the speed and the pace of his game, both with and without the puck, I think, has been at a little bit different level here recently.”

Giroux indicated the problems been only of a physical nature.

“When you don’t think about that kind of stuff, you just go out there and play the game,” Giroux said. “But when it’s in the back of your mind you’re not really thinking about the game. You’re mostly thinking about your hips or whatever. I think it’s important to just focus on the right things. Even if you don’t feel good, you have to find a way to be strong mentally.

“When you try to make plays that you used to make, and you can’t really make them, it’s frustrating and confusing. When you start getting that confidence back and you know you can make those plays, you just go out there and make it happen.”

It’s happening now for Giroux, but probably too late for it to make any difference in the Flyers’ fading playoff hopes. Going through this prolonged recovery experience, however, has certainly taught him a thing or two.

“When you’re in the gym and you kind of feel good, your confidence (goes up) and you say, ‘I’m starting to feel a little bit better here.’ ... That’s exciting,” Giroux said. Of the slow recovery from surgery, he added, “It was new. You’re trying to do the things that you know you can do and it’s just not happening. So you try to think a little too much, about how you can be the player you want to be. It’s not easy. You have to work at it ... you’ve got to go in the gym and make sure your body’s feeling good and mentally before games you try to feel a little bit better.” hadn’t