Pressure on Giroux to produce in Game 6
Flyers captain has one assist in first five games of series
He has yet to score in five postseason games, has been a minus player in the series, and even more surprisingly, Claude Giroux has won less than half the faceoffs he’s taken.
He has yet to score in five postseason games, has been a minus player in the series, hasn’t appeared as quick as usual and even more surprisingly, Claude Giroux has won less than half the faceoffs he’s taken against a few skilled Washington Capitals centers.
Naturally, then, the supposition is Giroux, who has long been a player who has stepped up the pace of his production in the postseason ... is hurt. Has to be, right? “Claude is fine,” general manager Ron Hextall said. And if you didn’t hear him the first time, “Claude is fine,” he added.
But offensive hockey as spectator sport is about numbers. In this case, the numbers say the Flyers are being blown out of of this Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series, and taking Giroux’s game with them.
The Capitals have lost two games in a row, yet they still have outscored the Flyers by 13-6 overall, have outscored the Flyers on the power play by 8-1 ... even though they’re ohfor-their-last-5 there ... and, oh yes, still lead the series 3-2 heading into Sunday’s lunchtime Game 6 at Wells Fargo Center.
With the exception of the supernatural goaltending Michal Neuvirth has provided the past two games, all numerical trends indicate the Flyers still have the odds stacked against them. But again, as Giroux would be the first to point out, sometimes the numbers don’t indicate what’s really going on.
“I know I can play better,” said Giroux, who has only one assist and is a minus-2 in the series. “It’s some tight hockey out there, 5-on-5, there’s not much (room) on both sides. That’s playoff hockey. You can’t let the frustration get to you. You just have to keep battling and just try to make plays out there.
“You want to produce, you want to do everything you can to help the team win. It could be defensively or offensively . ... We want to produce more, but it’s about getting the win.”
Top-line stalwarts Giroux and Wayne Simmonds (no goals, two assists) continue to look for the scoring punch they’re supposed to supply, and through the course of this series haven’t found it with either Jake Voracek or Brayden Schenn on their left wing. But the goals have been hard to come by everywhere, up and down the lineup, for the Flyers. Luckily for them, Neuvirth picked the past couple of games to play the best hockey of his life.
Well, since he was in the minors, anyway.
Neuvirth is the same guy that as a Capitals prospect led the Hershey Bears to consecutive Calder Cup championships in 2009 and 2010, playing behind a couple of Bear-ish defensemen then by the names of John Carlson and Karl Alzner.
They’re probably the two biggest reasons why Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds haven’t looked like themselves this series.
“We have to be better offensively, clearly,” Simmonds said. “A lot of that falls on my shoulders . ... I think we have to do a better job, myself included, of generating offense. But at the same time that’s in the past now. We’re going one game at a time so it’s up to us to come out tomorrow and be ready to contribute offensively.
“Neuvy stole that one for us and that’s all you could really say. He played a heck of a game. You need your goaltender to steal you some games and that’s what happened.”
Replacing a sagging Steve Mason after three Washington-dominated games and with the brooms at the ready, Neuvirth has come in and stopped 75 of 76 Capitals shots on goal the past two games.
“He gave us life,” Giroux said of Neuvirth. “Down 3-nothing and at home (in Game 4), he played really solid. Then in Game 5 he was more than solid. He was on his game, and he did that all year for us. We’re happy he’s on our side.”
But Giroux, who came into this series with 23 goals and 61 points and a plus-15 rating through 57 career playoff games, pointed out the Flyers can’t be happy with the way their offensive side hasn’t revealed itself in this series.
“We can’t let ourselves play another game like that,” he said of the 2-0 Flyers victory Friday night, which featured a mindblowing 44-11 Capitals advantage in shots on goal.
“Neuvy got us a win,” Giroux said. “They had a lot of shots but we battled hard defensively. We tried to defend them as best as we wanted. We know we’ve got to get better.”
Washington, which came into the postseason as a No. 1 seed on most favorites lists, has played like it was supposed to in this series. Yet the Caps are 0-2 in possible elimination games in this series, and only 1 for their last 9 attempts at closing out a playoff opponent.
Based on the way they have played the past two games, however, there is still the supposition on the Capitals’ part that they’ll wrap up this series sooner or later ... and probably sooner.
To avoid that, Neuvirth is going to have to continue to play the proverbial headstanding goalie role, and Giroux is going to have to start playing like his old playoff self. And that’s just a start.
The Flyers will not win this series if they can’t find some balanced offense ... or essentially any offense at all.
“We’re not going to play like we did this last game,” Simmonds said, looking ahead to Sunday’s High Noon showdown. “We had one unbelievable performance and that was from Michal. We fully intend to go out there tomorrow and have a way better game, a 100 percent better game. We know we didn’t play our best hockey and our goalie was our best player; but sometimes you need that.”