Giroux: "We Love Our Team"

In recent days, multiple Flyers players have been asked Exit Day interview questions about the leadership of team captain Claude Giroux. To a man, they responded with fervent support. On Friday, Giroux gave an unequivocal vote of confidence in his teammates, and said that he strongly believes the Flyers can take the next step toward a run at the Stanley Cup by continuing to develop from within rather than making major changes. Giroux believes there's already a good blend of experience and youth, solid chemistry and depth, plus the caliber of goaltending that it takes to advance beyond the Second Round of the playoffs.
"We took a huge step forward. We're very disappointed that we couldn't move on to the Conference Finals. We thought we had a team that was able to go further. It's very disappointing. At the same time, we took a huge step forward from last year. We've got to keep moving forward and keep building on this. We love our team. We like the pieces we have. We're all pretty excited for next year," Giroux said.
"I think the other years that we made the playoffs and we lost the first round, we didn't have the depth we have right now. Right now we have older players and younger players. We just have a good mix of guys. Having Carter Hart] in net, and Moose [Brian Elliott], they give us a chance to win every night. We just like the mix that we have in the locker room. As the season went on, we kept getting better. We played more as a team and everybody was stepping up at the right time. As I said before, we're extremely excited for next year, and we learned a lot from the Islanders series and even against Montreal Canadiens. We've just got to keep building here."*
*[Video: Giroux - End of season

Reflecting on the team's disappointing Game 7 in the Second Round against the New York Islanders and his own struggles to create offensive chances and put up points at his accustomed level on the power play or at even strength, Giroux said that the two problems were interrelated.
"I think power play was an issue, especially against the Islanders. We got chances, but it didn't go in. We didn't find ways to get momentum to the team. There wasn't a lot of power plays. At the same time, when you do have them, you have to find a way to get momentum for the team or get a few chances. 5-on-5, I think especially when you are down and you don't have the confidence in your power play that maybe we had before the break, you are pressing a little bit more on 5-on-5 because you want those chances to get back in the game,"he said.
In terms of Giroux's playoff productivity in his career, the tale of the tape shows that's really been a story of his first five playoff runs vs. his most recent three. The first five were excellent, while the last three have been a struggle.
FIRST FIVE PLAYOFFS
2009: 6 GP, 5 PTS (2g, 3a)
2010: 23 GP, 21 PTS (10g, 11a)
2011: 11 GP, 12 PTS (1g, 11a)
2012: 10 GP, 17 PTS (8g, 9a)
2014: 7 GP, 6 PTS (2g, 4a)
Total: 57 GP, 61 PTS (23g, 38a), 1.07 PPG

LAST THREE PLAYOFFS
2016: 6 GP, 1 PT (0g, 1a)
2018: 6 GP, 3 PTS (1g, 2a)
2020: 16 GP, 8 PTS (1g, 7a)
TOTAL: 28 GP, 12 PTS (2g, 10a), 0.

In the Flyers' 2016 series against the Capitals, Giroux was attempting to play through a combination hip/groin injury that required surgery shortly after the playoffs. The last two playoff runs, however, he has been healthy. For his part, Giroux admits that neither the 2018 or 2020 playoffs were up to the standards he sets for himself on an individual basis.
Giroux was on his hottest run of the 2019-20 season leading into the leaguewide pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- the Flyers final 15 games before the pause, he posted 18 points (8g, 10a). Unfortunately, he scuffled to regain his form once the team got to the Bubble in Toronto. Giroux felt like he was trending the right way as the Islanders' series progressed but he couldn't break through into a sustained groove.
"Personally, obviously, it's not a secret, I would have liked to play better. I think as the playoffs went on, I was starting to feel a little bit better. It was obviously a unique tournament that we had. You are off for a couple months and then you go straight to playoffs. It was hard for everybody, but it just felt like it took me a little bit longer to kind of get going," he said.
The 32-year-old veteran also responded during his Exit Day availability to several theories that have made the rounds about his physical and/or emotional states while in the Bubble. For starters, he rejected the excuse that being away for an extended period of time from his wife and one-year-old son (whose birthday he missed while in Toronto) left him feeling emotionally ambivalent.
"No. Obviously it was tough not seeing (my wife or one-year-old son) for a couple months. If there was anything, I was more focused and had more motivation to win," Giroux said.
During head coach Alain Vigneault's Exit Day discussion, the Flyers head coach suggested that the team's group of forwards who are now in their 30s -- Giroux, Jakub Voracek and James van Riemsdyk -- may need to make some tweaks to their conditioning routines in order to hold up through the marathon of the regular season and then the extensive sprint-like pace of the playoffs.
Giroux said on Friday that he hasn't had an opportunity to speak to Vigneault. He did discuss, in more general terms, the subject of his conditioning.
"I've been with the Flyers for 13 years and I've been committed to this organization. Every offseason I think I do a great job to be a little better. Obviously when you get a little bit older, however the season went on, you always want to tweak the way you work out. That's something that I might have to tweak one or two things. At the end of the day, I think every time camp starts, I'm in great shape. I expect the same here,"Giroux said.
Moving forward, Giroux said that he expects the continuing emergence of the young core of homegrown talent that's already in the NHL, such as Joel Farabee, Phil Myers, Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny, Hart and Oskar Lindblom, as well as prospects knocking at the door (such as Morgan Frost and Egor Zamula) to take major roles in supplying the type of talent and depth that it takes to go from the Second Round to pushing for a Stanley Cup.
Giroux was asked specifically what it would mean to the team to have a healthy and productive Nolan Patrick back after missing a full year with chronic migraines and having Lindblom back for a full season following his successful battle against Ewing's Sarcoma. The captain said it would be of enormous help, both in hockey and inspirational terms.
"Nolan has been through a lot. You don't want to mess around with head problems. Obviously we want Nolan back in the lineup, but we don't want him before he's 100 percent. He's going to have a long career. He's going to be a great player. I still remember practices this year and he came on the ice. The new coaches we had were kind of looking at us like this kid is pretty good. We want him to get healthy and he's going to be a big piece for us this year. With Oskar, his whole story is just amazing, for him to come back as early as he did and the way he played. He's got so much courage. Everybody respects Oskar very much," Giroux said.
Earlier this week, Hart and Konecny -- two of the most important players on the team both now and in the future -- were asked to characterize Giroux's leadership and what it has meant to their own careers to date. Both players gave glowing testimonials.
"G's a great leader for us. He plays the game really hard. He cares so much. He cares so much not only about winning, but about everybody on our team and making sure everybody is doing their job. Even off the ice, he's an awesome guy, especially for us younger guys. He treats us so well. Always includes us in activities and always asks how we are doing. For me as a younger guy, to have him to look up to as our captain, he's awesome," Hart said.
Konecny added, "Since the day I got to Philadelphia, my first training camp until now, G's always been a guy that he competes more than anybody that I met in my life. To be able to bring that into the atmosphere of our locker room, not even just hockey, in the gym, he's one of the harder working guys, putting in the effort and doing the little things you need to do off the ice. It can be as little as something like an arm wrestle and he drives us not to lose. When you bring that kind of leadership to the young core guys that have come in over the past five, six years, it's kind of one of those things that everyone just soaks in and that becomes the atmosphere in the locker room."
Throughout the 2019-20 season but especially during the team's surges in November and over the final 26 games before the leaguewide pause, the Flyers' players often spoke of their close-knit bond and commitment to playing for one another. Giroux noted on Friday that it took a strong bond to win three overtime games in the Islanders series and to take the series to a seventh game after trailing three games to one.
Game 7, unfortunately, was a significantly subpar performance -- collectively and individually for most every Flyers player -- with the season on the line and a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference Final. Likewise, the series as a whole was one where the Islanders did a lot more dictating of the play than did Philadelphia.
Those things left a bad taste in a lot of mouths, including Giroux's. But Giroux and the other players who've spoken so far insist that what happened in Game 7 was the outlier to what they believe is a squad that is resilient as well as talented.
With a flat salary cap in 2020-21, and likely for the next two seasons beyond, the Flyers and other teams are going to have to be creative in how they seek roster upgrades. In other words, most of the Flyers' core group is likely to remain intact for next season and beyond. Those bonds will be put to the test in 2020-21 because further improvement from this past season -- including winning more than just one playoff round -- will be the expectation.