Giroux scores in first game against Flyers, Senators skid hits five

OTTAWA-- Claude Giroux scored his 300th NHL goal in his first game against his former team, but the Ottawa Senators lost 2-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

"I'm pretty [ticked] off right now, but I'll wake up tomorrow and it is what it is," Giroux said. "We're in a little hole, but I've been in bigger holes before and come out of it, so right now I'm very frustrated, but not worried about it."
Cam Talbot made 26 saves in his first start for the Senators (4-7-0), who have lost five straight.
"It's frustrating for everyone involved," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. "You can't say that tonight we were not out there giving everything we have, we are, but you have to get results."

Kevin Hayes and Zack MacEwen scored for Philadelphia (6-3-2), which ended an 0-1-2 stretch. Carter Hart made 31 saves and is 6-0-2 this season.
"It's not so much that he's making the saves, it's how he looks," Flyers coach John Tortorella said of Hart. "I think a goaltender can sometimes set the tempo for your team. He looks relaxed, he looks calm. I think it settles the team down, also. He's handled himself really well."
Giroux gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 2:44 of the first period when he tapped in a cross-ice pass from Tim Stutzle.
Giroux played his first 1,000 NHL games for the Flyers, who selected him in the first round (No. 22) of the 2006 NHL Draft, before being traded to the Florida Panthers on March 19. He signed a three-year, $19.5 million contract with Ottawa as a free agent on July 13.
"I think we do a good job of staying in games or getting leads," Giroux said. "It just looks like, at the end of games, we can't deliver. And that's going to change, but it needs to change quickly."

Hayes tipped a Tony DeAngelo point shot on the power play to tie it 1-1 at 5:17.
"Normally I'm on the half wall, but [Owen Tippett] got kicked out [of the face-off]," Hayes said of the play. "I won the face-off and we have to kind of switch positions until we have possession. Tony fired one to the net-he seems to get a lot of those shots through-and I just tipped it in."
MacEwen scored on a wrist shot from the top of the slot to make it 2-1 at 18:24 of the second period. MacEwen began the season in Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League but has stuck with Philadelphia since being recalled on Oct. 17.
"Zack and I have had, well, we had one major, pointed conversation," Tortorella said. "And I think he has responded really well. He was waived out, no one picked him up, he went down and played [in the AHL], was a really good pro down there. They put him in some really good spots. And now he's come back up, I just think his game continues to grow. He gets some important minutes for us tonight and scores a goal. It's important. We're looking for guys, still, to solidify a spot on the team and [MacEwen] is trying to find his way."

The Senators were 0-for-5 on the power play, including one opportunity with 7:01 remaining in the third period.
"Too slow, too deliberate," Smith said of his team's performance on the man-advantage. "Looking for plays rather than playing fast and getting it to the net. We're good no matter who's out there. When we're good it's shoot, get it back, shoot, get it back, shoot. And I just didn't think we had that tonight."
NOTES:Hart's .946 save percentage is second among NHL goalies with at least four starts. … Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim had a game-high five blocks. … Giroux's first 291 goals in the NHL came with the Flyers, with whom he was captain for 10 of his 15 seasons. He has six points (four goals, two assists) during a five-game point streak. … Brady Tkachuk has six points (one goal, five assists) during a four-game point streak.