Claude Gi-Who?

This season was Claude Giroux's coming out party. 


When Chris Pronger went down early in the season with a concussion, the team was left without its Captain.


But Giroux did not need a big ol' "C" stitched onto his jersey to assume the role as the Captain. Instead, he went out and worked his behind off, on both ends of the ice.


In 77 games, Giroux had 28 goals and 65 assists. His 93 points were good for 3rd best in the league. 


In the absence of the Flyers assigned leader, Giroux took over the role wholeheartedly,  and carried his strong play into the Flyers first round matchup versus the hated Pittsburgh Penguins.


His presence on the Power Play was dominating, his passing was phenomenal. For a period or two, "G" had no problem throwing the team on his shoulders.


When the series came back to Philadelphia for Game 6, Giroux made it obvious, it was "do or die." He went to Coach Peter Laviolette, and asked for the first shift.


Giroux knew he had to set the tone for the game, and he did just that. In a shift that is up there with Mike Richards "The Shift" against Montreal, Giroux dropped Sidney Crosby, and blew a slapshot past Marc-Andre Fleury.


He did that in 32 seconds. 

From that point on, the rest of the game belonged to the Flyers.

As the Devils approached as the Flyers new opponent, Giroux was expected to keep up his strong play.


But after a decent Game 1 performance, he seemed to have disappeared. 


Giroux has no points in Game 2 or 3, and has registered 4 shots in 48:31 minutes of ice time.


Needless to say, the Flyers lost the past two games, and find themselves in a 2-1 hole.


The Flyers success begins and ends with Claude, and when he isn't playing well, the entire team struggles.


Credit to the Devils, they forced the Flyers into the dump and chase game, a game that is 99.99% of the time unsuccessful. 


By doing that, they have taken Claude out of his element.


So what does he need to do to turn it all around? The answer is extremely obvious: get back to the basics. 


To anyone who has watched Game 2 and Game 3, it is obvious he is trying to do way to much. He tries to force passes, and ends up turning the puck over. 


The Flyers offense needs to move at Giroux's pace. If he needs to slow the game down, then by all means do it.


Nothing good will come from playing an uptempo and quick paced game if it doesn't equivocate to goals on the board and wins in the series.


The Flyers will be successful when Giroux come back around.


However, there is no time to wait.


Game 4 is "do or die."