Philadelphia Flyers: Claude Giroux helps team punch ticket for playoffs

Thanks to a career day by Claude Giroux, the Philadelphia Flyers officially punched their ticket to the playoffs on Saturday with a win over the New York Rangers.

When looking at how much of a roller coaster this season has been at times, the last thing the Philadelphia Flyers wanted to do was end up playing in a tiebreaker game against the Florida Panthers with a trip to the playoffs on the line. Thanks to Saturday’s 5-0 win over the New York Rangers in which Claude Giroux recorded his first career hat trick during the regular season, the Flyers were able to avoid playing a tiebreaker by punching their ticket to the postseason.

In a way, it’s kind of amazing that Saturday marked the first time in Giroux’s career that he recorded a hat trick during the regular season when looking at how much of an impact he’s made in Philadelphia throughout his career. In fact, the 34 goals and 102 points recorded by Giroux this season are both career highs, and if the Flyers are going to have any chance at making a serious run in the postseason, the forward is going to need to be on top of his game.

From their impressive run in 12 games after the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl in which they were 10-0-2 to back in November in which they won just two of 13 games, it’s easy to see why the roller coaster term was the best way to describe the kind of season it’s been for the Flyers. However, all that matters at this point is the Flyers are in the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and if they continue to stay hot after winning four of their last five games, there’s no telling what this team can accomplish over the next couple of weeks.

Next: 3 reasons Villanova can repeat as champions in 2019

If that does end up happening, chances are Giroux will be one of the main reasons why when considering he has eight goals over the last five games for Philadelphia. This time of year always brings the best out of the league’s top players, and Flyers fans have plenty of reasons to be excited to see what the postseason brings for Giroux along with the rest of his teammates since the playoffs are when it really masters the most.