Philadelphia Flyers: Back against the wall, Claude Giroux needs to step up

Down 3-1, someone has to step up for the Philadelphia Flyers to avoid elimination.

The Philadelphia Flyers are on the brink of demise. That’s the message in everyone’s heads, on Twitter and Instagram, on all of the sports television networks that showcase hockey. The surprise team of the year, who shockingly came out firing in the round robin to grab the number one overall seed from the Boston Bruins, is now down 3-1 to the sixth seed New York Islanders after a Game 4 in which Carter Hart did not play in favor of Brian Elliot, a move that had some fans up in arms.

Ever since the Flyers went on a run around the end of last year, and won 19 out of their last 26 games before the season was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, Flyers fans and NHL analysts alike have referred to the squad as the team of destiny this year.

The fanbase had been long starved for a team this good, as the last time we had this kind of fanfare was back in 2010 when they made the shocking run all the way to the Stanley Cup only to be beaten back by the Chicago Blackhawks.

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Since then, the fans haven’t had much to go on, a few mediocre runs as the team developed, but with the arrival of Hart, this franchise is now frantic with anticipation as to how good he can be, and the returns so far have been GREAT. With Hart, this team could be a perennial deep playoff contender.

Back to this series though, we need one player to stand up. He is the backbone, he is their captain. He has been a member of this team since all the way back in 2007 and if he starts to get hot this team will follow in his footsteps. That man is Claude Giroux.

Giroux has seemingly been absent since the season restarted.  In 13 games, he has zero goals and five assists, and even though he is starting to wind his terrific career down, he is the absolute heart and soul of this team and they NEED him to step up in moments like these, where they are down and in a desperate search for a spark.

Giroux has always been counted on to lead this team through darkness, and if the Flyers have any hope of storming back to win this series, he will need to come out of whatever funk he’s in and be the Captain of this proud franchise.