Tag: Claude Giroux

A recent surge has the Rangers just two points out of a playoff spot, while the Flyers, on a four-game winning streak of their own, look to maintain their place in third in the Metro with their sights now firmly set on taking another step and trying to catch the teams at the top.

Derek Grant and Nate Thompson make their Flyers debut as the team goes for a fourth straight win against the San Jose Sharks.

The Flyers next matchup comes on Saturday afternoon, when they face the Winnipeg Jets, as they look for a third straight win and another chance to continue their climb in the standings in the final game before Monday’s trade deadline.

That’s perhaps the biggest difference between the Flyers of this season and the Flyers of last season and years past. This team believes they are never out of a game. More times than not, they have risen to the occasion. There have been times when people want to pronounce them dead for a poor performance or a crushing loss, only to have them rise to the occasion the very next game.

In overtime, it was Kevin Hayes playing hero, scoring the game-winning goal with 1:09 remaining to give the Flyers a 4-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.

Just as they did with Florida a week ago, the Flyers have a chance to create some separation with Columbus when they face each other again on Thursday night, as the Flyers look to complete a season sweep of the Blue Jackets on the road.

When the dust settled from Tuesday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the scoreboard read 5-1 in favor of the Flyers. It hardly felt like a game that the Flyers had won by four goals in rather convincing fashion. 

Claude Giroux became the Flyers all-time leader in power-play assists with 235, getting the record-breaker on a Jake Voracek power-play goal to cap the scoring in a 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Flyers currently hold the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with 71 points. That is just one point behind the opponent for the next two games, the Columbus Blue Jackets, who technically hold the first wildcard spot with 72 points though they are tied for third in the division with the Islanders.

In Saturday’s game against the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning, the Flyers fell behind early and fell into a 3-0 hole again. Instead of erasing the deficit, the Flyers were down by two in the third and challenging to cut into the deficit further before they made the one mistake that did them in. The Flyers got two goals in short order after falling behind 4-1 with under eight minutes to play in the third, but were not able to complete the comeback in a 5-3 loss to the Lightning.

The Flyers final game of a three-game road trip comes against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Much like the first meeting against the Lightning, Tampa enters as the hottest team in the league, currently on a nine-game winning streak, just as they were when they paid a visit to Philadelphia on Jan. 11.

Tyler Pitlick, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Scott Laughton all scored to help the Flyers to a 4-0 advantage. And while the Panthers managed to close the gap to two in relatively short order to start the third period, the damage had already been done by the Flyers.

It was the Flyers jumping out to a 3-0 first-period lead and extending it to 4-0 by the end of the second. Two quick Florida goals threatened the Flyers lead, but they added two late insurance goals to seal a 6-2 win over the Panthers.

The Flyers next opponent is one they defeated just days ago. The Flyers took care of the Florida Panthers in a 4-1 win on Monday night. Now the two teams meet again in Florida on Thursday night.

Less than a minute after tying the game to erase a 3-0 deficit, the Flyers surrendered the game-winning goal to Ryan Pulock with 38.9 seconds left in a 5-3 defeat to the New York Islanders.

Wins for both the Flyers and Islanders on Monday set the stage for a meeting between the two teams on Tuesday. The two teams are separated by one point in the standings.

Carter Hart was solid in his return to the lineup and the Flyers picked up a 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers to maintain their pace in the playoff race.

The Flyers next six games come against teams right in the thick of the playoff race. For now, the focus is simply on the next one, which comes against the Florida Panthers at Wells Fargo Center on Monday night.

“It was a strong team win, we had saves at the right time, but go figure, we were able to score seven tonight and weren’t able to score one last game.” Go figure is right. After getting shut out by the last-place Devils on Thursday, the Flyers scored seven goals against the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals. “It’s the beauty of the game,” Vigneault said with a smile.

The Flyers made the most of a chance to get back on track against the Metro’s top team. The Flyers scored three goals early in the second and added three more in the third on their way to a 7-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.

The Flyers face the top team in the Metro, the Washington Capitals, on Saturday night. The Flyers have played two very competitive games against the Capitals this season, but also face a critical situation where they need to continue gaining points to keep pace in the division and playoff race.

The New Jersey Devils come to town on Thursday night, as the Flyers look for their third straight win and fifth in the last six games. The Flyers are also looking to extend a five-game points streak.

For several weeks, the Flyers have been playing the league’s best teams on a consistent basis. The next two games present an opportunity to earn some points against some of the league’s worst teams. It starts on Monday night with a game in Detroit against the last-place Red Wings.

It will be a quick turnaround for the Flyers, as it is going to be for most of the final 31 games in the regular season, and the Orange and Black get yet another challenge against a Top-10 team in the league. The Colorado Avalanche await as the Flyers make their return home.

The Flyers secured a 3-0 win 10 days ago against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and now will open up the second-half push to the playoffs by meeting the Penguins again, this time on the road.

With the recent struggles and inconsistencies over the last 10 games, the Philadelphia Flyers are looking for some resurgence in multiple areas of their game.

For years, a key member of the core of the team would represent the Flyers at the All-Star Game — usually Claude Giroux and occasionally Jake Voracek or Wayne Simmonds. At 22, Konecny enters the national spotlight with his first All-Star appearance, perhaps only scratching the surface of his potential.

At the end of a seven-game stretch that featured five of the top six teams in the league as of Wednesday morning’s standings, the Flyers came away with a 5-2-0 record. Against those five teams, they were 4-1-0 with the only loss being a 1-0 defeat to Tampa Bay. So forgive Alain Vigneault if he was in the mood to celebrate this win and going on a break the way it started.

The next chapter in the Battle of Pennsylvania has a lot at stake for both sides. The Penguins are challenging for the division lead, just four points behind the Capitals, while the Flyers look to go into the All-Star break and bye week on a high note.