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Philadelphia Flyers: Claude Giroux off to good start in 2018-19

By Benjamin Gabrych

DENVER, CO - OCTOBER 06: Claude Giroux #28 of the Philadelphia Flyers skates against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center on October 6, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche defeated the Flyers 5-2. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)"n"n
DENVER, CO - OCTOBER 06: Claude Giroux #28 of the Philadelphia Flyers skates against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center on October 6, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche defeated the Flyers 5-2. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)"n"n /
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The Philadelphia Flyers captain is having a nice beginning to the 2018-19 season.

Saying that Claude Giroux was really good for the Philadelphia Flyers last season is an understatement. He tied with Blake Wheeler leading the league in assists with 68 and was second in scoring with 102 points. Some can argue he was even snubbed of being a Hart Trophy finalist this past offseason.

Fast-forward to this season and Giroux is producing at a high rate yet again. He is currently riding a four game point streak with six points to start the year. That’s over a point-per-game and just second to Jakub Voracek for the team lead in scoring.

Despite the Flyers having the ninth worst Fenwick-For (FF%) at even-strength percentage in the NHL this year at 45.42%, Giroux is still keeping his head above water with an even 50 FF%. A 50% or above rating means the team is controlling play more often than not, and lower means they aren’t.  Fenwick percentages also apply more to how a team and player is doing on the offensive side of the puck since it doesn’t take shot-blocking into account like Corsi does. The fact that Giroux is keeping a steady percentage while the team is struggling at even-strength on offense says a lot to just how good he’s been to start the year.

If there’s one flaw to Giroux’s game in the new season, it’s the same as the entire team, defense. Giroux has a Corsi-For percentage at 47.5% at even-strength, which is much lower than his career average of 53.0%. Something isn’t right there, and Giroux’s not the problem. The Flyers are second in the league in Goals Against with 19, and sixth among teams in Even-Strength Goals Against with 16. They also lead in Power-Play Opportunities Against with 19, as well. Penalties are usually the result of bad team defense. While it’s up to Giroux to motivate and lead by example as captain of the team, he can only do so much as a player on the ice. If the team defense keeps performing at a low level, Head coach Dave Hakstol has to step in and make some adjustments himself.

Next. Voracek leads Flyers to 7-4 victory over Ottawa. dark

Players who are over the age of 30 normally start a gradual decline in their performance as they get older, but not in Claude’s case so far. Giroux’s currently on pace for another 100+ point season. Is it likely he keeps this pace? Probably not, but the fact that Giroux seemingly hasn’t missed a beat since the end of last season.

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