Claude Giroux a player to watch for Philadelphia Flyers vs Ottawa
The Philadelphia Flyers will host the Ottawa Senators looking to bounce back from a disappointing performance in their last game.
After making huge news on Monday by relieving General Manager Ron Hextall of his duties with the team, the Philadelphia Flyers still have a game to play as they face the Ottawa Senators at home.
The Flyers will look to bounce back from one of their worst performances of the season, getting shutout by the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-0 in their last contest. Ottawa won’t be as tough of challenge on paper, but will fight tooth and nail to break their current four game losing skid.
Claude Giroux will be a player to watch for the Flyers in this game. Giroux was held pointless against Toronto, which has happened in just seven of the 23 games he’s played this year. The Senators aren’t very good defensively, either. They enter this game surrendering the most total Goals-Against as a team in the league with 104 in 24 games. Expect Giroux to give his best effort, especially with the Flyers struggling as of late.
While Ottawa surrenders a lot of goals, they also score a good amount of them too. The Senators currently rank fourth in the NHL in Goals-For with 85. They possess plenty of talent on the offensive side of the puck and the Flyers will have to give a better performance on defense than they did against the Maple Leafs.
Top line center-man Matt Duchene leads the team in scoring with 30 points (10 Goals, 20 Assists) in 24 games this year. He possess a lot of speed in his game, something the Flyers struggled with against Toronto and Buffalo. Ottawa also has young, emerging defenseman Thomas Chabot, as well. Chabot has 27 points (6 Goals, 21 Assists) in the same amount of games, showcasing tremendous talent on the offensive side of the puck for a defenseman. It will be important for the Flyers to keep these talents in front of them because Duchene and Chabot will capitalize on nearly any scoring opportunity that they’re given.
Philadelphia can’t let the firing of Hextall distract them from this game. While the Senators rank fourth to last in the league points-wise they still possess the talent to win on any given night. It will be up to the leaders on the ice to start to put the Flyers in the right direction, making Giroux’s impact in this game that much more important.
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The Flyers will hope to earn their 11th win of the season. Puck-drop is set for 7pm EST.