On what was no doubt expected to be an emotional night, the Flyers pulled out all the stops for Claude Giroux’s 1,000th game. His teammates came out, wearing the #28 on their backs, and also had special patches donning their jerseys for the occasion. Giroux and his family were presented with numerous gifts, including silver sticks to commemorate the event.
After all was said and done, there was still a game to play that evening. The Flyers came out with plenty of energy, no doubt wanting to play well for their captain. And they did that, for the most part, in the opening period. They were winning puck battles and spending a copious amount of time in the offensive zone. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it’s the best we have seen this team play in quite some time.
Apparently, they just need someone to be appearing in their 1,000th game. Can we make that happen somehow? No? Well alright then. A Zack MacEwen fight seven minutes into the period gave the Flyers just the spark they needed. 44 seconds later, Travis Sanheim gave them the lead. While it was unassisted, credit goes to Kevin Hayes for snagging the turnover in the neutral zone.
After firing a shot towards Jusse Saros, Hayes found the rebound and threw the puck towards the net. It bounced off a Predators’ defenseman and right to Travis Sanheim in the slot. And with a powerful backhand, he gave Philadelphia the lead. And surprisingly, it was a lead they kept for the remainder of the first period.
But in true Flyers fashion, they didn’t hold that lead long in the second period. Just 23 seconds in, Tanner Jeannot scored his 20th of the season to tie things at 1-1. Travis Konecny was knocked off the puck, allowing Jeannot to corral the puck, turn, and fire it over the shoulder of Carter Hart. It didn’t take long for Philadelphia to respond, however.
After Matt Duchene was called for interference, it took only nine seconds of power-play time for the Flyers to regain the lead. It was Cam York who was the recipient of a pass-down low from Konecny that ended up deflecting perfectly to him. York had nothing but a wide-open net in front of him.
The Flyers increased their lead almost three minutes later thanks to a scramble in front of the net. The refs did a solid job of letting the play continue as Saros never had control of the puck. James van Riemsdyk was the recipient as the puck found him and he found the back of the net.
Turns out this was going to be the Phil Myers revenge game. Playing Philadelphia for the first time since his offseason trade, Myers scored his first goal of the season and his first as a Predator. Roman Josi was able to get away from a defender and pass the puck back to Myers who had begun to cheat towards the face-off dot. He wound up for a shot that may have deflected off the shin-pad of MacEwen and past Hart.
All Philadelphia needed to do was get to the third period with the lead. Nashville came into this game 2-13-0 when trailing after two periods. After a Konecny high-sticking double-minor, that task was going to become even tougher. Nashville took just over a minute to cash in on the power play. Ryan Johansen parked himself in front of the net and tipped home the feed from Mikael Granlund. The latter was given plenty of room to skate in and find Johansen open in the slot.
In true Flyers fashion, they weren’t going to make this an easy one. And in what also felt like true Philadelphia fashion, they gave up the go-ahead goal just over a minute in. Josi spun around to the back of the net and found Forsberg in front. Sometimes you can’t be mad at the finish as Forsberg went between the legs on the shot to give Nashville their first lead of the evening.
There wasn’t a whole lot to cheer for after that point as the Flyers were left chasing the game as they too often have had to. Over 10 minutes into the period, Philadelphia had just two shots on net while Nashville had a goal and 10 shots of their own. It was up to Hart to, once again, keep the Flyers in a game.
It looked like Philadelphia was able to tie the game with about six and a half minutes to go. Cam Atkinson kept the puck in the zone and found Derick Brassard by the left boards. Brassard sent it in front and after some more chaos, the puck made its way past Saros. After a challenge by the Predators, that Atkinson keep-in was ruled to have been played with a high stick. So for now, the Flyers continued to trail.
After Ekholm and Farabee were called for penalties, the ice opened up a bit more. It was Rasmus Ristolainen who came down the ice like a freight train and sent the puck towards the net. It bounced off of Saros’ stick, hit Kevin Hayes, and found its way into the net. It was 4-4 for real this time.
It seemed as if there was a renewed energy in the Flyers and they took the lead with 1:19 to go. Sanheim carried the puck in and around the back of the Predators’ net, finding Hayes. Hayes centered to puck to a wide-open Farabee who just put his stick on the ice and tapped it into the open cage.
And while Giroux wasn’t out there for the final moments, his teammates took care of it for him. And as he skated around the ice after the buzzer, it finally began to sink in.
"“To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of players that I’ve played with that I’ve liked, and I know it’s tough, when you leave a team. But I actually didn’t realize how tough it is, and I wish I knew, back then, but it’s not something that is really fun.” Giroux said after the game."
Sounds a lot like a player who knows he just played his final game in a Flyers uniform. At least the team was able to send him out on a high note.