Left Handed Larceny

Fly-ing High

by Eric Berkenpas

Photo cred www.zimbio.com

I come back from the dead with my tail between my legs. The Penguins just wrapped up a home and home over the weekend with the Philadelphia Flyers, losing both games. This time around, I will be writing, not about the Pittsburgh Penguins, but those pesky, resilient Philadelphia Flyers. Early in the season, everyone, myself included, was writing them off. They were sitting snug right at the salary cap and were buried deep in the Eastern Conference standings. The only thing going for them at the time was that it was still early in the season. But they did not look like a team that was going anywhere fast. Giroux was struggling and the rest of the team followed suit. Bryzgalov was gone and it wasn't very apparent that Mason/Emery combo would effectively replace him in net. Defense was a problem that was "solved" by bringing in a career minus player known for his offense, Mark Streit. It was a good feeling as a Pens fan, knowing that I didn't have to worry about the Flyers this year. Well now here we are coming up on the final leg of the season when whaddya know? The Flyers are the 2nd place team in the Metro Division. How quickly things can change....

Photo cred www.brianphickey.com

What is the main reason for the turn around? Two words: Claude Giroux. Some, nay, most might have laughed when Peter Laviolette described Giroux as "the best player in the world" just 2 years ago, but I think Giroux is on his way to getting the last laugh right now. I can imagine you are probably all flooding to your nearest NHL points leaderboard right now and getting ready to comment about how far ahead in the point race Crosby is, am I right? Well, the first thing I will tell you is that Giroux was battling wrist issues through the first part of the season. If you have ever played hockey before, you know the importance of having fully strengthened wrists. Those issues have dissipated and let's compare the two super star's stats since that happened. After the first 41 games of the season, Crosby had a pretty large lead on Giroux in the point race, leading 58 - 37 (21 points). Since that point, Crosby has amassed 30 points, two less than Giroux's 32. To add salt to the wound, Giroux has netted 3 more goals in that time period. Does any of that have to do with Dupuis going down? I'll give that a slight maybe at best. There was no noticeable change in Sid's point accumulation pace from before the injury and after. Just face it, Giroux has played a better 26 games than Crosby. Period. More important than the stats, the Flyers are 16-8-2 (34pts) in that stretch while the Pens are 15-8-3 (33pts).

Photo cred prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com

With the awakening of Claude Giroux came the awakening of a couple other important Flyers players, namely, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds and Matt Read. Voracek was virtually non existent early on but since the Giroux awakening, he has tallied 22 points in 26 games. Wayne Simmonds was producing pretty well at the start of the season but since the halfway mark, he has managed 23 points in 26 games. Last but not least, though slightly less significant, Matt Read has scored 15 points in 21 games since the awakening. This is how much impact one player can make, especially a player the caliber of Claude Giroux. Now before you people start questioning my loyalty to the Penguins, I must assure you that I in no way consider Claude Giroux to be better than Sidney Crosby. He is not as complete a player as Sid is and is a slight level below Sid in almost every facet of the game. However, Giroux absolutely ranks among the best in the league. Anyone who denies him that, doesn't know a thing.