Giroux leads Flyers' 7-0 rout
Claude Giroux scored 26 seconds into the game off a rebound from Matt Read’s shot, as the Flyers blew the Islanders’ doors off in a 7-0 railroading.
UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- It wasn't quite "The Shift," but it may get just get the Flyers back on track.
From the opening puck drop, Flyers captain Claude Giroux backed up his harsh words from Saturday night in Montreal with a 3-point effort on Monday.
Giroux scored 26 seconds into the game off a rebound from Matt Read's shot, as the Flyers blew the Islanders' doors off in a 7-0 railroading. His line also scored 15 seconds into the second period of Monday's matinee, the 4th time they've scored in the first minute of a period this season.
Turns out, a trip to the Nassau Mausoleum cures all that ails.
The Flyers are 28-3-1 against the Islanders since 2007, and an impeccable 28-6-1 in the NHL's second-oldest building since 1999. No truth to the rumor that the Islanders were just saving up energy for the day/night doubleheader they've got scheduled.
By the end of the rout, the Flyers had even stopped celebrating their goals. When you take out the Flyers' two major drubbings this season (14-1 combined wins over Florida and the Islanders), they've scored just 31 goals in 14 games (2.2 goals per-game).
Giroux's line combined for 3 goals and 7 assists. Jake Voracek (4 assists) netted his first career 4-point game in the new-look line combination, Read added a goal and 2 assists and Giroux posted 2 goals and one assist.
However positive the outing, Giroux still boarded the Flyers' post-game charter flight without his first career regular season hat trick. (He had one in the playoffs last year against the Penguins, the Flyers' next opponent.)
Monday marked the Flyers' first shutout of the season and Ilya Bryzgalov's first shutout since a 3-0 blanking of the Devils on March 13, 2012. Islanders coach Jack Capuano left Bryzgalov's countryman Evgeni Nabokov in net to suffer through all 7 goals at the other end of the ice.
Bryzgalov got help from the penalty kill, which staved off a 2-minute, 5-on-3 disadvantage while leading just 1-0 in the first period. The Flyers' penalty kill has reeled off 20 straight kills and they're now 37-for-39 (94.8 percent) over the last 10 games.
With his first goal of the season, Zac Rinaldo joined the party on the scoresheet in the third period to pile on.
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