Flyers dominate, shut down Islanders, 7-0

UNIONDALE, N.Y. - Claude Giroux, in his first crisis as the Flyers' captain, harshly criticized his struggling team for "going through the motions" in Montreal on Saturday night.

For one day, at least, the motion sickness is over.

As if on cue, 26 seconds into the Flyers' first game since Giroux's outburst, the 25-year-old center scored on a rebound and finished with three points, sparking a 7-0 romp over the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Monday afternoon.

"Tonight, you saw everybody coming out. Everybody was paying the price. Everybody wanted to win," said Giroux after scoring his fourth and fifth goals of the season. "It's a lot more fun to play like that, and we're going to keep playing like that."

The Flyers were flawless. They won board battles, played with physicality, killed all five penalties - including a five on three for two minutes - and collected a pair of power-play goals, making it easy for Ilya Bryzgalov (19 saves) to notch his first shutout of the season and 30th of his career.

It was the worst home shutout loss in the Islanders' history.

"It was a complete game today for 60 minutes," coach Peter Laviolette said. "It started on the first shift and ended when the horn sounded 60 minutes later."

The win gave the Flyers a 2-3 record on their season-high, six-game road trip. It was just their third win in 11 road games this season.

After Saturday's listless 4-1 loss in Montreal, the Flyers had a team meeting that revolved around Giroux's comments to the media - that in a lockout-shortened 48-game season there was no more margin for error.

"We just talked about finding our identity and finding our attitude as a team," winger Matt Read said.

Laviolette moved Jake Voracek onto the top line, with Giroux and Read - and the unit responded by combining for 10 points and a plus-9 rating. Giroux had a pair of goals and an assist, Read had a goal and two assists, and Voracek, who replaced Wayne Simmonds on the first unit, collected a career-high four assists.

The focus Monday, Read said, was getting off to a quick start.

"We talked about coming out and winning the first shift. It doesn't matter if we score a goal but just get in their zone, get a couple hits and get the momentum right away," he said. "Claude got a lucky bounce off a pass from me and scored. We'll take it, and we moved on from there."

Giroux's verbal scolding made his teammates "take a good, hard look in the mirror," said Danny Briere after scoring a pair of third-period goals. "And I think the most amazing part is the way he comes out for the first shift. A big hit on [John] Tavares, and then he goes down and finds a way to score. So that's pretty impressive once again."

Read scored 15 seconds into the second period, one in which Brayden Schenn (power play) and Giroux increased the cushion to 4-0. Zac Rinaldo (first of season) and Briere (fourth and fifth) added third-period goals.

"We know now it's do or die, and we can't sit back and wait for something to happen," Read said. "We have to make things happen ourselves."

The Flyers will have a tougher test Wednesday against the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

"You'd like to bottle it up and bring it right into Pitt," Laviolette said of Monday's domination.