Captain Giroux at center stage as Flyers open season

BOSTON - Claude Giroux's last 14 months have included finger surgery after his golf club shattered, an arrest for grabbing a policeman's buttocks in an Ottawa bar - "my misguided attempt at humor," he said - and a lower-body injury suffered 15 minutes into this season's training camp.

"Bad luck," Giroux said, "kind of follows me."

Not on the ice. The Flyers captain has blossomed into one of the NHL's elite players.

Giroux finished third in the NHL in scoring with 86 points and third in the MVP voting last season. In the last four seasons, he has more points than Sidney Crosby, more points than Alex Ovechkin, more points than Patrick Kane.

More points (303), in fact, than any other NHL player in that span.

Now 26 and entering his seventh NHL season, the shifty little center is once again the Flyers' focal point.

"He goes out there and he's high energy," Flyers right winger Wayne Simmonds said after practice Tuesday afternoon at TD Garden, preparing for Wednesday's difficult opener in Boston. ". . . He's done a good job of realizing not everything is on his shoulders. He's more settled into the role of being the captain. He's running with it - and everyone here is taking his lead."

Giroux missed the first six preseason games because of his latest injury, but he was able to play in the final two contests. He looked like his old self in the preseason finale, a 3-2 shootout loss in Washington on Thursday.

"Of the two games, it was night and day," Giroux said. "The first game I wasn't feeling very good and I was a little worried. But I was pretty surprised how I felt in Washington, and hopefully I'll keep getting better."

Because of salary-cap problems, the Flyers - who were knocked out of the playoffs by the Rangers in the opening round last spring - were able to do only minor tinkering in the offseason. Giroux didn't see it that way.

"We didn't make many changes because we like our team," he said. "We like the pieces of the puzzle, and we're one year older. It was a weird season last year and we're going to learn from this; we're just going to carry the experience into this year."

In their first full season under coach Craig Berube, the Flyers will be trying to improve their goals-against average (2.77, 20th in the 30-team NHL) and five-on-five play (17th in the NHL).

"We want to be a better defensive team, we want to be better without the puck," Giroux said. "Chief [Berube] is putting a lot of time on it, and I think guys get it. It's going to be good."

Giroux will try to develop a chemistry with his new left winger, Brayden Schenn, who has replaced the traded Scott Hartnell on the top line.

"They're similar players; they can score goals, they can hit, they can fight, they can do pretty much everything," Giroux said. ". . . Schenner creates room and can throw the body around pretty good."

Giroux was asked if there was anything Hartnell did that is not in Schenn's game.

"Scott flopped around the ice with his falls," he said with a smile. "No, I'm kidding. It's not going to change my game. I'm going to have to focus on how I'm going to play defensively and offensively."

Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, a former Flyer, called Giroux a "smart player. He looks guys off - he makes you think he's going one way, and then he goes the other, so he's very tricky and tough to play against."

Berube said he wants Giroux - and all the Flyers forwards - to do a better job back-checking this season.

"G can improve on playing without the puck, like a lot of guys can," Berube said. "He knows that. He's a great offensive player, he does a lot of great things with the puck. He's an extremely hardworking player. Gives you everything he's got every game. But, again, with our whole team, our five-on-five play defensively needs to improve. And he's just part of it."

Giroux was plus-7 last season, tying him for third on the team.

"Our best defense has to come from our forwards," Giroux said. "If we play good defense and take care of the puck, I'm a strong believer that your best defense is your offense. If you have the puck, they're not going to score a goal, so the forwards have to do a better job helping the D and kind of supporting each other."

Giroux, selected in the first round (22d overall) of the 2006 draft, said his point total and standing in the MVP race mean little to him.

If you dwell on your personal accomplishments, "you get lost," he said, adding that his only goal is to help the Flyers win their first Stanley Cup since 1975.

Now that would end his bad luck.