Giroux says his hands are fine
Max Talbot and Danny Briere both acknowledged that Claude Giroux is "a little banged up right now," following the Flyers' win over Detroit on Tuesday night.
But Giroux wouldn't entertain the thought of playing at less than 100 percent.
When asked why he didn't take more than 2 faceoffs against Detroit, with Scott Hartnell taking the majority of his line's draws, Giroux said it was just practice for the playoffs.
Giroux, 23, was seen walking around the Flyers' locker room well after the game with ice bags on both hands – believed to be as a result from a slash by Washington's Jason Chimera on Sunday night.
Prior to Tuesday's game, Hartnell had taken just 18 career faceoffs. Giroux had squared off in 1,259. Hartnell took 16 faceoffs on Tuesday against Detroit, winning 7-of-9. Giroux was 0-for-2.
"Hartsy has been good at faceoffs and in the playoffs sometimes I get kicked out so we want Hartsy to get in there," Giroux said. "He did a good job tonight, and he has a heavy stick and he works hard for faceoffs."
When asked about it after the game, coach Peter Laviolette scoffed at a reporter who said Giroux was not 100 percent healthy.
"Did somebody say he wasn't 100 percent?" Laviolette asked.
All right, then.
Either way, it was a gritty effort for Giroux, who posted 2 points – and a beautiful breakaway goal – and also had 7 attempted shots, 2 hits, 2 takeaways and 3 blocked shots.
"He is our leader," Talbot said. "He plays with energy, and he competes. When you see a guy like that, who is a little banged up right now, and he goes and plays his heart out, you want to go on the ice and do the same thing. It was definitely a great effort by him."
SLAP SHOTS: Rookie Eric Wellwood celebrated his 22nd birthday on Tuesday … Detroit still has not won a regular season game in Philadelphia since Jan. 1997 … The Red Wings' 21 shots in the third period marked the third time this season the Flyers have allowed that many in one of the final two periods (also: Columbus' third period on Nov. 5, New Jersey's second period on Nov. 3) … The Flyers are not practicing on Wednesday … Ilya Bryzgalov has a .948 save percentage and 1.67 goals against-average during the Flyers' current 3-game winning streak, which is their first since Dec. 2-15.
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