NOTE: Ray Emery, who took the morning skate "off" will start in goal tonight vs. the Devils. He has a 1.90 GAA and .931 save percentage against the Devils lifetime in 11 games (6-3-2) and 2 shutouts
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He had one of those grim faces on.
And yet, Claude Giroux was trying very hard to smile for the beat writers in Carolina at the morning skate this week.
The conversation was about his scoring slump which is 20 games - going back to last season _ and he goes into tonight's game against New Jersey.
We then touched upon Scott Hartnell not having an assist in 36 games now. He broke his goal scoring skid at 19 later that night against the Canes.
Giroux shook his head and said, "Let me know when you find a positive stat."
He was smiling but he is worried about the offensive slump. He had a sitdown this week with coach Craig Berube.
"He’s concerned, too," Berube said. "We talk. With hard work and doing things right all the time, he’ll get out of it. Simplify."
Giroux has been saying for a while now that "we'll win when we start believing in ourselves" which is another way of saying the team doesn't believe it can win.
“It’s hard to say, but we need to stay positive. We’re a good team. When we start believing it and we start playing like it, we’re gonna be a dangerous team.”
Not believing is going to make it that much harder for everyone concerned to right this ship.
“Maybe they believe it, but we need to believe it 100 percent,” Giroux said. “When we start talking about it and doing it better — I really believe that when we start believing we’re a good team, we’ll start winning games.
“We’re not convinced that we are right now, but we are. We’re gonna start winning games soon.”
I still don't see Giroux as having any issues with his surgically-repaired forehand. He's still pretty good on faceoffs and that would be an indication if there was an issue there.
What is alarming is he's neither generating great chances for his linemates nor getting good shots himself.
"I’m trying to do the right things out there," he said. "If you do the right things out there, good things are gonna happen.
"We still have 70 games left to play. Patience is key right now. When we get one, we’ll get plenty."
His line tonight has Jakub Voracek back on it with Hartnell. The gang's all here ...
"Me, Jake and Hartsy had chemistry before," Giroux said. "We can get that early in tomorrow’s game. You know a little bit more what a guy’s gonna do with the puck. You know where he’s gonna be. Sometimes you don’t have to look and you know he’s gonna be there."
BTW: Kris Newbury is here because the Flyers wanted a more natural centerman than Adam Hall for the fourth line, Berube said ... but ... Hall is a pretty good draw and fourth line center. Which tells me that the club didn't like the fact that Tye McGinn have them just one shot in two games in his latest call-up.
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