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Quick Hits: Giroux, Hart, TIFH

August 12, 2019, 8:26 AM ET [172 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Quick Hits: August 12, 2019

1) Flyers captain Claude Giroux placed 12th on NHL Network's list of the Top 20 wingers in the NHL; down five spots from last year (when he was ranked 7th after coming off a 102-point season and placing in the Hart Trophy top four for the second time in his career). It is what it is. There are a lot of top-notch wingers around the league from which to choose in whatever order after the obvious top few such as Nikita Kucherov, Patrick Kane and Alex Ovechkin. At least, unlike Sean Couturier on the centers list, Giroux wasn't left off the list entirely. Worth noting, however:

* Point production: Among all players in the NHL who primarily play a wing, only Kucherov (228 points) has more points than Giroux's 187 over the past two seasons. Leaguewide, for the decade of 2010s, only Sidney Crosby, Kane and Ovechkin have more points than Giroux. Giroux leads all NHL players in assists in the decade of the 2010s.

*Durability: Giroux has played in every game each of the last three seasons. He's dressed in every possible game in seven of the last 10 seasons, and missed no more than one game in eight seasons. (Note: this figure includes dressing in all 48 games during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season). He's never missed more than five (a concussion in 2011-12 after a collision with teammate Wayne Simmonds caused by Simmonds trying to hurdle his teammate and accidentally making head contact with his knee).

* Workload: Over the last two seasons, Giroux ranks 9th among all NHL forwards with 20:55 of average ice time (Couturier ranks 4th at 21:55). Dating back to 2009-10, among forwards with at least 300 games played, he also ranks 9th at 20:04. Among players who have taken more shifts on a wing than at center over the past two seasons, Giroux's average ice time ranks second.

* Faceoff prowess: Giroux, who spent most of the decade as a center before shifting to left wing in 2017-18 and still takes a lot of draws, has won 55.1 percent of his faceoffs dating back to the 2009-10 season; that ties him with Joe Pavelski for 5th in the NHL over that span. Only faceoff specialists Manny Mohotra and Zenon Konopka (59.6 percent) as well as star players Patrice Bergeron (58.5 percent) and Jonathan Toews (57.3 percent) rank higher than Giroux in that category among players who played at least 300 NHL games over that last decade. Over the last two seasons, Giroux's 58.3 percent success rate on draws trails only Ryan O'Reilly (58.5) on a leaguewide basis.


2) I saw this yesterday on Facebook: As a combined mental concentration and eye-hand exercise, Flyers goaltender Carter Hart demonstrates how he can juggle three balls and read the text on a slide simultaneously without losing focus on either task. He is working up toward juggling five balls.




3) Aug. 12 Flyers Alumni Birthday: Rosaire Paiement (1945).
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