Photo by Derik Hamilton for USA TODAY Sports
The Philadelphia Flyers are stuck in a cycle of mediocrity. We all know the story. The team reached the Cup final after barely sneaking into the playoffs in 2010, and since have won just two playoff series; 2012 vs. PIT, and 2020 vs. MTL. Since that run in 2010, the newly appointed Mike Yeo is the team’s 6th head coach, and Chuck Fletcher is the team’s 3rd general manager.
With plenty of roster turnover season after season, one constant remains: Claude Giroux. Now if you’re looking to read a piece that explains why Giroux is an overrated hockey player, or surmises that his captaincy is indeed a problem on the ice or in the locker room, look elsewhere. Giroux has been a positive constant—a leader who gives everything every shift—and is still arguably the most consistent and responsible player every single shift since he’s assumed the C.
In the 2012 playoff series win vs. Pittsburgh there was “The Shift,” – which clearly helped his case for captaincy. In 2017-18 he sent the team to playoffs with a hat trick on the last day of his 102 point season, fending off the surging Florida Panthers who would have left them on the outside looking in. Flyers fans will remember moments like these for as long as they live, and he’s living up to his former self this season as well. Most notably versus the defending champs Tampa a few weeks ago, he scored a darling of a 6v5 goal for his second of the night to force overtime with seconds left in a game the Flyers had let slip out of their grasp just moments before.
The bottom line is Claude Giroux has been the heart and soul of the Philadelphia Flyers for a decade now. He is, and has been, the fan favorite Flyer by an overwhelming and unfathomable margin. For younger fans, think of buying your first Flyers jersey; it’s instinct to buy 28 before even considering expanding your collection.
In addition to this, Claude has the utmost respect from fans, players, coaches, and analysts throughout the entire league. Aside from his (often baseless, sorry, not sorry) critics, there isn’t a fan out there who wants anything less than a Stanley Cup with Claude Giroux as the captain of the Flyers. But after 3 consecutive seasons with what many pundits would consider a contender-caliber lineup on paper, confidence is starting to wane.
The feeling of most fans right now is grief, for two main reasons. The first is that the Flyers have spent the last decade without much of a real identity and are showing no signs of turning it around. Secondly, what’s been bothering fans the most recently, and more by the day, is the idea of Giroux’s career having been “wasted” by the Flyers.
The discussion has been had many times. Is Giroux a Hall-of-Famer? Through our orange colored glasses, he should be, but unfortunately anyone who pays attention to how HOF inductions are made would quickly point out that Claude is currently a long shot due to the lack of hardware. Without unpacking the 2017-18 Hart voting, in which many fans around the league felt he was snubbed, Giroux “only” has six All-Star selections and a conference championship to his name. Without a Cup, he’s a tough sell for the Hall.
All hockey players consider the Stanley Cup the ultimate achievement, and players of Giroux’s caliber and class deserve, at the very least, a career which provides them several real opportunities to bring it home. As the longest-tenured athlete in Philadelphia, and someone who has given it all, year-in and year-out, to a flailing Flyers organization, fans want to see Giroux’s success just as badly as, if not worse than, the Flyers success.
Which brings us to the crux of this musing. If we look beyond Claude Giroux’s consistency, and the roster, coaching, and management changes, we will see one massive, unavoidable change that has seemed paramount and irreparable to fans since it took place: the death of beloved team founder Ed Snider. Ed was the single most important figure in bringing hockey to Philadelphia, at professional, amateur, and adolescent levels, as well as the driving force behind the organizational success of the Flyers.
Shortly after Mr. Snider’s death in 2016 the ownership stake of the Flyers was consummately sold to Comcast, who in the Philadelphia region is known for being an overly wealthy, faceless American corporation that gouges everyday people for internet and TV. The passionate face and presence of Ed Snider have been replaced with a logo and banner at Wells Fargo Center that reads “WELCOME TO COMCAST COUNTRY”. Although Dave Scott, someone that was handpicked by Snider, remains involved, fans continue to grow unhappier with Comcast’s management of the organization. What was a family-owned franchise run by the team’s biggest fan has become increasingly sterile. Americans in general are tired of seeing corporations suck the life out of things they love, and when you make one of those things a Philadelphia pro sports team, the distaste among consumers increases tenfold.
With the team arguably in the worst position they’ve been in, in a decade, the Flyers now have a bigger problem on their hands than mediocre hockey: they are in the early stages of estranging one of the most loyal fanbases in all of pro sports. Fans for the first time are questioning their fanhood not because of the players on the ice but rather the confusion about the ones off of it. There is no human face of the franchise like Ed; no one telling fans what to expect, or what’s on their ideal agenda for the organization. The only finger to point is at a name fans see on a bill in the mail 12 times a year, charging them an inflated price for internet, grouped in with fees for a landline telephone and email address that no one needs or asks for. Comcast is not relatable to the average Flyers fan. Whether the heat is deserved or not, it’s a recipe for disaster, especially when the fan experience has noticeably suffered as a whole.
Bringing this back to Giroux, who is arguably one of the consistently best players of his generation; a man who has given every little bit of his own being to winning hockey games as a Flyer since he was called upon 14 years ago. Claude is the true face of the franchise and fans want nothing more than his success. The Flyers, as it sits right now, are just one more bad skid away from having to consider trading Giroux, because it would be in the team’s best interest to gather assets, and look at rebuilding once again; despite having a roster on paper that looked like a playoff team without a doubt.
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Anyone who can read the room (or Twitter) can tell you if Claude Giroux is traded to a contender this season, he will be taking a large portion of fans with him for at least the remainder of the season, perhaps longer. That’s just what will happen if you have to give up one of the best, most committed individuals your franchise has ever had because you weren’t good enough. Frustration is understandable under these circumstances and if the Flyers are going to continue to lose hockey games and commit to a rebuild, there needs to be an intervention of sorts with fans. Something must be done to show that ownership actually cares about the fan experience, team identity, and bringing a Stanley Cup back to Philadelphia, because when the name on the back of the jersey matters more than the one on the front, there’s a lot more wrong than a ten game losing streak.
Sorry but this is way off base. Contrary to your opinion he often takes shifts off especially when the team is going bad. Go back and look at tape last year when the team was fading and watch how little he back-checked. I have spoken to people who have both played with and/or coached him who have said just the opposite that he is not a very good captain or leader. Just ask yourself when did ever see a Dave Poulin or Mark Messier take shifts off or endure a 10 game losing streaks with the same talk of “we have to be better.” Not to take anything away from “The Shift”. That was an amazing display but as captain those shifts should be happening more often when your team is i man free fall. He is a very good player with loads of talent. That doesn’t make you a leader or a captain.
Dave Poulin? Lmfao.
This article focuses too much on the past. It’s not time to judge how good he was. Its time to focus on the business decision at hand. And that is, do we want to allocate salary and more tenure (3yrs) to a player at this stage of their career or do we want to start building around a new core…Coots, Provy and Hayes.
Apparently you just like to hear yourself drone on. You could’ve Saud all that in at least half the time. Almost impossible to read. Say what ya gotta say. Get in, get out. Simple.
spot on article, well said.