See, Flyers Fans? This is why we can’t have nice things.
So apparently Claude Giroux, he of current Flyer Captaincy and a fresh 8 year mega-deal hot out of the oven…SEVERS four tendons in a finger during a charity golf outing?!?
Bright side? It wasn’t a blown out back a la Dustin Penner while grubbing down pancakes, orrrr Andrew Bynum bowl-o-rama knee nightmares, but this is most definitely not good news. With camp practically here, and the NHL preseason within spitting distance, this was something both Giroux and the Flyers certainly hoped to avoid. He suffered an injury right before the season began last year, and his goal scoring prowess suffered because of it. tallying a mere 13 in 48 games, a far cry from his normal 20-30 goal output.
He will more than likely miss most or all of the preseason, which means losing out on the opportunity to see what his new teammates have to offer, work on improving his skillset, and worst of all: continue to work on his short game.
Seriously though, I like many other Flyers fans, wanted to see what kind of impact a quality puck mover and point man in Mark Streit would bring to Claude’s PP game. Whether it would enable him to move a bit more freely and develop sneaky options much like the role Danny Briere had when Briere still had a shot worth gushing over. It stunts the potential growth he would’ve had working with Voracek in what was becoming a budding potent 1st line pairing. This was what the preseason had to offer us, and now it breeds minor concern because of the missed opportunity to see this chemistry take shape early on.
This is how the Flyers began last year as well, with injuries cropping up early on, so of course it leads a lot of people to wonder if perhaps the new goal should have been to simply work on the game in an attempt to avoid such mishaps this season. Will this mean another slow start for Giroux and Co.? I suppose we’ll have have to find out…5 weeks from now.
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