Philadelphia Flyers fans likely gasped in unison on Saturday as captain Claude Giroux tumbled awkwardly into the boards after a shove from Martin Hanzal and then lay there, motionless, as the seconds ticked slowly away. Giroux, clearly shaken, would eventually get up and skate off under his own power, but the sight of their star center prone, splayed out on the ice like a crash test dummy, is surely indelibly marked on the brains of the orange and black fandom.
With their beloved Flyers chasing an NHL playoff spot and set to kick off a crucial three-game homestand, the Philly faithful know they can ill afford to lose another key piece to injury. Fortunately, it sounds like they won't.
Giroux will be in the lineup Monday night as the Flyers square off against the Winnipeg Jets in the first of their final eight games in the 2016 NHL season. Giroux, who is pacing the Flyers with 62 points on the year, went through concussion protocol, but was cleared and will be ready to go against Ondrej Pavelec and the rest of the Winnipeg team.
The Jets (31-38-6) are lurking at the bottom of the Central Division and are only a step or so out of the Western Conference basement, narrowly edging out teams like the Canucks and Oilers.
In other words, the Jets are playing for Auston Matthews and a bid at spoiling the party for someone else, while the Flyers remain hot on the trail of a wild card playoff berth.
The Flyers, with Giroux back and ready to go, should make short work of Winnipeg. But "should" has been a strange and oftentimes inaccurate proposition for the Flyers this year. GM Ron Hextall has done his best to remake the team so that there's space in the near future for some of the Flyers' elite young prospects not named Shayne Gostisbehere. This season was meant to be one of transition for Hextall's group, but instead, new head coach Dave Hakstol has the Flyers looking like and thinking like a playoff team.
With those eight games left to go, the Flyers remain in a tie for the final Eastern wild card spot with the Detroit Red Wings, who have just seven games to close out their season.
With Giroux back and netminder Steve Mason set to make his 11th start in the last 12 games, Philadelphia very much controls its own destiny. Monday night will be another must-have game if they're going to complete their unexpected postseason run.
