PHILADELPHIA — So Flyers captain Claude Giroux finally got his first shot on goal of the series on Tuesday night, and after the 4-1 Game 3 loss to the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center, he decided to try his hand at predicting the future.
“We’re going to be ready for Game 4,” Giroux said, his team now down 2-1 in this best-of-seven contest. “We’re going to tie up the series and go back to New York.”
It was 6:23 into the second period when Giroux finally got a puck through on Rangers’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist, the first such time the third-leading scorer in the league was able to do so. He did attempt six shots, and notched his second assist of the series, but his top line with Jakub Voracek and Scott Hartnell still didn’t impress coach Craig Berube.
“I think their line worked really hard, [Giroux] got a few shots, but I think with the power play and stuff, they have to be better,” said Berube, whose man-advantage went 0-for-5 over 7:19. “They will be better.”
Rangers 23-year-old rookie winger Jesper Fast came out of the lineup for the rugged Dan Carcillo, who played a whale of a game and scored the team’s final goal.
It would be hard to see coach Alain Vigneault changing his lineup for Friday’s Game 4, especially as top-six forward Chris Kreider (left hand) remains out indefinitely.
Kreider made the trip to Philadelphia with the team and skated at the end of the morning skate. He had surgery on the hand on March 28, as the unspecified ailment kept him out of the final nine games of the regular season and thus far all of the postseason.
Vigneault had said on Monday Kreider is “improving,” and yet is still unlikely to be ready for this series, even if it goes to seven games.
Flyers’ starting goalie Steve Mason continued to make progress from what is a suspected concussion, dressing as Ray Emery’s backup. Then with the Rangers up 4-1 and 7:15 remaining, Mason got his first action of the series, turning away three non-threatening shots.
Berube said he had not made a decision on who would start Game 4.
“We’ll look at it,” Berube said. “We have a couple days of practice here, then I’ll make a decision.”
As for what Vigneault thought of Emery’s 16-save performance in comparison to Lundqvist’s 31-save gem, well …
“Tonight, our goaltender was the better of the two goaltenders,” Vigneault said.