PHILADELPHIA — Claude Giroux might not have a goal in this series, but he’s a damn good prophet.
The Flyers captain and leading scorer said — with matter-of-fact defiance after Game 3 — the Flyers would win Game 4 and go back to Madison Square Garden for Sunday’s Game 5 tied at 2-2.
And so they will after Friday night’s 2-1 Game 4 win over the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center.
There has been much consternation among Flyers fans this series about Giroux and his lack of goal production. He has not scored against the Rangers in 14 consecutive games, dating back more than two years. The Rangers seem to be Giroux’s kryptonite.
Yet the fact the Flyers will go back to the Garden tied 2-2 without Giroux having scored a goal has to buoy their hopes going forward in what has now been boiled down to a best-of-three series. Giroux, after all, is the engine that makes the Flyers go. They went 21-2-1 in games that Giroux scored at least one goal and were 33-15-4 when he had at least one point.
Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said it best when he noted this about Giroux after Game 2: “We’re 1-1 after two games on the road and ‘G’ doesn’t have a shot on net. Imagine when he does start getting shots on net.’’
Yes, imagine that. The Rangers would rather not.
Through four games, Giroux has no goals, two assists and a grand total of three shots on goal, two of which came Friday night.
When you were the third-leading scorer in the NHL in the regular season with 86 points and entered this postseason with 21 goals and 55 points in 50 career playoff games — as Giroux has — that kind of lack of production in the first four games becomes an issue.
But his lack of goal-scoring production has been an issue the Flyers would rather ignore — particularly because Giroux has done some other things very well.
He set up four goals in the first three games. He was the catalyst in the Flyers’ lone goal Tuesday night, taking down Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh at the Philadelphia blue line and passing the puck to Jakub Voracek, who slid the puck across ice to Mark Streit, who beat Henrik Lundqvist to cut New York lead to 2-1 at the time.
Though he is goal-less, Giroux entered Friday night having drawn several penalties, winning a series-high 61.1 percent of his faceoffs (he won 58 percent Friday) and producing a team-best plus-three rating.
This is why his teammates grow a bit defensive when Giroux’s lack of scoring in the series is brought up.
When Voracek, one of Giroux’s linemates, was asked before Game 3 if Giroux were not playing aggressively enough on offense and passing the puck too much instead of looking for his shot, he said, “What kind of answer are you looking for? He’s a great leader and he does not always have to put up four points to make a difference in a game.’’
It took Giroux six games this season before he scored a single point and he went the first 15 games without a goal.
He went on to finish third in the NHL in points. In the final 67 games, Giroux scored 28 goals and had 51 assists. It was no coincidence that once he started scoring, the Flyers started playing well.
When the Flyers were 1-7 and foundering early in the season, Giroux publicly guaranteed the team would make the playoffs. Their next opponent after that Oct. 21 guarantee? The Rangers, whom they defeated.
When they were 4-10-1, he conducted a players-only team meeting and the team finished the regular season 38-20-9 after that meeting.
After the Flyers lost Game 3 Tuesday night, Giroux said: “We’re going to be ready for Game 4, we’re going to tie up this series and go back to New York.”
So they are. The heartbeat of the Flyers had his finger firmly placed on the pulse as it turned out. So the Flyers now head to the Garden with a leading scorer due to break out and a hot goaltender in starter Steve Mason, who returned after nearly two weeks with a concussion to stone the Rangers on Friday night, stopping 37-of-38 shots.
Thanks to the Rangers’ maddening inability to handle prosperity in this series — leaking away a 2-0 lead in Game 2 at home with a chance to take a 2-0 lead to Philadelphia and losing a 1-0 lead Friday night to fail to take a 3-1 lead back to New York — the Flyers team that shows up at the Garden Sunday afternoon will be the most dangerous team the Rangers have faced all series.
“We played good enough to win,’’ Giroux said. “But I think we can play better.’’
That might be a problem for the Rangers.