Panthers at Flyers
Captain Claude Giroux and the Philadelphia Flyers are on quite the roll, as the former has collected three goals and five assists during his last three games to help the latter improve to 5-0-1 in its last six. Giroux, who was named the NHL's Third Star of the Week, and the Flyers aim to continue their respective torrid stretches on Tuesday when they host the Florida Panthers.
Giroux recorded his 50th career three-point performance with a goal and two assists in Saturday's 4-0 win over Chicago to move within one point of becoming the fourth member of the franchise's 700-point club. "It is a great honor," the 30-year-old told reporters. "There have been a lot of good players who played here, and to be able to be in that group (Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Brian Propp) is really special." While Philadelphia has won three in a row, Florida has done one better and has yielded just six goals in the process heading into the opener of a season-high six-game road trip. "Goalies have won the games for us the last four games and have been really good and we can rely on them," said captain Aleksander Barkov, who tallied in the first encounter with the Flyers this season.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TVA, FS Florida, NBCS Philadelphia
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (6-5-3): Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov each scored in Florida's 6-5 shootout loss to Philadelphia on Oct. 16, with the former extending his career-best point streak to 12 games (seven goals, seven assists) while the latter has six tallies and seven assists on his 11-game run after Sunday's 5-1 win over Ottawa. "Barky's line led the way," Florida coach Bob Boughner said of the top line consisting of Barkov, Hoffman and Dadonov following the victory. "They got the first one, and you could see every line just follow and start gaining some momentum." Fellow forward Jonathan Huberdeau has done quite nicely for himself, collecting 12 points (three goals, nine assists) over his past 10 games.
ABOUT THE FLYERS (9-7-1): Like Giroux, Wayne Simmonds also tallied twice against Florida and joins the captain and Sean Couturier with a team-high seven goals this season. "We've started to figure things out," the 30-year-old Simmonds told Philly.com following Monday's practice. Brian Elliott, who boasts a 6-3-0 career mark versus Florida, has a .952 save percentage in his last five appearances after turning aside all 33 shots he faced on Saturday as Philadelphia improved to 2-0-0 on its season high-matching five-game homestand.
OVERTIME
1. Florida has lost in each of its last five trips to Philadelphia.
2. The Flyers have scored the first goal in six consecutive contests.
3. The Panthers are 9-for-31 on the power play over the last seven games.