Claude Giroux Could Have Extra Motivation for Flyers

VOORHEES — The question to Claude Giroux will be whether this snub was any different.

That last time Team Canada opted not to play him in a best-on-best tournament was the 2014 Sochi Olympics and Giroux was…let’s call it “upset.”

It showed on the ice. He learned he hadn’t made the team before a morning skate in Newark and then proceeded to play out of his mind, racking up 40 points in the next 30 games.

“If it’s a difference between pissed off Claude Giroux and not, it depends how pissed he is,” Jake Voracek said the other day. “If he’s healthy mad, he’s good. If he’s really pissed off and in his head, obviously it’s not good for him.”

Giroux hadn’t arrived in Philadelphia yet by Saturday night from the World Cup. He was part of the championship Canadian squad, although he barely played.

He made it into only one game in the tournament itself, although Canada had already clinched a spot in the semifinals by then. That meant coach Mike Babcock was willing to play Giroux and Los Angeles defenseman Jake Muzzin.

The Flyers’ captain got hurt in a preliminary game, but the Flyers and Team Canada insisted the next day that he was healthy, that whatever ailed him in the game didn’t linger. So if a healthy Giroux sat and watched everything transpire from the press box, will he have a repeat performance of the spring of 2014?

“He always plays like that,” Wayne Simmonds said. “I don’t think he needs extra motivation. As far as I’m concerned, I think he’s been slighted by Team Canada before. Obviously they took him this time, but I thought he was good enough to make past teams and make this team and play and contribute. G’s the type of guy that he plays with a chip on his shoulder no matter what so I’m sure this will just fuel him a little bit more.”