With just one goal in his last 10 games and mired in a three-game pointless streak, Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux is going through his most difficult stretch of the season.
Just don’t expect linemate Jaromir Jagr to worry about it.
Jagr spoke with CSN Philadelphia’s Tim Panaccio today about Giroux, slumps, perceptions and how to handle adversity.
“No matter how good you are, you are going to go through this,” Jagr said. “I was pretty good and went through it. When you are not the top [scorer], nobody really cares about it. You don’t score for 10 games? Nobody knows that.
“But when you’re a top guy, they expect you to score every day. I don’t worry about it. Nobody should worry about it. The good thing about this team is when our line doesn’t score, we’re still winning.”
To a certain degree, Jagr’s right. The Flyers have won four of six despite the fact he, Giroux and Scott Hartnell have seen their production plummet -- Giroux and Hartnell have three points each over that stretch, Jagr just one.
The Flyer wins have been largely due to solid play from the third and fourth lines and a couple of stellar efforts by backup netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, keeping Philly in fourth spot in the East and just four points back of the Rangers for top spot in the Atlantic.
As for Giroux? Jagr said the former NHL scoring leader (he’s now in fifth, with 49 points) is facing two major challenges. One, the difficulty of maintaining his high level of success from the first half of the season. Two, increased ice time and a grueling schedule.
“If someone had told him after half the season he’d be leading the league and if anybody would tell you guys [that], you would take it,” Jagr said. “Nobody would say, ‘ah, we don’t know.’ And he was [leading].
“And because he was playing so good, you kind of taste it. And he liked it and he don’t want to [lose it]. You get tired a little bit, off your game a little bit, it’s going to happen. You play 25 minutes a game. The schedule is tough.”