If there’s one guy the Flyers might look to lead the team after Claude Giroux’s one-game suspension, it’s Daniel Briere. The 34-year-old is a veteran of over 100 playoff contests and his penchant for scoring big goals will be big as Philly faces elimination in Tuesday’s Game 5.
Briere acknowledges he’ll have to step up and compensate for the loss of Giroux -- but stresses the rest of his Flyers teammates have to as well.
“Obviously when your best player is going to miss a crucial game, it hurts,” Briere told Philly.com. “But you know what, it’s our season and there’s no time to sit back and complain. If we did, it would be wasted energy.
“It is what it is and we can’t change anything. At the end of the day, we have to move forward and have to find a way to win.”
Without Giroux -- who led the team in regular season and playoff scoring -- the Flyers will likely insert Zac Rinaldo in a fourth-line role and lean on its missing secondary scorers for offense. Wayne Simmonds (two points), Jaromir Jagr (one point) and Matt Read (one point) have been invisible against New Jersey, and that’s going to have to change.
“Somehow, we have to make it work,” said Briere. “Everybody has to dig deep. It’s one game. It’s not like it’s the rest of the playoffs without Claude.”