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Giroux remains confident Flyers will make playoffs

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The Philadelphia Flyers have won just one of their first eight games, they’ve already got their coach fired, and haven’t scored more than two goals in a game this season. But that’s not enough to make captain Claude Giroux lose his confidence in this team.

“We never thought about not making the playoffs,” Giroux said, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. “We’ve got to go game by game and we will make the playoffs.”

With the Flyers already eight points out of a postseason spot, they can’t afford to dig too much deeper of a hole for themselves. Given that their offense has been a key problem, it’s not surprising that Flyers bench boss Craig Berube has decided to get creative.

Vinny Lecavalier missed three straight games with a lower-body injury, but he’s resumed practicing with Philadelphia and seems to be on course to play Thursday. When he comes back, it looks like Lecavalier will move from center to the right wing so that he can join Giroux on the Flyers’ first line. Michael Raffl, 24, has also been bumped up so that he can play with the two stars.

Raffl was a dominant player in Sweden, but he only has three games worth of NHL experience.

“(Raffl is) skilled, he’s big (6-foot) and he moves,” Berube told CSN Philly. “He looked comfortable out there. The size and skill is what intrigues you. He seems like a confident kid to me which I like.”

Perhaps that trio will spark the Flyers’ offense. At this point, it certainly can’t hurt to try as they can’t make the playoffs on the strength of Giroux’s assertions alone.

Follow @RyanDadoun