PHI VS NJFlyers' Giroux wants to 'move on' from suspension

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By Tim Panaccio in Philadelphia

The suspension  

Obviously, it's okay to slam a player's head into the glass and punch him without a suspension, but it's not okay to throw a deliberate shoulder to the head of another player.
 
Both offences have occurred in hockey this spring but the second one - Flyers forward Claude Giroux's hit on Dainius Zubrus -- was deemed a suspendable offence on Monday by NHL discipline guru Brendan Shanahan while Shea Weber's actions against Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg was a mere nothing.
 
Giroux, who has never been suspended, will miss Game 5 - an elimination game for the Flyers -- against the Devils on Tuesday.
 
"I was just trying to finish my hit, and he kind of leaned in and I kind of hit him, my shoulder to his head," Giroux said of the hit about an hour before he was suspended.
 
"My elbow was down. I didn't jump. It's a good thing he didn't get hurt. Obviously, I'm a pretty honest player. I'm not a dirty player. I'm not there to hurt anybody. I was just trying to finish my hit."
 
Later, Giroux released a brief statement saying he "respected" the league's decision and wanted to 'move on.'
 
"In the playoffs he's got a lot to work on," Giroux said of Shanahan after a phone hearing. "There's a lot of suspensions. Whatever decision he decides, I'm going to respect it, and we'll go from there."
 
Giroux has been the heart and soul of the Flyers in these playoffs. How the team handles his suspension and whether they will rise to a better effort remains to be seen given the Flyers have been rather lifeless in this series so far.
 
Will to win?  

The Flyers did not practice on Monday. They watched the horror video from Game 4, talked about it and went home.
 
Some of the players available to talk spoke about the team 'believing' in each other and their ability to come back in the series, down 3-1. They did it two years ago against Boston, down 0-3, but the Devils are not playing the same style that Boston did.
 
"That time I remember it was belief," Kimmo Timonen said. "We believed we can beat these guys that time. We just focused game by game. Don't think about what happens if we lose this game or win this game just focus on tomorrow and believe we can win we can be better team that we been the last three games.
 
"Obviously we're at home we got our fans behind us I'm sure everybody was a little down today obviously, but stay positive think about tomorrow, do your job, everybody has a role. Everybody can do their role much better than we have been last three games. That's why I'm really confident and I'm believing our team we can do a lot better job."
 
The team meeting was about a half-hour.
 
"I'm not gonna say what we talked about but in general, basically, we have to believe in ourselves," Danny Briere said.
 
"There's a lot of guys [seven active] who were here a couple of years ago and have seen us come back. Obviously, it's not going to be easy and it's not going to happen out of the blue.
 
"A lot of things we need to fix. The first step toward that is believing in ourselves and believing we can do it before we start our way to recovery."
 
The Flyers continue to say they need to rid themselves of being frustrated by what the Devils are doing and straightening their own game out, especially on the offensive attack where they have had none for three games, plus their inability to generate a forecheck.
 
"We're still alive," Briere said. "That is key word. We're alive here. We have a chance. And until it's over we're not going to quit."

Devils resolve 

Devils coach Pete DeBoer said Monday they've been given a chance to end the series now without letting the Flyers back into it.
 
"We want to end this, obviously,as soon as we can," he said. "We know they're going to play their best game.I'm confident we're going to bring our best game. They're a dangerous team at any point in a series and the last one is always the toughest to win. I like how we're playing and we've just got to continue to do what we're doing."
 
New Jersey already got a split on the road and has no fear of going back into Philadelphia.
 
"We've had to win on the road in both series to recapture at least some home-ice at different points in both series," DeBoer said. "So, I think we're comfortable on the road. Having said that, I doubt Philly's lost four in a row all year, so we know this is going to be tough."
 
Tim Panaccio reports on the Flyers for CSNPhilly.com.  Follow him on Twitter @tpanotchCSN

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