Flyers' Claude Giroux gives everyone a ‘let's (expletive) go' lesson

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Claude Giroux won't wax poetic after games.

Win or lose, he'll stick to the point. He's quite media savvy, knowing when to end his own interview, if he'd like, with a quick but polite "thank you."

Following a galling 6-1 home loss to the Islanders on Oct. 27, which dropped the Flyers to 4-7-0 a day after the head coach publicly challenged his team, Giroux sounded the same.

But you got a sense the Flyers' captain felt the upcoming four-game road trip needed some of his quiet leadership, a time to show the entire roster this is how it's done.

Those moments in which Giroux's play says: I've got this, we'll be fine.

"We need to get closer as a team, we need to go out there and play for each other," Giroux said after the defeat to the Islanders. "This road trip is going to be very important for the season."

Giroux's teammates truly admire his actions.

His actions over the Flyers' road trip had the look of a leader playing like this was a season-saving — possibly coach-saving — stretch of games.

A breakaway goal in the second contest of the 3-0-1 trip made it obvious Giroux wasn't going to let this early-season mess derail further before the Flyers returned home. With his team nursing a 3-2 lead late in the third period and hoping to finally notch back-to-back wins, Giroux was sprung free and beat Kings goalie Jack Campbell. 

The goal essentially sealed the 5-2 victory and lifted a weight off the Flyers' shoulders.

As Giroux scored, he pumped his fist repeatedly and let out a Giroux classic: "Let's (expletive) go!"

Many clamored for leadership when boos rained down after that 6-1 embarrassment at the Wells Fargo Center. While the Flyers appeared numb and lost, head coach Dave Hakstol expressed confidence in his core.

"I trust our leadership group," Hakstol said then. "That's a good group of guys in there, they care, they're fricking miserable right now."

How evident was that leadership out West? Giroux went scoreless in the Flyers' three-game losing streak prior to the road trip. Not once last season did he go three straight games without a point.

His six points (three goals, three assists), plus-3 rating and raw emotion over the next four games told the story. His first three-point outing of 2018-19 put a bow on the team's big getaway in a convincing 5-2 victory Monday over the Coyotes.

When Giroux takes his game to another level, the Flyers look up and follow.

It's the lead-by-example way you hear so much about.

And maybe it's not so quiet. When Giroux is screaming, "Let's (expletive) go," everybody notices.

Now the fans want to see it in person again.

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