Giroux sees flashes of 2010 in current Flyers

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Flyers are 1-6-0, and while captain Claude Giroux knows his team hasn't been great, he can't quite figure out why they haven't been able to win more games since Craig Berube took over as coach 10 days ago.

Giroux said it reminds him of another time when the Flyers were struggling for results yet confident in how they were playing.

"What's going on right now makes me think of when we played Boston in the [2010 Stanley Cup] Playoffs," Giroux said, referring to the series against the Bruins three years ago. "We were down 3-0 [in the series] but we were talking to ourselves and were like, 'How the [heck] are we down 3-0? We should be up 3-0.' We just stayed with it and came back to win the series.

"You know, it's a long season. If you think about it we still have 75 games left. That's a lot of games."

Giroux thinks the conversation about his underperforming team can change Thursday at Wells Fargo Center, where the Flyers will play the first of five games this season against the Pittsburgh Penguins (7 p.m. ET, NHLN-US).

The Penguins have won two in a row and are 5-1-0. They can put a 10-point separation between themselves and the Flyers in the Metropolitan Division with a regulation win Thursday.

The Flyers have lost three straight since beating the Florida Panthers in Berube's debut after he took over for Peter Laviolette, who was fired after the Flyers' 0-3-0 start.

"It's the kind of game that can maybe get the momentum back and put us on back on track here," Giroux said of playing the Penguins. "Playing against Pittsburgh, it's always good games against them. The guys are going to be ready to go and I think this could be a turning point in the year."

Giroux certainly hopes it is for him. He has no goals and two assists in seven games.

Berube said he thought Giroux played well Saturday at the Detroit Red Wings and was effective again in a 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, but he has noticed the captain pressing.

Giroux admitted as much, saying his scoring slump is "very, very" frustrating, particularly because it has come at the start of the season.

"If it's [in the middle of] the season I think you don't pay attention to it as much," Giroux said. "When it's the start of the season obviously the panic button goes a little bit quicker. I just have to stay with it. I've been working hard, staying focused and it's just a matter of time here."

Steve Mason will make his second straight start in goal for the Flyers after giving up three goals on 25 shots in the loss to the Canucks on Tuesday. Kris Newbury likely will be back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch in favor of Jay Rosehill on Tuesday.

Here are the expected lines and defense pairs for the Flyers:

Tye McGinn - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek

Maxime Talbot - Sean Couturier - Matt Read

Michael Raffl - Brayden Schenn - Wayne Simmonds

Zac Rinaldo - Kris Newbury - Adam Hall

Kimmo Timonen - Erik Gustafsson

Braydon Coburn - Nicklas Grossmann

Mark Streit - Luke Schenn

Steve Mason

Ray Emery

Scratched: Jay Rosehill, Andrej Meszaros, Hal Gill

Injured: Scott Hartnell (upper body), Vincent Lecavalier (lower body)

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