Flyers believe they can win Game 5, extend series against Penguins

VOORHEES, N.J. -- Claude Giroux huddled his teammates around him at the end of practice Thursday to deliver a pep talk away from the coaches.
The Philadelphia Flyers captain doubled down a few minutes later when talking to the media.

"We're not ready for our season to be over," he said. "We go to Pittsburgh, tough building to play in. We know we can win there. We know if we play our game we can win. So we're going to go out there, play our game and be back for Game 6."
The Flyers' game against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the Eastern Conference First Round hasn't been nearly good enough. Their three losses in the series are by a combined score of 17-1, including Games 3 and 4 at home by a combined 10-1
to fall behind 3-1 in the best-of-7 series
.
Philadelphia faces elimination in Game 5 at PPG Paints Arena on Friday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, NBCSP, ATTSN-PT).
RELATED: [Couturier possible for Flyers in Game 5 | Complete Penguins vs. Flyers series coverage]
"It's believing in ourselves. All year we've done that," Giroux said. "I know we've talked about it before, but you lose 10 in a row [0-5-5 from Nov. 11-Dec. 2] and you find a way to make the playoffs, not a lot of teams can do that. Just the fight in this team. Tomorrow is going to be a big game for us. We know that. If we're going to go down, we're going to go down swinging."
They need to take better cuts.
The Flyers are quick to credit the Penguins for being a good team -- they are the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, after all -- but they also are quick to blame themselves for not being a tough opponent.
"It's not compete; for us it's execution," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said. "We're not executing. We're not making enough plays. We're not showing up in the right spots. We're not finishing. There's a lot of little things that we've done wrong."
Hextall thinks a big problem for the Flyers in the series has been their lack of mental toughness, particularly after they get scored on.
He cited Phil Kessel's goal off the rush at 14:37 of the first period in Game 4 that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead. It came after the Flyers put together back-to-back strong shifts in the offensive zone to get the home crowd on its feet and tire the Penguins.

"We had two or three really good shifts in their end, and they come and they score a goal, their second goal," Hextall said. "We need to react better to that as a group. I think there were times when we competed real hard, but we can't let one play, one goal-against, one situation, kind of deflate us. That's what I saw Wednesday]."
He saw it later in Game 4 too. Kris Letang scored at 8:04 of the second period to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead. Sidney Crosby made it 4-0 just 2:52 later.
The same things happened in Games 1 and 3.
The Penguins scored twice in a span of 4:02 in the first period of Game 1 to take a 3-0 lead. They then scored twice in a span of 1:11 in the second period and twice in 3:01 in the third in a 7-0 win.
They put away
[a 5-1 win in Game 3
with three unanswered goals in a span of 4:05 in the second period, including goals five seconds apart by Evgeni Malkin and Brian Dumoulin, tying the record for the fastest two goals in the history of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"A lot of it is mentality," Hextall said. "We've got to be stronger if a little bump goes the other way. We need to be stronger and bounce back and create energy going back our way."
It starts with the Flyers' top players being their best players. That hasn't happened.
Giroux, second in the League this season with 102 points (34 goals, 68 assists), has one point in the series, an assist in
the Flyers' 5-1 win in Game 2
, when they were outshot 35-20.
He's a minus-7, tied for worst on the team with defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, whose only point in the series is a goal in Game 2. He was fourth in the League among defensemen with 65 points (13 goals, 52 assists) this season.
Gostisbehere was moved off the top defense pairing during Game 4 and likely will start Game 5 on the second pairing with Robert Hagg, a healthy scratch for the first four games of the series.
It's also not clear if center Sean Couturier, a Selke Trophy finalist, will return for Game 5 after missing Game 4 because of a lower-body injury.
He said he's day-to-day
.

"Any time the team is doing bad, everyone puts a little pressure on themselves," Giroux said. "In the past I've put a lot of pressure on myself. I try not to, but you get frustrated, you try a little harder. You get down further, you try a little harder and nothing is working for you. You've got to keep going. You've got to keep going and good things are going to happen."
The Flyers need them to start happening Friday or their offseason will start Saturday.
"We can win Game 5," Giroux said.