Flyers

Good Morning, the Media is Going to Run Claude Giroux Out of Town

By Kyle Scott

Published: Nov 8th, 2013 · 10:07 AM EST

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This is how Richie got shot.

We’ll turn it over to Sam Carchidi, our most hardened and old school of old school media types:

Maybe Claude Giroux was upset at another loss, this one a 3-0 defeat to struggling New Jersey on Thursday.

Maybe he was boiling because the fans booed the Flyers throughout another listless effort.

Or maybe he was just disappointed in himself for failing to score a goal in his 21st straight game, including the first 15 this season.

Whatever the reason, the Flyers’ captain walked out of the WFC and refused to talk to the media after the Flyers fell to 4-10-1.

Instead, the captain left it up to his teammates to explain another dreadful performance, one in which they barely tested 41-year-old goalie Martin Brodeur.

Good captains don’t do that.

Oh God. We’re trading Giroux, aren’t we?

Now, there are two schools of thought here, belief systems that can be held simultaneously, because, as we discussed on Tuesday, you’re a dichotomous beast, you. The first one is that the media is going to run yet another player out of town because he didn’t spoon-feed them canned quotes concise and convenient enough to put in another contrived game story. It happened with Mike Richards, and – what do you know – it turned out Richie wasn’t the cancer everyone thought he was. It’s the media’s fault– they’re terrible.

The other school, located on the other side of town, the scary side where Type OBs BULLIE dissenting voices, is that Claude Giroux is the fucking captain, he hasn’t scored a goal in 15 games, and his team is averaging less than one and a half goals per game– it’s his responsibility to talk with the media. The people who don’t blame the media for running Richie out of town blame Richie – ostensibly because he often did the sort of thing Giroux did last night (and earlier in the season) – but they don’t dare speak ill of beloved Giroux.

I happen to have hypothetical children enrolled in both of those schools.

The media is terrible, and you can’t really blame any Flyer for wanting to avoid their nonsense. Words don’t matter, and it certainly doesn’t help the team for a player to speak with reporters after a terrible loss.

On the other hand, Giroux is the captain. It is his responsibility to deal with the media– that’s what captains do. Players and coaches have to address the media. It’s a league mandate. The captain and goalie are expected to always be on that list, especially if the captain called a players-only team meeting after the game and then was seen addressing the owner outside the locker room in full view of reporters. There’s no excuse for dodging the media after that.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we should chase Giroux out of town the way we chased Richie out of town. This season isn’t just Giroux’s fault, not by any stretch. He’s not playing well, and much more is expected of him, but it’s certainly not his fault that the Flyers have four goons on their roster, virtually no defense, a gaggle of young forwards that aren’t good enough, and a coach who should be fired before Thanksgiving. G isn’t the problem… but that C he wears requires him to at least admit he’s part of it and answer questions about the rest.

Your Tweet of the night goes to Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy:

Congrats to the LA Kings on their eventual acquisition of Claude Giroux.

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) November 8, 2013

Derp.