Get out the brooms because the Tampa Bay Lightning completed a sweep of Claude Giroux’s Panthers on Monday night. Florida lost 4-1 and 2-1 at home and then 5-1 and 2-0 on the road. The killer was game two, when it was 1-1 with less than 10 seconds remaining in the 3rd period and Ross Colton scored a dagger. The series was pretty much over right then and there. It sucked the life out of that team.

So Giroux is a free agent, which is an odd feeling:

Add in G’s Flyers numbers and he finished with a 65 point season, scoring 21 goals and logging 44 assists. He was averaging 0.74 points per game in Philly and 1.3 points per game in Florida (regular season), so obviously if he had spent the entire year surrounded by superior talent like Barkov, Huberdeau, etc, he would have been on pace for a 104 point season over 82 games or a 95 point season over 75 games, which is what he ended up playing this year. He didn’t score a lot of goals in Florida but bagged a ton of assists, which is more or less what was expected.

People joke about the Colorado thing – maybe he should have gone there! In hindsight, yes, he probably should have. The Avalanche just went up 3-1 on St. Louis and from my limited playoff viewing they look like a better team than Edmonton and Calgary, or “Cal-Gary,” as Barry Melrose likes to say. Tampa looks like the team to beat, though. They’re that experienced previous Cup winner that survives the first round scare and then looks nasty in round two. When I watch that team play I realize how far away the Flyers really are. I feel like I’m watching a different sport going from the Flyers to the Lightning, or any of these playoff teams, really.

What we need now are the odds on Giroux’s team in 2022-2023. He’s 34 years old and an Ontario native with options. You can go home to the Senators. You can come back to the Flyers if you like pain and misery. You can take a super-cheap deal and chase a Cup. I’d do the latter if I was him. G hasn’t been past the second round in 12 years, which is insane. 12 year is a long time. Obama was still in his first term. Andy Reid was still coaching the Eagles!