Flyers' loss to Coyotes marred by KO'd captains

When the Detroit Red Wings were blown out earlier on Saturday it presented the Philadelphia Flyers with a great opportunity to increase their lead in the Eastern Conference playoff race when they played in Arizona.

They failed to take advantage of that opportunity by dropping a 2-1 game. It was a brutal night for the Flyers because even though they spent most of the night controlling the play, they were simply unable to beat Mike Smith, while the game-deciding goal was a last-second buzzer beater to end the second period on a wild bounce.

The bigger concern for the Flyers at this point though is the status of captain Claude Giroux who was injured late in the third period.

The game turned fierce in the third period and nearly erupted into a massive line brawl on more than one occasion. It all started when Coyotes captain Shane Doan was knocked out of the game when he lost his balance and was then sandwiched into the board by Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas on this play (GIF via Sons of Penn).

Doan’s fall was an accident, but Gudas appears to drive his head into the board with his arm, which isn’t a good thing.

Doan was immediately in bad shape and initially had a difficult time getting back to his feet.

He eventually left under his own power and did not return to the game. After the game Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said he was held out as a precaution.

Gudas has been a one-man wrecking crew in the NHL this season leaving a trail of injured players in the dust behind him while almost always avoiding additional discipline from the league. He was suspended three games for a hit to the head of Mika Zibanejad earlier in the season (during a game where he injured three players).

He avoided a suspension for a pair of questionable hits later in February, including one that resulted in him being ejected and another that resulted in him being called an “idiot” and a “dirty player” by Buffalo’s Marcus Foligno.

If you thought things would calm down after that Gudas-Doan incident, you would be wrong.

The intensity seemed to increase and reached a boiling point when Giroux went into the glass after he was shoved from behind by Martin Hanzal and appeared to be briefly knocked out on the ice.

Hanzal was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct. He was also immediately jumped by several Flyers, including Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn. Simmonds received a 10-minute misconduct penalty while Schenn was given a two-minute minor for roughing.

The Flyers ended up with a three-minute power play out of that and did get a Sean Couturier goal to cut the deficit to one with less than a minute to play. But with Giroux and Simmonds in the locker room they were never able to get any closer.

After the game Flyers beat writer Sam Carchidi Tweeted that he was told that Giroux is “fine,” but this was him 20 minutes prior to that.

Claude Giroux appeared to be knocked out on Saturday.(YouTube)

Again, he looks to be knocked out on the ice. When you consider that he left the game and did not return, as well as the fact that he has a concussion history, it might be a little early to say for certain that he is “fine.” He very well could end up being fine, but there is no way to possibly know that at this point.

Earlier this season Giroux was on the receiving end of a hit to the head from Montreal’s P.K. Subban and seemed to initially be OK, even returning to the game.

Then he ended up missing the team’s next three games with an “upper body injury.”

For the Flyers’ sake, they better hope he is fine this time around because they are going to need him to secure a playoff spot because this loss is not going to help them.

They remain tied with the Red Wings with 85 points in the standings but currently occupy the second wild card spot because they have played one fewer game. The two teams still meet one more time while the Red Wings actually own what would be the tie-breaker at the end of the season with more non-shootout wins.

When you combine this loss with the Flyers’ shootout loss in Columbus a week ago when they let a two-goal lead slip away in the final minute, the Flyers have now given away three huge points in the playoff race to teams at the bottom of the league. That, more than anything else, has allowed the Red Wings to stay in the race and it could play a huge role in which team ends up taking that playoff spot.

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