Flyers' Claude Giroux likely to miss at least two games

THE MYSTERY surrounding Claude Giroux took another strange turn yesterday when he did not report for practice.

After general manager Ron Hextall declared Giroux to be "fine" on Monday night, Giroux will likely miss at least the next two games with what the team is calling a "lower-body" injury. Tonight will be Giroux's first game missed because of injury since Dec. 19, 2011, breaking a streak of 197 consecutive games healthy.

To help pick up the slack, the Flyers recalled first-round pick Scott Laughton last night. Laughton, 20, co-led the Phantoms in scoring this season with 11 points in 13 games.

Hextall said the team captain suffered the injury in practice.

If so, Giroux's injury must have flared up long after he left the practice rink. The Flyers practiced at 10:30 a.m. on Monday and Giroux skated from start to finish. He handled his media responsibilities, light for that day, and left the locker room area like normal. There was no apparent ill-effect.

In between 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., when the team first tweeted he was being examined by doctors, Giroux's "lower-body" injury became serious enough that he needed to ask out of a long-planned meet-and-greet session with season ticketholders at Wells Fargo Center.

"Here's what happened: He was examined [Monday night] by our doctor. Everything looked good at the time," Hextall said. "Now, between [Monday] and [yesterday] morning, he just wasn't feeling the same way. It didn't react as we would have hoped. So, he talked to [trainer Jim McCrossin] and just felt like he needs a little bit of time to get better. That's when the decision was made to shut him down for a short period of time."

The most obvious question: If Giroux was injured in a morning practice, why did it take until well into the evening for the injury to be announced and then examined by a doctor?

"That's a good question," Hextall said, pausing. "The bottom line is he was fine at that point. As the day went on, he got worse."

Usually cool and comfortable handling questions, Hextall seemed flustered during different parts of last night's 5-minute conference call with reporters. His tenor only added to the intrigue of the questionable timing.

After all, this is not Giroux's first injury shrouded in mystery. Last August, Giroux suffered an accident on the golf course when he said the shaft of his club shattered and tore through tendons in his hand. Questions arose about the veracity of his story, considering metal shafts of golf clubs typically don't shatter.

Giroux is definitely out against the Rangers tonight at Madison Square Garden. Hextall said his "best guess" is that Giroux also will miss tomorrow night against Minnesota.

"I believe it's going to be days instead of weeks," Hextall said.

Now, the Flyers will be forced to pick up the pieces left by the player with the most points (248) in the NHL since the start of the 2011-12 season, ahead of Phil Kessel (236), Sidney Crosby (222), Alex Ovechkin (216) and Steven Stamkos (216). Giroux entered last night tied for sixth in league scoring this season.

Brayden Schenn could be called upon to play center for the first time since last season. He centered the NHL's current leading scorer, Jake Voracek, in practice yesterday with R.J. Umberger.

However, with Umberger's brutal start to his second stint in Philadelphia, there is a good chance Laughton could center the top line. That would enable coach Craig Berube to keep Schenn at left wing, where he has finally gotten comfortable. Schenn enters Madison Square Garden riding a career-best, five-game point streak (three goals, four assists).

Laughton earned the opportunity with a hot start in the AHL, where it seemed as if he added a desperately needed element of flash to his usually solid all-around game. Previously, Hextall said young prospects such as Laughton would not be recalled unless they were going to be put into a position to succeed.

"He had a chance like everyone else to earn a spot in camp and he didn't," Hextall said of Laughton on Nov. 5. "When you look at young players, sometimes they do really well in the American League, but, up here, they're not going to be in the same situation. So why stunt their growth? I don't want to bring him up here and play him 10 minutes or something."

Defensemen Luke Schenn (left shoulder) and Andrew MacDonald (right knee) skated after practice with assistant coach Gord Murphy. Citing need for more practice, Craig Berube said he doesn't think either player will be ready tonight, "but you never know" . . . Michael Del Zotto will make his first trip back to Madison Square Garden after 4 1/2 seasons with the Rangers. "Anytime you spend that much time with one team, it's going to be special," he said. "But it's not the main focus" . . . The Rangers (7-7-4) have only four regulation wins this season . . . Ron Hextall attended his first general manager's meetings in Toronto yesterday, where the group voted to scrap the lengthy "dry scrape" by Zambonis before overtime . . . Extra forward Blair Jones was sent to Lehigh Valley to make room for Scott Laughton.

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