Giroux believes Winter Olympics will be safe

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - After the second deadly suicide bombing in southern Russia within 24 hours Monday, Flyers center Claude Giroux said he was not overly concerned about security issues at the Winter Olympics.

Giroux is a strong candidate to play on Team Canada when Russia hosts the Sochi Winter Olympics in February.

After reiterating that his main concern is helping the Flyers win games - and not on his Olympic chances - Giroux was asked if it was scary for potential Olympians to see what had happened in Russia in recent days.

"For the athletes, it's kind of dangerous, but I'm sure they'll do a good job of protecting everybody and making sure everybody is having a good time over there," Giroux said after the team's morning skate in Vancouver.

Giroux, Jake Voracek (Czech Republic), Andrej Meszaros (Slovakia), Kimmo Timonen (Finland), Michael Raffl (Austria), Mark Streit (Switzerland), Nick Grossmann (Sweden), and Erik Gustafsson (Sweden) are among the Flyers who are candidates to represent their countries in the Olympics.

The Canadian Olympic Committee issued a statement Monday, saying the safety of the team, "including our athletes, coaches, support staff and volunteers, is always our main priority."

More than 30 people were killed in the explosions. Monday's attack, which ripped a bus apart, was the second one in two days in Volgograd, which lies 450 miles from the site of the Olympics.

Russian authorities said they believe the latest attack was the work of the same group that set off a deadly bomb Sunday at Volgograd's main railway station.