Giroux Still a Shoo-in for Canadian Olympic Team
Claude Giroux's decision to skip Team Canada's orientation camp following surgery to repair torn tendons in his right index finger is unlikely to affect his chances of playing in the Olympics next February. The fact that Hockey Canada does not plan to invite another NHL player (such as Dallas' Jamie Benn) in his absence tells you all you need to know.
Barring injury during the season, Giroux remains a shoo-in to play for Team Canada in Sochi, and will likely receive top-six minutes. At the 2013 World Championships, he centered Canada's top line with Steven Stamkos and Andrew Ladd, and they were a deadly trio. It seems very possible that Giroux and Stamkos will be linemates again in Sochi.
Team Canada's orientation camp starts tomorrow in Calgary. There will not be any on-ice work done, but there will be informational sessions and various team-bonding activities. It is quite possible that Steve Yzerman assured Giroux ahead of time that missing the orientation would not be a huge deal to Hockey Canada if he preferred to focus for now on his surgery recovery.
Giroux's projected five-to-six week recovery time will cause him to miss time in the NHL preseason. He'll be able to skate but he won't be allowed to hold a stick or play in exhibition games until he's medically cleared. He should be fine for opening night.
During his NHL career to date, the Flyers' captain has a history of mediocre preseason performances. For whatever reason, he is a player who can't seem to get his competitive juices flowing until the games start to mean something. In Giroux's rookie year, a poor preseason cost him a spot on the big club at the start of the season. In the years that have followed, it has become more apparent that he's just one of those players who turns it on when the lights come up and the wins and losses count in the standings.
For the Flyers to return to the playoffs in 2013-14, it is an absolute must for Giroux to play to a comparable level to his 2011-12 campaign. If he wants to spend the next few weeks rehabbing his hand, doing cardiovascular work and then getting into the final preseason game or two to recover his skating legs and get ready for opening night, I don't know why anyone should have a major objection to him missing a late-August orientation camp that is five-plus months ahead of the start of the Olympics.
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Flyers' Unlikeliest NHL All-Star and Ashbee Trophy winner: Norm Barnes
One of the more interesting one-year wonders in Flyers history was the 1979-80 season enjoyed by defenseman Norm Barnes, who turns 60 years old today. He caught lightning in a bottle during the year of the Flyers' 35-game unbeaten streak and ultimately heartbreaking trip to the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals.
Originally an 8th-round pick of the Flyers in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft, the Michigan State University product went unsigned and later re-entered the Flyers organization as a free agent. Barnes spent five years bouncing around the minor leagues, including stints with the NAHL's Philadelphia Firebirds and the Flyers' American Hockey League affiliates of the era, the Richmond Robins and Maine Mariners. He dressed in one NHL game for the Flyers in 1976-77 but seemed otherwise destined to be a career minor league player.
A funny thing happened to Norm Barnes in 1979-80. A trusted AHL player for Maine under the auspices of Pat Quinn and Bob McCammon, Barnes earned an opening-night spot on Quinn's Flyers after a strong preseason. That carried right over into the regular season.
The 26-year-old rookie played so well during the Flyers' record 25-0-10 unbeaten streak that he earned a spot in the NHL All-Star Game. Despite missing 21 games in the second half of the season due to a torn abdominal muscle, Barnes won the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the Flyers' top defenseman on the strength of posting 25 points and a plus-23 rating in 59 games. Barnes won the honor over the likes of Bob Dailey (13 goals, 39 points, plus-30 in just 61 games), fellow All-Star Game selection Jimmy Watson (plus-51) and Behn Wilson (34 points, plus-21, 212 penalty minutes).
Barnes' wife, Cid, was a fixture at Flyers games that season, singing the national anthem at the Spectrum. Later, she sang the anthem in Hartford when Norm was a member of the Whalers.
Barnes dressed in 10 of the team's 19 postseason games during the team's run to the 1980 Finals, which ended in a highly controversial Game Six overtime loss to the New York Islanders. The next year, his Cinderella story came to an end as his play returned to more of his actual level of ability.
In 1980-81, Barnes dressed in 22 of the first 26 games of the regular season, posting three assists and a minus-three rating. On November 21, 1980, general manager Keith Allen traded Barnes and tough guy defenseman Jack McIlhargey to the Hartford Whalers in exchange for a 1982 second-round pick. That pick was subsequently sent to Toronto along with Rick Costello and Ken Strong in exchange for future Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler.
A legend with the Maple Leafs, Sittler was a little past his prime by the time "Keith the Thief" brought him to Philly. Even so, he was still a highly effective player. In 35 games for the Flyers in the second half of 1981-82, Sittler produced 32 points in 35 games. The next year, he racked up 43 goals and 83 points.
In the meantime, Norm Barnes only lasted in the NHL until the 1981-82 season, when he found himself back in the AHL. Following the trade from Philly, he was minus-30 and posted 10 points in 51 games for a bad 1980-81 Whalers team. Even so, the well-liked player won the Hartford Favorite Whaler Award that season. The next year, he dressed in 20 NHL games for the Whalers and 56 AHL games for Binghamton.
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