NHL Playoffs 2012: Claude Giroux Sets the Tone Early in Flyers-Penguins Game 6

Everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth.  -Mike Tyson

There's not much in common between Claude Giroux and the "Baddest Man on the Planet" at first glance. Don't tell that to Sidney Crosby. The Penguins captain will surely never admit it, but Giroux took the Penguins' plans for Game 6 and gave them a right cross, both literally and figuratively. Decking Crosby in the first 10 seconds and scoring unassisted 20 seconds later, Giroux threw the Pens' dreams for Game 7 out the door.

While Giroux stopped short of "eating their children" he certainly ripped out the Penguins' hearts with his timely early play. The rule of this series has been to let the other team score first, then come back for the win. The Flyers bucked the trend in Game 6 as an early 3-0 lead was never seriously tested on the way to a 5-1 final.

What had been something of a traveling bare-knuckle carnival for the first four games finally turned into something resembling hockey in Game 5. Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins defense stepped up for a more conventional 3-2 win and gave Pittsburgh life in the first round.

Looking to become only the fourth team in NHL history to overcome a 3-0 series deficit, Pittsburgh lost momentum five seconds into the game. Giroux's legal open-ice check on Crosby got the Wells Fargo crowd to their feet early. He nearly blew the roof off the rink with a snap shot off the post after intercepting a poor clearance by Steve Sullivan.

Giroux's early tally was nearly wiped out after a Danny Briere high-stick put Pittsburgh on the power play. A Matt Cooke interference penalty 10 minutes later put Philadelphia up a man, and Giroux helped double the lead with Scott Hartnell's crease-crashing goal.

Inspired on defense after a "calling out" by Hartnell, Ilya Bryzgalov finally turned in a performance worthy of his "humongous big" price tag. Stopping 30 of 31 Penguin shots, Bryz was also helped out by a suddenly stingy Flyer defensive corps that blocked an additional 30 shots. Withstanding a furious Penguin shooting gallery in the third period, Bryzgalov gave the Flyer faithful a hopeful look of great things to come.

The tempo of the game was set up by Giroux. The Flyers' young superstar established a franchise record with his six points in Game 2. His 14 points in the series are only one behind Tim Kerr's 15 in 1989. His coach Peter Laviolette and teammate Briere were given a heads-up that something special was coming early today.

"Not only leadership but his game tonight was monstrous, it really was," Laviolette said. "When the best player in the world comes up to you and tells you, 'I don't know who you're planning on starting tonight, but I want that first shift,' that says everything you need to know about Claude Giroux right there."

 "Before they even dropped the puck, he came over and he told me watch the first shift," Briere told ESPN's Scott Burnside. "When he did, I didn't know what to say to him. He's been our leader all year and once again he took another step in that direction today, it was simply amazing, plain and simple."

The best players in the world were supposed to be wearing the black and gold of Pittsburgh. The Penguins were the fashionable choice to win the Stanley Cup as they welcomed back their captain. Giroux stole the spotlight and the series for the Flyers. Philadelphia propelled itself into the discussion for the Stanley Cup, and may have found their next captain in the process.

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