PHILADELPHIA — For 14 seasons, Philadelphia Flyers fans were used to seeing Claude Giroux set up a pair of goals and helping his team win a game.
On Saturday, they saw it again, but for the first time it didn’t help the Flyers. Giroux had two assists in his return to Philadelphia, Alex DeBrincat scored a pair of power-play goals and the Ottawa Senators snapped a seven-game winless streak by beating the Flyers 4-1.
Giroux was greeted with a standing ovation that extended for several minutes, which Giroux admitted was a bit uncomfortable.
“I get very awkward with standing ovations like that,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
As appreciative as he was, once the puck dropped, it was clear he was with a new team and helped set up Ottawa’s Thomas Chabot for a goal.
In the third period, Giroux, while quarterbacking the power play, made a pass off the end boards to DeBrincat on the far side of the net, who jammed it in for his second goal of the game and fourth of the season.
While many in attendance had seen that pass hundreds of times, Giroux admitted that, in this case, it wasn’t his intention.
“I’d like to say yes, it was, but that pass was intended for (Derrick Brassard) and missed. So, I can’t take the credit for it,” Giroux said.
Giroux has 14 points in 14 games with the Senators after signing with them in the offseason.
It wasn’t all good news for Ottawa, as defenceman Chabot exited the game after a hard hit from behind by Travis Konecny. The hit occurred early in the third period. Chabot did not return and there was no immediate word of his status after the game.
DeBrincat netted his first goal also on a power play. Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk set him up with a well-executed tic-tac-toe pass that found DeBrincat alone at the side of the net for an easy tap-in tally.
The Flyers took three consecutive penalties — the first two late in the second period and then another early in the third period — leading to two Ottawa goals.
“They called three penalties on them and none on us,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “At the end of the night, they’re going to even out. Those are needless penalties. We had the puck on all three of them. That changes the whole complexion of the game.”
Stutzle added an empty-net goal and Cam Talbot made 37 saves for the Senators, who won for the first time in nearly three weeks.
Kevin Hayes broke the ice with his third goal of the season in the first period, banging home the rebound of a Travis Konecny shot to give the Flyers an early lead. But Talbot was stout the rest of the way, besting Flyers’ goalie Carter Hart. Hart had 23 saves and has allowed six goals in his last two starts after yielding just 16 in his first seven appearances.
UP NEXT
Senators: Host the New York Islanders on Monday.
Flyers: Host Dallas on Sunday.
–with files from Sportsnet staff
