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PHILADELPHIA (AP) Claude Giroux didn’t like the way he was playing http://www.officialstarsproonline.com/authentic-adidas-jason-spezza-jersey , so the Philadelphia captain called himself out. And he responded in a big way.Two days after saying he needed to ”step up and bring more for the team,” Giroux had a goal and two assists to help the Flyers to a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.”When it’s not going your way, you have to challenge yourself,” Giroux said.Giroux had been pointless in two of his previous three contests. Philadelphia survived his turnover in overtime Tuesday night in a 2-1 victory over Carolina when Brian Elliott made a spectacular stick save. That came one game after another Giroux turnover cost the Flyers a goal in a 4-3 shootout home loss to Ottawa.Giroux bounced back with his fifth three-point game of the season.”He’s pretty hard on himself, maybe overly so, but he felt like he could play better and he did that,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. ”He expects a lot of his teammates, but he puts himself at the head of the line.”Travis Konecny scored twice, Jakub Voracek and Ivan Provorov also scored John Klingberg Jersey , and Shayne Gostisbehere had three assists. The Flyers kept their hold on a playoff spot in a crowded race in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia entered in seventh place, but just one point ahead of Columbus and the New York Islanders, and only four in front of 10th-placed Carolina.Brian Elliott made 25 saves in his second game back from a lower body injury after missing four games.”Keep packing on two points and we’ll put ourselves in a good spot,” Elliott said.Logan Shaw, Artturi Lehkonen and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal.The game ended a historic day in Philadelphia that featured the victory parade for the Eagles’ first Super Bowl championship. The Flyers congratulated the Eagles on the video board and played highlights from the parade to the delight of the crowd, which unleashed a loud ”E-A-G-L-E-S! E-A-G-L-E-S!” chant.Hakstol watched some of the parade festivities on television.”It’s hard not to be excited,” he said. ”It’s pretty inspirational for the entire city. What an awesome sight. Their organization did such a good job from top to bottom the entire year. That’s their just rewards.”The parade also altered both teams’ normal routines. The Flyers held their morning skate at their practice facility in Voorhees, New Jersey rather than on their home ice in Philadelphia. They also had players who live in Philadelphia stay at a hotel in South Jersey on Wednesday night to ensure they could make the morning skate.The Canadiens switched hotels from their normal spot in downtown Philadelphia to a place near the airport to avoid the crowds while also canceling their morning skate.Montreal could’ve used the extra work to practice its penalty kill.”Those penalties hurt,” Montreal coach Claude Julien said. ”Their power play was going good and our penalty kill wasn’t good enough.”Voracek broke a 2-all tie and made amends for an earlier turnover that led to a Canadiens goal 27 seconds into the third period when he roofed a wrist shot over Carey Price’s left shoulder for Philadelphia’s second power play goal of the contest.Konecny made it a two-goal advantage 1:01 later when he pounced on a rebound after Gostisbehere’s shot from the point trickled out of the grasp of Price. It was his 13th tally of the season and seventh in the last 10 contests.Gallagher’s power play goal with 2:54 left brought Montreal within a goal.Provorov iced the win with an empty-netter with 55.9 seconds remaining.The teams each scored a pair of goals in the second period.Konecny opened the scoring by finishing a great passing play 42 seconds into the period.Lehkonen stripped Voracek near center ice and whizzed a shot past Brian Elliott’s glove side with 10:51 left in the second. It was the ninth short-handed goal the Flyers have allowed this season.Philadelphia answered 28 seconds later on the power play when Giroux’s wrist shot got through traffic and past Price.Shaw sent the teams into the final period tied at 2 when his wrister went off Elliott and in with 1:11 left.The Flyers lost all four contests without their top goalie Mattias Janmark Jersey , who got an assist on Provorov’s tally.Notes: Montreal D Shea Weber and C Phillip Danault did not make the trip to Philadelphia but skated prior to Wednesday’s practice. Weber (foot) has been out since Dec. 16 and Danault (concussion) has been sidelined since Jan. 13. … The teams play the second of three contests Feb. 20 in Philadelphia before finishing the season series Feb. 26 at Montreal. … Philadelphia’s power play had been 4-for-30 over the 10 previous games before scoring twice against Montreal.UP NEXTCanadiens: Host Nashville on Saturday night.Flyers: Play at Arizona on Saturday night. Aleksander Barkov is quick to point out the NHL is so popular in Finland that tickets to two games in Helsinki sold out in less than five minutes.“It shows how much they love the game,” the Florida Panthers captain said. “There’s good reason to do that every year.”The NHL is planning just that after Commissioner Gary Bettman announced initial plans for a 2019 season-opener in Prague, two regular-season games in Stockholm and exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland. The Panthers and Winnipeg Jets played the 24th and 25th regular-season games outside North America on Thursday and Friday at a packed Hartwall Arena in the Finnish capital.As the league sows seeds of interest in new markets like China, it is also continuing to cultivate interest in established hockey countries like Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. And there’s a modest proposal for continuing to stoke the interest in the sport in Scandinavia and across Europe.“One thing that I know former players have been talking about is maybe more games earlier on the weekends so they can actually watch,” said Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom, who is Swedish. “Prime time here is middle of the night there. To make it more popular in Europe and Sweden, I think more games in the middle of the day on the weekends would be great. That’s how you can get it more popular.”A crowded sports calendar in the U.S. with the NFL and college football going on during the first half of the season makes that a challenge. Not counting the three games this season taking place in Europe, just 127 regular-season NHL games — roughly 10 percent of the full schedule — start early enough in North America that fans in places in Western and Central Europe can watch before a late evening bedtime.Even with games on Thursday Radek Faksa Jersey , Sunday and Monday nights to fill prime-time spots in the U.S., traditional Sunday afternoon kickoffs have helped the NFL become bigger in Europe. Games at Wembley Stadium in London feature fans in jerseys of just about every team, not just the two playing, and the influence goes beyond England.“In Denmark, the NFL (became) quite popular like 10, 15 years ago because they started games in the afternoon, so people could start watching at dinner time and they could just keep watching a new game,” Capitals center Lars Eller said. “I would welcome more afternoon games.”The “NHL on NBC” games that start at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday largely after the American football season ends fit that bill. And with more teams choosing to skip morning skates altogether, afternoon starts wouldn’t throw off game-day routines to the point that there’s pushback from players.“Whenever that happens Authentic Stephen Johns Jersey , games at 12 or 1 p.m. Eastern time, it’s like 7 o’clock in Finland or (nighttime) in Europe, so people can see,” Barkov said. “Of course there’s a big audience there.”Bettman said he is not sure hockey can grow more in places like Sweden and Finland where there are already strong domestic leagues and a steady flow of talented players reaching the NHL.“What we need to do is continue to work to keep it at the extraordinarily high level that it’s at,” he said.Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly brushed aside the idea of basing an NHL team in Europe, saying it would need to be a group of teams and that no one has come up with a viable plan. They said staging an outdoor game in Europe is a possibility but not something likely to happen soon.More likely is a regular schedule of “Global Series” games across Europe. Since the NHL opened the 1997-98 season in Japan, 24 of 31 teams have played overseas. The Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Dallas Stars Youth Tyler Pitlick Jersey , Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights and defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals are the only ones left. Probably not for long.“We’re happy to share our game,” Bettman said in Helsinki. “We’d like to continue to encourage the enthusiasm, support and development that hockey gets by bringing the world’s best players and the world’s best league over here.”