If the moment had been captured at a horse racing track instead of an ice rink, the losing bettors would have been ripping up their tickets, watching them flutter to the ground as they ignored Jagr and Giroux race to this game's finish line.
Jagr, the NHL's ninth all-time point-getter, had an unimpeded path to his 659th career goal.
Crossing over the blue line, he moved the puck over to Giroux at the last second.
"Right away, when I saw that he had the puck, I knew he was going to pass it to me," Giroux said. "It was a classy move. It was really unselfish."
It was Giroux' first career empty-net goal, the icing on the Flyers' impressive 4-1 win that snapped Nashville's five-game winning streak. It was just the Predators' third loss in their last 16 games.
"I usually hate empty-net goals," Giroux said. "But when you need it, you'll grab it. It still counts."
Giroux needed it. It is rare that an empty-net goal would overshadow Simmonds' two-goal effort, but watching Giroux put it in was like watching a visible weight lift off his shoulders. When the puck crossed the goal line, Giroux put his head back and looked toward the rafters - as if to say, "Now you'll go in."
It snapped a streak of 12 goal-less games for Giroux; he was one game shy of tying his career longest drought of 13 games from March 11 to April 4, 2010. For the most part, Giroux had not played poorly during that stretch. He had nine assists during the previous 12 games and is now just two points back of Evgeni Malkin for the NHL's scoring lead.
But a goal had long been eluding him.
"You've heard Jaromir talking about that before, doing what he can to help 'G' in many different ways, on the ice, off the ice," coach Peter Laviolette said. "I do think is another extension of that. On teams that are good teams, I think you see that a lot."
Is an empty-net goal something that can really get Giroux back to scoring? He netted 17 goals in his first 29 games.
