No, by all accounts — aside from Giroux’s own — he’s far from it. If you have a meal with the man who tallied more points last season than anybody but Connor McDavid, chances are he’ll speed eat so he can finish before you, and then he might make fun of you for eating like a bird. Don’t beat Giroux in ping pong. Or cards. Or golf. Or bowling, which he loves second only to hockey. If you do, he’ll likely demand rematch after rematch until he wins. “He’s one of the most ferocious people I’ve met when it comes to competing,” Simmonds says. “He’s very intense, and he can’t sit around for more than five minutes at a time — he has to be on the go constantly. He’s very impatient.”

In other words, Giroux, No. 15 on Sportsnet’s 2018–19 list of the NHL’s top 100 players, is just the type of leader needed for a franchise and a passionate fan base that have both no doubt grown impatient, too. It has been six seasons since Philadelphia last won a playoff round, and you needn’t remind anyone in the cheesesteak capital that they haven’t hoisted the Stanley Cup since back-to-back victories in 1974 and 1975, that the last six trips to the Final, most recently in 2010, have ended in sadness. The good news for Philadelphia is, thanks to some savvy and patient moves by general manager Ron Hextall, this is a team loaded with young talent and boasts a seemingly bright future (along with a new raggedy, orange, googly-eyed mascot named Gritty, who is aces). The core is here, even stronger now thanks to the return of winger James van Riemsdyk, and as 20-year-old goalie Carter Hart develops in the wings — a possible future solution to the question mark in net — this team is going to be a contender once again. That also means its captain should get the attention he’s due. After an injury-filled 2016–17 campaign, Giroux made a couple of adjustments last season and re-emerged as one of the league’s elite, with a career-high 102 points and a league-leading 68 assists. And while his young teammates like to remind Giroux that he’s getting up there in age, if you ask the 30-year-old, the best is yet to come. “I feel good about my game,” Giroux says, his orange t-shirt soaked with sweat, “but I know I can play better.”