FLYERS NEWS

The Flyers opened the season tonight in Carolina against the Hurricanes. Carolina is a tough veteran laden team that many thought would contend for a cup this season so it was hard to know what to expect from the Orange and Black tonight. There were also a lot of questions to answer going in this one. Would the Flyer's defense really be that improved?, Would Ray Emery still be the Emery that got Ottawa to the stanley cup finals a few years ago, or just a washed up version of that Emery?, and with a defensive minded team would the Flyers still be able to generate enough offense, particularly on special teams, to win even against the stiffest competition? The answer to all 3 tonight at least was yes. Emery was dazzling with 28 saves and a shutout and with the Flyers taking a normally lethal 11 penalties(8 resulted in a power play), they needed every one of those saves. The Flyer's defense, especially the newest addition, big, bad, Chris Pronger was outstanding. I mean the guy already has 2 hits and 3 blocked shots, which is more then most of the Flyer's defense had or seemed to have all last season. Anyway on whole, the D was a perfect 8 for 8 on the penalty kill and limited the Canes to just those 28 shots on goal. Finally the power play really bailed out the Orange and Black on this night. They couldn't score at all at even strength, but on the power play they made the most of their 5 opportunities with 2 scores, both early in the 2nd period, that is very early in the 2nd period. Just 25 seconds into period, on a power play that carried over from the 1st period, Jeff Carter scored the first goal of the night, with an assist from Danny Briere. About 20 seconds later, on another power play, James Van Riemsdyk lasered a pass to Mike Richards for goal number 2. That's an impressive beginning for JVR, scoring his 1st NHL point in his 1st NHL game, Sidney who? just kidding. Anyway so the Flyers got the win 2-0 on opening night and it looks like this could be the beginning of a good season for them.