That's how you start the season: Flyers shutout Carolina

The NHL regular season an 82 game slugfest that lasts from October until April, and while the first game of the season isn't all that important in the long run, it's always nice to start the year off with a win. That's what the Flyers did last night, as Ray Emery shutout the Carolina Hurricanes for a 2-0 win to open up the season.

It wasn't the prettiest game in the world, as the Flyers had to kill eight power play chances by the Hurricanes, but they did just that, and then scored two power play goals of their own. Jeff Carter and Mike Richards scored within 30 seconds of each other in the second period to provide all the offense that the Flyers would need last night. Chris Pronger is already paying off, as the Flyers looked great on defense and kept Carolina from taking advantage of any one of their power play chances. Play like that is exactly what the Flyers need. Rather than having people like Dan Carcillo out there taking stupid penalties all the time (though he did manage to pile up nine minutes in the box), the Flyers can now rely on players that can actually kill penalties and keep the Flyers in the game.

I was quite impressed with the overall play of the Flyers last night. Ray Emery was great in goal, and certainly benefited from the defensive play, but that's no slight to him. He was rock solid and no matter which way you look at it, a shutout is a shutout, and that's what he did last night. The offense was solid and pressured Cam Ward throughout the game. Carolina was really fortunate that they only allowed goals by Carter and Richards, as the Flyers had a few more chances that just missed in the first period. Overall, it was a great way to start the season. There's going to be a few questions down the road, but for now, it was a good job by Ray Emery and the Flyers to earn a shutout win over one of the Eastern Conference finalists from last year.

It doesn't get any easier for the good guys, as they travel to Newark today for a game against the Devils, then host the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks next week. These five early games should give Flyer fans and the rest of the NHL a good read on what kind of team the Flyers could be this year.