[BeanSobie]

The Flyers came out swinging for their first game of the year. Things were look good for them as the Leafs had lost Captain and top defenseman Phaneauf for the start of the season. Even better the Leafs were coming off a loss the night before in Montreal, where their new top pairing of Cody Franson and Tim Gleason played over 25 minutes each.

The first period saw a trade of goals as Mason Raymond became the first player on the year to put one past Steve Mason. Later in the period the Flyers went to the PP for the first time and it was their second unit that was able to net the puck as Vinny Lecavalier was able to drive home a missed shot from Sean Couturier. The second period saw no change of score, the only moment of interest came when Scott Hartnell gave a beating to Paul Ranger. Cody Franson also left the bench early in the second after logging less than 10 minutes of ice time.

Going into the third the Flyers were being outshot 26 to 16. The coaching staff decided not to alter anything in their first outing of the season and to see what would come. A short handed goal put the Flyers down early. And with about 6 minutes left in the game Nazeem Kadri put the Leafs up by two. Couturier answered on his next shift with a goal to bring the game back to within one, but a dirty kneeing penalty sent Downie to the box and gave Bozak a chance to put the game away. On a positive note the Flyers were able to put on an additional 15 shots during the third to bring the game totals to an acceptable 31 to Toronto's 35.

After the game Coach Luce had this to say, "I'm proud of our second line. Coots did a great job tonight killing penalties and putting up 2 points to keep us in the game. I'll have to look at the numbers again but I think that line put up 8 or 9 shots. On that however, we have to see some more offense from our Top Three. They combined for just 4 shots, and we won't win many games if they aren't firing." When pressed about the Downie penalty he added, "Steve plays on an edge and you always have to expect him to get penalties, that's okay with me. Our team has to worry about killing those penalties, and up until then we had done that 4 times in a row. We'll have to wait to hear from the league about any supplemental discipline, but from what I saw on the ice I don't think Steve will be getting a call from Toronto tonight."